00:00President Trump says the United States has carried out what appears to be its first known strike on land inside Venezuela, targeting a dock he describes as being used for drug trafficking.
00:14Speaking Monday at Mar-a-Lago, alongside Netanyahu, Trump said the United States hit boats suspected of carrying drugs, and then went further.
00:23There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs.
00:28They load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area.
00:34It's the implementation area. That's where they implement, and that is no longer around.
00:41Trump did not say how the strike was carried out or by whom, but CNN is now reporting exclusively the attack was a CIA-led drone strike earlier this month on a remote Venezuelan port facility.
00:53According to sources familiar with the operation, the target was a dock the U.S. believed was being used by a Venezuelan criminal group to store drugs and load them onto boats.
01:04CNN reports no one was at the site at the time, and there were no casualties.
01:08The strike marks a major escalation in the administration's pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
01:15The United States has already ramped up its military posture in the region with about 15,000 American troops and multiple warships positioned in the Caribbean.
01:25And it has been conducting strikes on boats suspected of carrying drugs since September, another of which it launched just Monday.
01:33Earlier this month, Trump also ordered what he called a complete blockade of sanctioned oil tankers moving in and out of Venezuela,
01:41cutting off a key source of revenue for Maduro's government, and suggested it would be smart for Maduro to step down.
01:49Venezuela has not publicly acknowledged the strike, and the CIA has declined to comment.
01:54But CNN reports the operation destroyed the facility and the boats stored there.
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