Overview
- President Donald Trump said the United States destroyed a pier used to load boats with drugs, declining to specify whether the military or the CIA carried out the strike.
- U.S. media reports from CNN and The New York Times say a CIA drone hit a remote port facility in Venezuela linked by U.S. officials to the Tren de Aragua, with no casualties reported at the site.
- Key facts remain unsettled, with conflicting accounts on when the operation occurred and no official confirmation of the exact location in Venezuela.
- Caracas has not confirmed the incident; Venezuelan official Diosdado Cabello denounced months of what he called imperial aggression by Washington.
- The strike tracks with a broader U.S. pressure campaign that includes ongoing lethal attacks on suspected narcotics vessels—most recently on Dec. 29 in the eastern Pacific—and new sanctions targeting Venezuelan drone maker EANSA over ties to Iran.