AFP, Caracas: Venezuela claimed Monday to have dismantled a CIA-financed cell plotting a false-flag attack on a US warship deployed to the southern Caribbean, as Washington stepped up pressure on Caracas by flying bombers nearby. Venezuelan authorities said they uncovered an operation targeting the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer that docked Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago — within firing distance of the Venezuelan mainland.
The ship’s arrival sparked outrage in Caracas, which called it a “provocation” and claimed it was “aimed at provoking a war in the Caribbean.”
It also deepened tensions with Trinidad and Tobago, whose Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a strong critic of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, and a supporter of US President Donald Trump’s military campaign against drug traffickers in the Caribbean.
Maduro on Monday evening announced he had suspended a gas agreement with Trinidad and Tobago, accusing Persad-Bissessar of transforming her nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela.”
As part of Trump’s campaign, the Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships to the Caribbean and one to the Gulf of Mexico.
The United States has also announced the imminent arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, and its accompanying fleet.
Venezuela and some observers believe Trump’s administration is using the military deployments to build pressure on the government and depose Maduro, whom Washington does not recognize as the legitimate president.
Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Monday that a cell “financed by the CIA” planned to attack the USS Gravely and frame Caracas. Four people were arrested, Cabello said.
Tensions rose further Monday as two US B-1B bombers flew over the Caribbean near Venezuela, the third such show of force in recent weeks.
