By: Tiana Cole | HGP Nightly News |
U.S. Strikes Venezuela Drug Hub as Trafficking and Global Security Concerns Mount
United States President Donald Trump has confirmed that U.S. forces carried out a strike on a location in Venezuela allegedly used to load boats with illegal drugs, marking the first publicly acknowledged land-based operation inside Venezuela since Washington intensified its pressure campaign against the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
According to President Trump, the operation resulted in a “major explosion” at a dock facility linked to drug trafficking activities. While he declined to specify which branch of the U.S. government carried out the strike, he indicated that he was fully aware of the agency involved but chose not to disclose further details. The President has previously acknowledged authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
The strike comes amid a significant U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, which now reportedly includes more than 15,000 troops. Washington has framed these actions as part of a broader campaign to curb drug trafficking and apply pressure on the Maduro administration.
Meanwhile, concerns about human trafficking continue to grow globally. Guyana’s Children’s Advocate and National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Diane Gordon-Harrison, has warned that women are increasingly playing prominent roles within human trafficking networks. While men remain the majority of identified perpetrators, Gordon-Harrison said women are now emerging as traffickers themselves or as influential facilitators within organized syndicates.
She explained that women are often involved in recruitment and orientation processes, using trust and nurturing traits to lure victims and sustain trafficking operations. Human trafficking, described as a form of modern-day slavery, involves the exploitation of individuals through force, fraud or coercion and remains a grave violation of human rights.
Data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicate that women account for approximately 40 percent of global convictions for human trafficking—an unusually high rate compared to other forms of organized crime.
In other international developments, the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is set to resume more than a decade after the aircraft mysteriously disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board. The Malaysian government has contracted U.S.-based marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to conduct seabed searches over 55 days.
Using deep-sea drones, autonomous underwater vehicles, and advanced scanning technology, the company will search a 6,000-square-mile section of the Indian Ocean seabed. The Boeing 777 vanished from radar on March 8, 2014, less than an hour after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. Two-thirds of those on board were Chinese nationals, with Malaysians, Americans, and others also among the passengers.
Despite previous extensive search efforts, the aircraft’s exact location remains unknown, making MH370 one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
