Venezuela warned the U.S. government that the American Embassy in Caracas could be targeted in a “false-flag” operation, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez said on Sunday.

Rodríguez said the United States and an unspecified European embassy had been warned in three separate channels that “extremist sectors of the local Venezuelan right” are looking to plant explosives at their locations.

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A “false flag” operation is when a perpetrator tries to make an incident look like another party was responsible.

Rodríguez did not specify which extremist group would try to carry out the attack, who would be framed, or the motivation for such a plan.

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas employs 150 locals and spends more than $6 million annually for upkeep of the embassy and other diplomatic properties in the Venezuelan capital, according to a September 2025 report from the State Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The State Department suspended operations at its embassy in Caracas and evacuated all diplomats in March 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first administration.

Trump’s second administration has taken a very aggressive posture toward Venezuela and its president, Nicholás Maduro, whom the U.S. does not recognize as the legitimate leader of the country. The administration has accused Maduro of being the head of the Cartel of the Suns and being directly involved in the cartel’s drug smuggling operations.

The U.S. military has significantly increased its presence in the western hemisphere around Central America as the Department of War has taken a much larger role in stopping drug trafficking under Trump.

U.S. forces have carried out at least four strikes on vessels in international waters that U.S. officials have said were cartel members smuggling drugs that would end up in the U.S. Traditionally, the U.S. Coast Guard would interdict these vessels, search them, and, if needed, arrest those on board and give them due process.

These strikes have raised legal questions about the military’s use of lethal force, while Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said they would continue as needed.

After the most recently announced strike on a Venezuelan boat, Hegseth said U.S. intelligence confirmed “without a doubt” that the vessel “was trafficking narcotics, the people on board were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route.” He did not share what intelligence confirmed those conclusions.

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Trump informed Congress last week that the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels, declaring some cartels to be terrorist organizations and their members “unlawful combatants.”

Trump has also publicly said the U.S. military could carry out operations on Venezuelan soil, which would be an escalation in its operations.