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.

Venezuela has alerted the Trump administration of a foiled "false flag operation" threatening to target the United States embassy in Caracas with explosives.

Venezuela claims to have foiled a CIA-financed cell plotting a false-flag attack on an American warship, in what the government alleges is a cynical ploy to spark a ‘full military confrontation’.

Venezuela accused Trinidad and Tobago of military provocation, allegedly coordinated with the CIA, aiming for confrontation. It claimed it had captured a group of mercenaries who possessed 'direct information from American intelligence agency'.

The Trump administration is adding an aircraft carrier strike group to its major naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela.

Maduro has accused the US of "inventing a new eternal war" after it deployed the world's largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean Sea. He made the remarks on state media after it emerged America’s feared USS Gerald R. Ford was making its way to the region following a series of fatal strikes on South American drug boats.

Venezuela alleges the CIA and Trinidad planned a false-flag attack to trigger a military clash, claiming to have captured mercenaries amid US-Trinidad exercises.

The Trump administration has accused Nicolás Maduro of being directly involved in the cartel's drug smuggling operations.

The government of Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro claimed in a Sunday statement that it captured an alleged “mercenary group” with “direct information” from the CIA. The statement from Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez accused the alleged group of planning a “false flag operation” from around nearby Trinidad and Tobago and accused the small island nation of performing ongoing “military exercises” under “the coordination,