In a radio interview on Friday, President Donald Trump surprisingly revealed that American forces have neutralized at least one smuggling facility in Venezuela, the first land strike in Trump’s campaign against Venezuelan narco-terrorists and dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Trump made his remarks in a surprise cell phone call to John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican businessman and radio host. Catsimatidis was guest-hosting on WABC for another radio personality, Sid and Friends in the Morning host Sid Rosenberg, when he told listeners that his phone was ringing and President Trump was on the line.
Catsimatidis revealed that he had been texting with Trump about military action against Islamic State terrorists in northern Nigeria the previous evening, and Trump had decided to surprise him with an on-air call to discuss Nigeria and other security situations around the world, including Trump’s war against narco-terrorist boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
In the course of the latter discussion, Trump rather casually remarked that the first ground strike against smugglers in Venezuela had already been made.
“I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send the — where the ships come from. Two nights ago we knocked that out — so we hit them very hard,” Trump told Catsimatidis. The president did not say exactly where this facility was located, or precisely how U.S. forces “knocked it out.”
Trump began ordering military strikes against drug boats in September. He has been hinting since late November that ground strikes against Venezuelan smugglers could be imminent.
“In recent weeks, you’ve been working to deter Venezuelan drug traffickers. We’ll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon,” the president said in a phone call to military personnel on Thanksgiving Day.
On December 11, Trump told reporters at the White House that operations were “going to be starting on land pretty soon.” If the timeline Trump gave to Catsimatidis on Friday was accurate, the first land strike in Venezuela took place 13 days after he made those comments to reporters.
The leftist newspaper New York Times (NYT), which has published Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro as a guest columnist, on Friday spoke to alleged officials who confirmed the strike took place, but they had few additional details to offer.
“U.S. officials declined to specify anything about the site the president said was hit, where it was located, how the attack was carried out, or what role the facility played in drug trafficking. There has been no public report of an attack from the Venezuelan government or any other authorities in the region,” the NYT reported.
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