Maduro Claims Venezuela Foiled Plot to Bomb US Embassy Amid Escalating Tensions With Washington

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday claimed that authorities had thwarted a “false flag” operation allegedly planned by local “terrorists” to plant explosives at the US embassy in Caracas, accusing the perpetrators of seeking to inflame tensions with Washington over drug trafficking.

Speaking on his weekly television program, Maduro said two unnamed sources had confirmed “the possibility that a local terrorist group placed an explosive device at the US embassy in Caracas” to “aggravate the dispute” with the United States.

Jorge Rodríguez, head of Venezuela’s dialogue delegation, said earlier that Caracas had alerted Washington to “a serious threat” from extremists attempting to target the embassy, adding that security around the compound had been reinforced.

Although the United States closed its embassy in Caracas in 2019 and withdrew diplomatic staff, a small number of local employees still maintain the premises. “It is an embassy which is protected, despite all the differences we have had with the governments of the United States,” Maduro said.

The claim comes as relations between Caracas and Washington remain deeply strained. The Trump administration has intensified its anti-drug operations in the Caribbean, dispatching warships and aircraft and striking small boats it claims were carrying narcotics from Venezuela. Trump said the actions have “stopped drugs at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” while Maduro accused him of using counternarcotics efforts as a cover for “regime change.”

Venezuela has responded by deploying thousands of troops to its borders and expanding its civilian militias.

The United States has refused to recognize Maduro’s 2024 re-election, widely dismissed by the opposition and international observers as fraudulent. Washington instead recognizes Eduardo González Urrutia, an opposition-backed former senator supported by María Corina Machado, as Venezuela’s legitimate president.

Machado, who has been in hiding since the disputed election, is rumored on social media to be sheltering inside the US embassy—an unverified claim. González Urrutia fled to Spain late last year after facing arrest threats and has since endorsed US military pressure on Maduro as a “necessary measure” to restore democracy in Venezuela.