CIA Likely Behind December 18 and December 24 Land Strikes on Venezuelan Drug Targets

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A firsthand account of an explosion along the Venezuelan coast on December 18 is raising questions about who may have been responsible for the attack and whether it and a supposed fire at a nearby chemical plant were either of the drone strikes confirmed by Trump on December 26.

Two members of Venezuela’s Wayuu indigenous community in the area told NBC News that they witnessed an unexplained explosion on December 18 that destroyed a hut along the coast that possibly was used for storage.

The arid coastal strip in the northwest of Venezuela, known as Alta Guajira, is heavily controlled by the National Liberation Army or ELN, an armed guerilla group known for its history of drug trafficking that is also active in neighboring Colombia.


President Donald Trump said in an interview with WABC radio in New York last week that the U.S. had “knocked out” a facility tied to Venezuela, a move that would be a major escalation in U.S. military strikes to counter alleged drug-trafficking by the South American country.

NBC News reporting has not established a link between the explosion described by Trump and the explosion described by the eyewitnesses in northwest Venezuela.

On Monday, Trump declined to answer when he was asked whether it was the military or the CIA that conducted the strike inside Venezuela that he described last week.

“I don’t want to say that,” he said. “I know exactly who it was, but I don’t want to say who it was. But you know, it was along the shore.”

With details so scarce, Trump’s comments have touched off a wave of speculation inside Venezuela about the U.S.’ target.

A large explosion was reported from the Industrial Zone of the San Francisco municipality, Zulia state, in the early morning of December 24.

For days, local news reports and videos on social media have circulated of a explosion last Wednesday, December 24 in Maracaibo, a major port city. The explosion and fire destroyed a chemical storage warehouse some 6 kilometers from the coast.

Primazol, a chemical production company, said one of its warehouses had caught fire. In a statement later, it “categorically rejected” rumors on social media, specifically claims by Colombian President Gustavo Petro's claims that the fire was connected to any U.S. strike.

Carlos Siu, CEO of the chemical company had previously resided in Orlando, Florida.

Inside a Primazol chemical warehouse.

Colombia Claims ELN Cocaine Lab Hit

Venezuela's authoritarian government has not officially acknowledged an attack. However, Colombian President Gustavo Petro did, saying the guerrilla group ELN is behind the operation.

In a lengthy social media post, Petro said "We know that Trump bombed a factory in Maracaibo. We fear that they mix the coca paste to make it cocaine and take advantage of the location in the sea of Maracaibo," he added. 

In turn, he added: "The ELN is allowing, with its 'traqueteo' and its mental dogma, to invade Venezuela."

He went on to blame the guerrilla group, saying that its activities are allowing the U.S. to "invade Venezuela." Petro then suggested the country's army should go to the region and replace coca crops, also considering that the price of the drug has "plummeted."

"There are massive warehouses in Africa storing tens of tons of cocaine and the price of coca leaves in Colombia have plunged. It is now more profitable to deal with cannabis and lawful gold than cocaine. It's replacement time and the state must take advantage of this," Petro said.

The price of cocaine has nearly halved on the European market, as evidenced by narco subs making return journeys to South America, rather than being sank after carrying drugs abroad.

Petro also shared a post that alleges the wreckage of several of the boat strikes near Colombia showed remnants of fishing boats and mostly cannabis, not cocaine.

Tren de Aragua Boat Dock Strike

Trump acknowledged in an interview on Friday that the US had knocked out some type of “big facility where ships come from” as he talked about his administration’s campaign against Venezuela. Asked about it again on Monday, he said the US attacked “in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.” But he declined to comment when asked whether the attack was conducted by the military or the CIA.

“So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area,” Trump said Monday. “It’s the implementation area, that’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.”

One of the sources said the strike was successful in that it destroyed the facility and its boats, but described it as largely symbolic since it is just one of many port facilities used by drug traffickers leaving Venezuela. It also appeared to attract little to no attention, even inside the country, in real time.

