{"id":385242,"date":"2026-01-03T10:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/385242\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:06:13","slug":"multiple-explosions-rock-venezuelan-capital-caracas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/385242\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple explosions rock Venezuelan capital Caracas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will Grant,Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondentand<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Rhoden-Paul<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Fuerte Tiuna, one of Venezuela’s largest military bases was hit <\/p>\n

Donald Trump ordered strikes on military sites in Venezuela, US officials have told the BBC’s US news partner CBS, after several explosions rocked the capital, Caracas.<\/p>\n

Plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Venezuelan capital early on Saturday morning. A national emergency has been declared. <\/p>\n

The Venezuelan government said in a statement that it rejected and denounced US military aggression. The White House and the Pentagon have not yet publicly commented.<\/p>\n

US President Trump, who has deployed a navy task force in the Caribbean, has repeatedly raised the prospect of ground strikes in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Reports of places hit by strikes include a military airfield in the centre of Caracas, La Carlota and the main military base of Fuerte Tiuna. <\/p>\n

Several of the surrounding communities are without power. <\/p>\n

Videos of explosions and helicopters flying overhead have been circulating on social media but have not yet been verified. <\/p>\n

Journalist Vanessa Silva, who lives in Caracas, told the BBC that she heard a huge explosion “stronger than thunder”, causing her home to vibrate. <\/p>\n

“My heart was pumping and legs were shaking,” she said.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan government said the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira were also hit, and that the strikes aimed to seize Venezuela’s oil and minerals. <\/p>\n

It said in a statement that it “rejects, repudiates and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current Government of the United States of America”.<\/p>\n

Cuba and Colombia have also denounced the attacks. <\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

The developments come at a moment of heightened tension between the US and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Washington has conducted a series of strikes on boats in the Caribbean it suspects of carrying drugs.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Trump said the US had carried out a strike on a “dock area”<\/a> linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats, causing a “major explosion”.<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s left-wing President Nicolas Maduro has accused the US of intimidation to bring about regime change in his country. <\/p>\n

He has also argued the US seizure of several oil tankers it said were transporting sanctioned oil revealed Washington’s true motivations to control Venezuela’s large oil reserves.<\/p>\n

The US has accused Maduro of being personally involved in drug-smuggling and being an illegitimate leader. The results of last year’s presidential election were widely dismissed on the international stage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Grant,Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondentand Andr\u00e9 Rhoden-Paul Getty Images Fuerte Tiuna, one of Venezuela’s largest military…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-385242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}