What is known about the first US attack in Venezuela carried out by the CIA with drones? (and why Maduro is silent)

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The action left no victims because no one was there at the time of the attack.CNN said.

Sources consulted by CNN indicated that US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the operation. However, Colonel Allie Weiskopf, spokeswoman for that command, said that “Special Operations did not support this operation, nor did it provide intelligence support.”

One of CNN’s sources maintained that The attack was successful in destroying the facility and its vessels, but he described the action as mostly symbolic as it is just one of many port facilities used by drug traffickers for the boats that leave loaded with drugs Venezuela.

The president donald trump He was the one who spoke first on the subject. On Monday he confirmed that USA carried out a direct attack on Venezuelabut did not give details.

“There was a big explosion in the dock area where they load drugs onto the boats”he told reporters.

The president declined to comment when asked if the attack was carried out by the military or the CIA.

“So we destroyed all the ships, and now we attack the area,” stated. “It is the implementation area, that is where they implement, and that no longer exists,” he added.

Until now, The Maduro government has not issued an official statement on the bombing.

It is not known what type of drone was used in the mission. At this point, it should be noted that The Pentagon has sent several MQ-9 Reaper drones, carrying Hellfire missiles, to military bases in Puerto Rico as part of the pressure campaign against Maduro.

As the New York Times recalled, the CIA regularly carried out drone strikes against terrorist targets in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere during the Barack Obama administration. However, it is not known if the agency has carried out recent attacks.

Other operations of this type were carried out by the US army. The most resonant action was the assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a drone attack MQ-9 Reaper near Baghdad airport. It happened on January 3, 2020.

Trump announced it

For weeks now Trump had been warning that the United States would expand its pressure campaign against Maduro with ground attacks in Venezuela.

Besides, Since October, Trump authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in the Caribbean nation

The NYT said the CIA developed intelligence on a series of alleged drug trafficking facilities in Venezuela and Colombia as part of planning an expanded US campaign.

It all started in August, when Trump began to build up a large naval force in the Caribbean, near Venezuela, which includes amphibious assault ships, destroyers, a nuclear-powered submarine and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Fordthe largest and most modern in the world. In addition, the naval deployment is complemented by air support through F-35 fighter jetsP-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and B-52 strategic bombers that have flown near Venezuela.

The first attack in the Caribbean against a ship that was supposedly transporting drugs occurred on September 2. The United States reported that it killed 11 people and that the boat had left Venezuela.

Since then there have been 30 attacks similar in both the Caribbean and the Pacific, leaving a total of 107 deadaccording to official US figures.

Gradual pressure that can escalate to major intervention

The former ambassador and international analyst Juan Alvarez Vita warns that the drone attack in Venezuela It should not necessarily be interpreted as an abrupt break in the containment policy against the Maduro regime, but rather as a continuation of a pressure process. which has been gradually escalating.

“We are facing a threat that becomes more serious every day”maintains in dialogue with The Commerceremembering that the president himself trump has publicly reiterated its intention to eliminate all vessels linked—according to Washington—to drug trafficking, and that The strategy appears to have now moved from the maritime phase to a stage of direct implementation on land.

One of the elements that the diplomat considers most striking is the silence of the Venezuelan government. So far, he points out, there has been no clear official reaction either to confirm or deny the attack, an attitude he describes as “strange” in the face of an episode of this magnitude.

The analyst avoids mentioning categorical conclusions about the silence of Caracas, but suggests that it can respond to a deliberate strategy to not escalate the conflictalthough It also opens the door to interpretations of political weakness or lack of room for maneuver.. In this sense, he emphasizes that the US justification based on the fight against drug trafficking is debatable, remembering that Venezuela It is not the only country in the region with problems linked to this phenomenon.

“The problem is that this cannot be analyzed only from Venezuela,” he states. For Álvarez Vita, Washington’s message could have regional projectionsespecially in a context in which Colombia and Peru are heading towards electoral processes, which raises questions about whether these actions also seek to send warning signals to other governments in the region.

Regarding the internal situation of the Maduro regime, the diplomat considers that the scenario is highly risky, since External pressure of this nature can exacerbate internal tensions and be used politically by Chavismo..

Although he recognizes that Ripe faces significant international isolation and lacks democratic legitimacy, also notes that effective support from allies such as Russia and China remains ambiguousas both countries face their own strategic crises.

Finally, Álvarez Vita warns that the fact that the United States recognizes an attack on Venezuelan territory marks a delicate threshold. “If direct action has already been taken on Venezuelan soil, it is not unreasonable to think that we could move towards another type of military intervention.”he concludes, emphasizing that the process is advancing slowly, fragmented and calculated, but with increasing risks for regional stability.

What explains the silence of Caracas?

The analyst on defense and intelligence issues Andrés Gómez de la Torre maintains that the stroke should be read as part of a progressive escalation processprovided within the call Operation Southern Lanceand not as an isolated event.

According to Gómez de la Torre, in this phase there is a greater interference and operational participation of the CIAwhich marks a turning point in the US strategy towards Venezuela. “We are facing a silent, intrusive operation that has apparently already been carried out within Venezuelan territory.”warns El Comercio.

The specialist remembers that the current director of the CIA, John Ratcliffeis an official very close and loyal to President Trumpand that during his appearance before the US Congress, in the ratification process, explicitly raised the need for the CIA to conduct more daring, clandestine and intrusive operationsin a logic that refers to the scenarios of the Cold War.

“From that perspective, the CIA’s actions in this attack fully fit with that promise: turn the agency into a more aggressive intelligence entity, more covert and with greater penetration capacity“says Gómez de la Torre, who interprets the operation as a mechanism of intensified pressure against the regime Ripewithin a scheme of carefully calculated phases.

The analyst emphasizes that the silence of the Venezuelan regime in the face of attack it is not coincidental. In his opinion, Caracas would be choosing to minimize the fact to avoid further escalationboth at the discursive and operational levels, in a context in which it would be a matter of a controlled escalationbut sustained, whose final objective would be political strangulation and maximum pressure on Maduro and other leaders of Chavismo.

Gómez de la Torre also highlights that the CIA has proven capabilities to carry out drone attacks remotely, punctually and surgicallywith low risk of collateral damage and without exposing US personnel, a methodology that Washington has already used in other scenarios around the world.

In that area, he concludes, the attack on the Venezuelan dock not only inaugurates a new operational phasebut it sends a clear political message: The United States is willing to take the confrontation beyond the maritime and economic plane, and do so in a covert, gradual and calculated manner..