At least seven explosions rocked the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, as low-flying aircraft swept through the skies, heightening tensions amid increasing threats from former U.S. President Donald Trump against Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

Early Saturday morning, witnesses reported seeing airplanes and hearing loud noises, along with spotting at least one plume of smoke rising over Caracas. The exact cause of these disturbances remains unclear, according to Reuters sources on the ground.

CNN noted that the first explosion occurred at 1:50 a.m. local time, with one blast reportedly targeting Fort Tiuna, the headquarters of Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense. The city’s southern sector, close to a significant military base, has been plunged into darkness due to a power outage.

In response to the chaos, residents from various neighborhoods poured into the streets, with some able to witness the events unfolding from afar.

Trump has been vocal about the possibility of military intervention in Venezuela, as part of a broader strategy to exert pressure on Maduro’s regime. This includes enforcing stricter sanctions and bolstering the U.S. military presence in the region.

More than two dozen US strikes have taken place on vessels allegedly involved in trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea in recent months.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House, Pentagon and US Southern Command for comment. 

Pedestrians run after explosions were heard in Caracas

The blasts came amid growing tensions between Trump and Maduro’s regime, with the first military land strike on Venezuela taking place on Christmas Eve. 

Multiple sources said the CIA carried out the first US land strike in Venezuela that day on a port facility believed to have been storing drugs bound for America. 

Trump confirmed the Christmas Eve strike on Monday, days after he casually discussed in a radio interview the attack on a facility ‘where the ship comes from.’

The strike, which took place on a port dock authorities believe was the home base of the alleged drug vessels that the US military has been targeting in the Caribbean and Atlantic over the last three months, signaled a further escalation of tensions between the two countries. 

Multiple sources have now told CNN that the drone strike was carried out by the CIA, after Trump refused to weigh in on the theory.

Asked if the CIA had carried out the attack, Trump said: ‘I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was but I don’t want to say who it was.’ 

But Trump has previously said that he has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela. 

Sources said the strike took place on a remote dock on the coast of Venezuela believed to used by the Tren de Aragua gang to stockpile and transfer drugs. 

Multiple explosions have been reported in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas amid Donald Trump’s escalating threats against its leader Nicolas Maduro (pictured)

Trump has repeatedly promised land operations in Venezuela, amid efforts to pressure Maduro to leave office, including expanded sanctions and a ramped-up US military presence in the region

The CIA received intelligence support from US Special Operations Forces. No one was killed and there was nobody at the facility when the attack took place. 

It is part of an escalating effort to target what the Trump administration says are boats smuggling drugs bound for the United States. 

It moves closer to shore strikes that so far have been carried out by the military in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Speaking on WABC on December 26, Trump made the bombshell suggestion that US forces have already started conducting land operations in Venezuela. 

‘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,’ the President said during a call-in with radio host and billionaire John Catsimatidis, who was filling in for Sid Rosenberg.

‘Two nights ago we knocked that out – so we hit them very hard,’ Trump confirmed.

The President said since late November that the US is shifting away from maritime attacks on drug boats and will ‘soon’ be conducting land strikes in Venezuela.

Starting on September 2, 2025, the Department of War has been conducting strikes against suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and Atlantic. 

The CIA carried out the first US land strike in Venezuela that Donald Trump casually confirmed in a radio interview last week in a further escalation of tensions between the two countries 

As of Friday, the number of known boat strikes is 35 and the number of people killed is at least 115, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. 

The US Southern Command carried out its latest ‘lethal strike’ on Monday, killing two alleged ‘narco-terrorists’ in international waters.

But Trump has said that land targets are ‘much easier’ and has hinted at the shift with a series of comments warning ‘land strikes will start very soon’ and ‘soon we will be starting the same program on land.’

He has also warned Maduro it would be ‘smart’ to step down, but has not gone as far as to confirm that the US military operations are to force regime change. 

On Friday, Venezuela said it was open to negotiating an agreement with the United States to combat drug trafficking. 

Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism in the US.