(AFP) – Venezuela accused the United States of an “extremely serious military aggression” after explosions rocked the capital Caracas in the early hours of Saturday following a months-long pressure campaign by President Donald Trump. US media outlets including Fox News and CBS News reported that the United States was conducting military strikes on the Caribbean country, in a dramatic escalation that Venezuelans had feared for weeks. The White House and Pentagon have not commented on the alleged attacks.
The blasts, accompanied by the sound of planes flying over the city, were heard around 2:00 am (0600 GMT) Saturday, an AFP journalist said. Explosions were also heard in La Guaira, north of the capital, where Caracas’s airport and port are located. “Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people,” the government of leftist President Nicolas Maduro said. The Venezuelan leader also declared a state of emergency.
The president of neighboring Colombia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations over the strikes. “Alerting the whole world that they have attacked Venezuela,” leftist leader Gustavo Petro wrote on social media platform X. Confusion reigned in Caracas as the strikes began. People rushed to their windows and terraces in the middle of the night to try to make sense of events. “From here, we can hear explosions near Fort Tiuna,” said Emmanuel Parabavis, referring to a large military base in the capital. “Right now, you can hear something that sounds like a machine gun. There are a lot of detonations and gunfire,” Parabavis, 29, a public relations employee in the El Valle district, told AFP. Power has been cut in certain parts of the city, according to residents.
Francis Pena, a 29-year-old communications professional living in eastern Caracas, told AFP that he was sleeping and his girlfriend woke him and said, “they’re bombing.” “I can’t see the explosions, but I (think I) hear the planes. We’re starting to prepare a bag with the most important things at home — passport, cards, cash, candles, a change of clothes, canned food,” Pena said. Trump, who deployed an aircraft carrier and warships to the Caribbean as part of what he initially presented as an anti-drug smuggling campaign, had repeatedly threatened strikes on Venezuelan soil. He said on Monday the United States had hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats, in what would be the first known land strike of the campaign. Maduro had neither confirmed nor denied that strike, but said on Thursday he was open to cooperation with Washington.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of heading a drug cartel, but the leftist leader denies any involvement in the narcotics trade, saying Washington is seeking to overthrow him because Venezuela has the largest known reserves of oil on Earth. Washington has informally closed Venezuela’s airspace in recent weeks, imposed more sanctions, and ordered the seizure of tankers loaded with Venezuelan oil. US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers. The strikes have killed at least 107 people, according to the US military.
– Javier TOVAR, Andrea TOSTA, Patrick FORT
© 2024 AFP
