LARGE-SCALE AIR ASSAULT ON VENEZUELA ROCKS CARACAS

In the early morning hours of Saturday, Jan. 3, a large-scale assault that consisted of multiple airstrikes rocked the capital city of Caracas in Venezuela, as large plumes of smoke appeared on the horizon, captured by resident cell phone footage.

The assault is believed to be a U.S. military offensive to uproot the Maduro regime from its seat of power in Miraflores, as the Pentagon began deploying a wide array of U.S. military assets in the South Caribbean earlier in the year.

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Reports suggest that targets were military sites and key infrastructure/industrial complexes critical to the Venezuelan government. Targeted strikes reportedly involved the La Carlota and Fuerte Tiuna military bases in the south of Caracas.

Residents also captured footage of what appears to be a squadron of CH-47 Chinook helicopters flying over the area.

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro recently held an interview with Venezolano de Televisión (VTV), expressing interest in conducting “serious talks” with the Trump administration, even offering the United States oil concessions and cooperation on immigration and drug trafficking, following a months-long pressure campaign that now involves multiple U.S. seizures of Venezuelan-linked sanctioned oil tankers in the Caribbean.

The strikes on Jan. 3 also follow a CIA-led strike on a suspected drug facility in Maracaibo in the western state of Zuila on Christmas Eve, later confirmed by President Trump.

The Venezuelan government of Maduro, deemed “illegitimate” by the administration in Washington, is viewed as a “destabilizing” force in the region by socialist-hawk and vehement critic of the socialist governments throughout Latin America, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Since September, the Pentagon has initiated targeted strikes on suspected drug boats in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, killing almost 100 people.

The State Department asserts that the Maduro government is complicit in the region’s drug trade, alleging that top members of the regime in Caracas head a prominent criminal drug trafficking network called the Cartel of the Suns.

Although U.S. forces are presumably involved in the operations, the U.S. government has not confirmed its responsibility for tonight’s airstrikes.