Report: Heavy Gunfire Around Presidential Palace in Venezuela Caused by Misunderstanding

Heavy gunfire has been reported around the presidential palace in Venezuela, days after U.S. military forces captured the country’s former president, Nicolás Maduro.

“Gunfire was heard tonight near the Miraflores presidential palace in the capital Caracas,” reported CNN on Monday, with videos showing what appeared to be “lights from drones and anti-aircraft fire.”

Reports later indicated that the gunfire resulted from a “friendly drone approaching too close to Miraflores Palace, triggering a response from the presidential guard,” noted Visegrad 24. 

“It seems their own drones were mistaken for a threat. No gunfire has been reported since,” it added.

Video of the reported gunfire was shared on social media:

Delcy Rodriguez, the acting president of Venezuela, previously called for “cooperation” with the United States following the capture of her former boss, Nicolás Maduro.

“We extend an invitation to the U.S. government to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” she said hours after the Trump administration declared she would be interim president.

Maduro, an illegitimate and despotic leader who manipulated elections to maintain power, was captured by the U.S. military on charges of narco-terrorism, with an active $50 million bounty on his head.

“In 2020, U.S. courts accused Maduro of being a leading figure, if not the leader, of the Cartel of the Suns, an international cocaine trafficking operation led by top members of the Venezuelan regime that for years sought to ‘flood’ the United States with cocaine to harm its people,” Breitbart News reported.

As noted by the Associated Press (AP), Delcy Rodriguez “served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.”

“She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation,” it added.