A U.S. drone strike on an alleged drug trafficking port facility in Venezuela will escalate bilateral tensions and make further strikes highly likely in the coming weeks, though a U.S. ground invasion of the country remains unlikely for the foreseeable future. On Dec. 29, CNN reported that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, carried out a drone strike against a port facility on Venezuela's coast earlier in December, in the first known U.S. attack on a land target within Venezuela. The strike reportedly targeted a dock in an unidentified remote area that the U.S. government believes was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs prior to loading them onto boats to be trafficked out of the country.