What to know about the U.S. strikes in Venezuela — and the fallout

The U.S. has been ramping up pressure on Maduro's government in recent months, conducting military strikes on dozens of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific that it claims were transporting drugs toward the U.S. And the U.S. — specifically the CIA— conducted a drone strike last week at a docking area believed to be used by Venezuelan drug cartels, marking its first direct operation on Venezuelan soil since the strikes began in September. "We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country," Trump said. Kaja Kallas, the vice president of the European Commission, reiterated the EU's view that "Maduro lacks legitimacy" but also called for restraint and the respect of "principles of international law."

Author: Rachel Treisman

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