CNN confirmed Tuesday that the Central Intelligence Agency conducted a drone strike on Venezuelan territory on December 24, corroborating a statement that US President Donald Trump first made last week.
The attack is a criminal escalation of the undeclared war the United States is waging against Venezuela—a war of aggression that includes the imposition of an effective blockade and a series of killings on international waters off Venezuela’s coast that have left at least 107 people dead in 30 strikes since September.
The Christmas Eve strike, which took place on a port facility, is the first aerial attack inside Venezuela since the US military buildup in the region began in August.
The United States has amassed the largest military force in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. According to US Southern Command, approximately 15,000 military personnel are now operating in the region. The armada includes more than a dozen large warships, led by the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and two amphibious assault ships carrying thousands of marines.
The American people overwhelmingly oppose a US war in Venezuela. A CBS News/YouGov poll found 70 percent oppose US military action, with just 30 percent in favor. Trump is seeking to escalate this conflict over the Christmas and New Year holiday, hoping the population will not notice. He is abetted by the US media and a political establishment united behind the drive to reassert American hegemony in Latin America.
The fact that the United States has launched an air strike on a sovereign nation—an act of war under international law—has prompted no serious discussion in the political establishment or the corporate media. The attack was relegated to small headlines on newspaper front pages and did not even appear on the Washington Post front page by Tuesday evening.
Trump first revealed the strike during a radio interview on December 26, telling a billionaire Republican donor who hosts a New York radio show that the US had destroyed “a big plant or facility where ships come from.”
CIA officials told the US media that the strike was intended to send a message to Maduro that the United States is capable of assassinating him. Trump’s decision to publicly reveal the strike sends “a serious message to Maduro” that “the US can reach down and touch him when it chooses to,” according to Rick de la Torre, a former CIA Latin America station chief, speaking to USA Today.
Elliott Abrams, the first Trump administration’s special envoy for Venezuela, explained the Trump administration’s efforts at regime change in Venezuela. “The economy of Venezuela will get worse and the finances of the Maduro regime will get worse and that will increase public pressure and internal pressure in the regime, that at some point there are either mass demonstrations or somebody in the military acts” to overthrow the government.
The drone strike takes place alongside an escalating campaign of piracy on the high seas. The United States has seized multiple oil tankers transporting Venezuelan crude, imposing what amounts to an effective blockade of the country’s primary source of revenue. One tanker seized earlier this month, the Centuries, was carrying Venezuelan crude oil purchased by a Chinese trading company. Another tanker, the Bella 1, has been fleeing US Coast Guard pursuit since December 21. As the vessel fled, the crew painted a Russian flag on the side in an apparent attempt to claim Russian protection.
The fact that Russia and China are being drawn into the US assault on Venezuela demonstrates that it is not merely a regional operation but part of a broader global confrontation. This escalation comes as the United States and European powers are provoking war all over the world. European powers are openly discussing sending troops to Ukraine. The war now being initiated against Venezuela has the potential to escalate far beyond Latin America.
Trump’s targeting of Latin America is aimed at providing a power base for war all over the world. The administration’s National Security Strategy explicitly calls for “restoring American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” and denying China “the ability to own or control strategically vital assets in our Hemisphere.” The document effectively asserts US ownership over two continents—presented as “our hemisphere”—whose resources Washington intends to seize as a staging ground for confrontation with Russia and China.
Despite Trump’s claim that the war on Venezuela is being waged to stop drug trafficking, Venezuela is not a major producer of narcotics. The “drug war” pretext is a transparent fraud covering the real aim: the overthrow of the Venezuelan government and the seizure of the country’s vast oil reserves. Trump has made no secret of his intention to pursue regime change in Venezuela, declaring that Maduro’s “days are numbered.”
The Democratic Party has offered no meaningful opposition to Trump’s actions. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said only that “Trump needs to be straight with the American people and explain what his strategy is.” But Schumer, alongside other Democratic leaders, has made clear his desire to see Maduro removed from power.
Asked earlier this month whether he opposes regime change in Venezuela, Schumer replied: “You know, obviously, if Maduro would just flee on his own, everyone would like that.” Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. When host Martha Raddatz asked Warner “do you agree” with Trump’s “effort to oust the dictator” Maduro, Warner replied, “I agree that the Venezuelan people want Maduro gone.” The Democratic leadership broadly supports the escalation against Venezuela even as it criticizes Trump for not being sufficiently aggressive against Russia and China.
The so-called “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party has been equally silent. Neither Senator Bernie Sanders nor Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has issued any statement on Venezuela since Trump announced the strikes. There have been no calls for congressional hearings, no demands for an investigation into the legality of the attacks, no legislation to halt the military escalation. The Democrats ended the year by joining with Republicans to pass the $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act, funding the very military apparatus now being used to wage war on Venezuela.
The year 2025 was a year of war—of US-backed genocide in Gaza, of US-NATO escalation in Ukraine, of American military buildup across the globe. Trump’s drone strike on Venezuela makes clear that the United States intends to wage war all over the world in the new year.