CARACAS, Venezuela — The Venezuelan government has accused the United States of launching attacks on both civilian and military sites across several states. This accusation follows an incident where at least seven explosions were reported in the capital city of Caracas around 2 a.m. local time on Saturday, accompanied by low-flying aircraft.
Officials from the Pentagon and the White House have yet to issue any responses to these claims.
In Caracas, smoke was seen billowing from a hangar on a military base, while another military installation in the city experienced a power outage.
The explosions prompted residents in various neighborhoods to flee their homes and gather in the streets, with some individuals visible from different parts of Caracas.
Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, described the scene with palpable fear. “The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” she said, her voice shaking as she walked quickly with two relatives back from a birthday celebration. “We felt like the air was hitting us.”
In response to the events, the Venezuelan government has urged its supporters to rally in the streets.
“People to the streets!” the statement said. “The Bolivarian Government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilization plans and repudiate this imperialist attack.”
The statement added that President Nicolás Maduro had “ordered all national defense plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.”
This comes as the U.S. military has been targeting, in recent days, alleged drug-smuggling boats. On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the U.S. to combat drug trafficking.
Maduro also said in a pretaped interview aired Thursday that the U.S. wants to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the monthslong pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.
Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the U.S. The CIA was behind a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to have been used by Venezuelan drug cartels in what was the first known direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the U.S. began strikes on boats in September.
U.S. President Donald Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land. The U.S. has also seized sanctioned oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, and Trump ordered a blockade of others in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country’s economy.
The U.S. military has been attacking boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean since early September. As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.
They followed a major buildup of American forces in the waters off South America, including the arrival in November of the nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier, which added thousands more troops to what was already the largest military presence in the region in generations.
Trump has justified the boat strikes as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. and asserted that the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported on the explosions in Caracas on Saturday, showing images of the Venezuelan capital. Iran has been close to Venezuela for years, in part due to their shared enmity of the U.S.
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