President Nicolás Maduro announced Monday that Venezuelan authorities had thwarted what he described as a “false flag” operation by local extremists to plant explosives at the US embassy in Caracas, amid escalating tensions with Washington over drug trafficking.
Speaking on his weekly television program, Maduro said two unnamed sources indicated that a terrorist group had attempted to place an explosive device at the embassy “to aggravate the dispute with the United States.”
Jorge Rodríguez, head of Venezuela’s delegation for dialogue with Washington, said Caracas had already warned US officials of “a serious threat” from extremists who allegedly tried to plant lethal explosives at the mission. “We have reinforced security measures at this diplomatic mission,” Rodríguez added.
Although diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed in 2019, the US embassy remains staffed by a small number of local employees. Maduro stressed that the site is “an embassy which is protected, despite all the differences we have had with the governments of the United States.”
The dispute comes as Washington intensifies its anti-narcotics campaign in the Caribbean, making Venezuela a focal point. President Donald Trump’s administration has deployed warships and aircraft to the region and carried out strikes on small boats it claims were transporting drugs to the United States. At least 21 people have been killed in those operations.
“We’re stopping drugs at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” Trump told US Navy sailors in Virginia on Sunday.
Maduro, however, insists the true objective of Washington’s actions is regime change.
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