Trump earlier this year expanded the CIA’s authorities to conduct operations in Latin America, including inside Venezuela, CNN previously reported. But even then, the US military had the legal authority only to conduct strikes against suspected traffickers at sea, not on land, as CNN has reported.

According to the New York Times and CNN; the CIA carried out a drone strike earlier this month on a port facility on the coast of Venezuela, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, marking the first known US attack on a target inside that country.

The drone strike, the details of which have not been previously reported, targeted a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast that the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for shipping, the sources said. No one was present at the facility at the time it was struck, so there were no casualties, according to the sources.

Two sources said US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the operation, underscoring their continued involvement in the region. But Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for US Special Operations Command, denied that, saying, “Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support.”

The strike could significantly escalate tensions between the US and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who the US has been pressuring to step down through an aggressive military campaign.

The US has launched strikes destroying more than 30 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in what it has described as a counter-narcotics campaign, and Trump has ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving Venezuela.

CIA Involvement

Trump had also repeatedly threatened to carry out strikes inside Venezuela, but until the CIA attack earlier this month, the only known US strikes on Venezuelan targets were against the suspected drug-trafficking boats in international waters. 

Several of these land strike threats made by Trump occurred after targets had already been hit in Venezuela. Trump earlier this year expanded the CIA’s authorities to conduct operations in Latin America, including inside Venezuela.

The US military had the legal authority only to conduct strikes against suspected traffickers at sea, not on land, CNN has reported.

CIA declined to comment. CNN has asked the White House, US Special Operations Command, and Venezuela’s Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

The Trump administration has offered varying justifications for the campaign in Venezuela, which has involved a massive buildup of military assets in the Caribbean. Officials have pointed to a counter-narcotics imperative, but Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, told Vanity Fair in an interview that the boat strikes were aimed at getting Maduro to “cry uncle.” The Venezuelan leader has shown no signs of relinquishing power.

An InSight Crime map detailing groups labeled as FTOs by the U.S. in South America, Latin America and Mexico.

Top officials have made clear publicly and in briefings to lawmakers that they intend to continue targeting suspected drug smugglers using a similar playbook to the one used for killing terrorists during the global war on terror – a campaign in which the CIA played a crucial role, too. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has openly compared drug traffickers to al Qaeda.

“These narcoterrorists are the al Qaeda of our hemisphere,” the secretary said at the Reagan National Defense Forum earlier this month. “And we are hunting them with the same sophistication and precision that we hunted al Qaeda.”

Officials search the site of a strike in Alta Guajira, Venezuela.

Venezuelan Witnesses Describe December 18 U.S. Strike

Venezuelan indigenous people described what appeared to be the U.S. strike on alleged cartel infrastructure earlier this month, saying they were unable to hear for hours due to its power.

Speaking to NBC News, Ana, one of the witnesses of the strike, said the explosion took place on December 18. Days prior she had heard a noise she now believes could have been a drone surveilling the area.

The area the strike took place in is along the coast in Alta Guajira, across the Gulf of Venezuela from Maracaibo. The strip of land borders Colombia.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Ana, who didn't provide her last name out of fear of reprisals. She added that the hearing of some of her relatives might be damaged permanently and the family's fishing boat has been destroyed, along with their fish nets.

"We are humble people who fish to survive," she told the outlet. "We need help to recover what we lost." She then said government officials showed up the morning after the attack and said "the gringos did this."

Another witness said he doesn't know whether the attack was conducted with a drone or a missile, but was a "big explosion."

The attack in question was reportedly conducted by the CIA and hit what has been described as a remote dock in the Venezuelan coast. CNN cited sources with knowledge of the attack who said no one was present at the facility and there were no casualties. It added that Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support, but a spokesperson for the US Special Operations Command, Col. Allie Weiskopf, said that was not the case.

Sources NBC News, CNN, New York Times, Arr3ch0

Categories: cartel de los soles, cia, Donald Trump, eln, terrorist designation, tren de aragua, venezuela