President Donald Trump confirmed that U.S. forces struck a major drug facility in Venezuela on Christmas Eve, December 24, describing it as a 'big plant or big facility where the ships come from,' according to a post by X user @Katelyn_Caralle shared over the past 90 minutes. A video posted the same day shows a large fire and explosion in Zulia state's San Francisco industrial zone near the strait connecting Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. The video, shared via @elmartilloven and referenced by @Katelyn_Caralle during the reporting window from 3:16 p.m. to 4:46 p.m. UTC on December 29, depicts the explosion reported in the early morning of December 24 in the industrial zone, as quoted from @Jhormancruz1. Trump made the remarks to John Catsimatidis on Friday, December 27, stating, 'Two nights ago we knocked that out – so we hit them very hard.' X user @FaytuksNetwork posted a map from December 24 marking the location of the reportedly eliminated drug facility during this period. The claims align with a Bloomberg report cited in prior updates, where Trump referenced eliminating a Venezuelan drug facility two nights prior to his Friday statement. These developments follow U.S. Air Force Special Operations aircraft movements toward Puerto Rico and a U.S. Coast Guard pursuit of supertanker Bella 1 linked to Venezuelan crude oil trade, as reported in previous periods on December 29.
