President Donald Trump confirmed during the 58-minute period from 6:47 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. UTC on December 29 that the United States attacked drug trafficking targets in territory controlled by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, marking the first such US operation, according to X user @agusantonetti. Trump criticized Maduro's regime for sending billions of dollars in drugs to the US and hundreds of thousands of people from jails and prisons to drug lords and traffickers, as quoted by X user @AlbertoRodNews in a statement shared over the past hour. US Southern Command highlighted ongoing operations by US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier IIs from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean, supporting Operation Southern Spear to counter narco-terrorist threats, in a post during the reporting window. These developments follow Trump's prior claims of a US strike on a Venezuelan drug facility in Zulia state's San Francisco industrial zone on December 24, as well as reports of Special Operations aircraft movements to Puerto Rico and fence installations at Aguadilla Airport to obscure views, noted in previous updates on December 29.
