Venezuela crisis LIVE: Caracas accuses US of attacking civilian and military targets

The blasts in Venezuela come as the United States military has been targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats. On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the US to combat drug trafficking.

Maduro also said in a pre-taped interview aired on Thursday that the US wanted to force a government change in Venezuela and gain access to its vast oil reserves through the months-long pressure campaign that began with a massive military deployment to the Caribbean Sea in August.

Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the US. 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 US began strikes on boats in September.

US President Donald Trump for months had threatened that he could soon order strikes on targets on Venezuelan land. The US 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.

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The US 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 was 35 and the number of people killed was at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration.

They followed a major build-up 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 US is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
AP

Venezuela’s government has called on its supporters to take to the streets.

“People to the streets!” it said in a statement.

Pedestrians are seen running after explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard in Caracas.Credit: AP

“The Bolivarian government calls on all social and political forces in the country to activate mobilisation plans and repudiate this imperialist attack”.

The statement added that President Nicolás Maduro had “ordered all national defence plans to be implemented” and declared “a state of external disturbance.”

That state of emergency gives him the power to suspend people’s rights and expand the role of the armed forces.

AP

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned US commercial flights in Venezuelan airspace over “ongoing military activity”.

The FAA’s warning advised commercial and private US pilots that the airspace over Venezuela and the small island nation of Curacao, just off the coast of the country to the north, was off-limits “due to safety-of-flight risks associated with ongoing military activity”.

AP

“Venezuela has been attacked!” Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro posted on X, adding his government had triggered an “operational plan” in its cities which border Venezuela.

Petro also called on the Organisation of American States and the United Nations to meet immediately.

Bloomberg

US Senator Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, said the US had “no vital national interests in Venezuela to justify war”.

“We should have learned not to stumble into another stupid adventure by now,” Schatz said, adding that US President Donald Trump was “not even bothering to tell the American public what the hell is going on.”

Bloomberg

A US official has told the Reuters news agency that the United States is carrying out strikes inside Venezuela.

The official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not provide details.

That comment follows a similar report about half an hour ago carried by the CBS news network.

People in various neighbourhoods of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, rushed to the streets after hearing explosions across the city.

“The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes,” said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling.

She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party.

“We felt like the air was hitting us.”

Venezuela’s government has issued a statement blaming the US for “attacks”, saying the goal was “to take possession of Venezuelan oil and minerals”.

The attacks took place in the capital, as well as in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira, the statement said.

President Nicolas Maduro has declared a national emergency.

He called on social and political forces to “activate mobilisation plans.”

Residents evacuate a building near the Miraflores presidential palace.Credit: AP