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.

Venezuelan authorities said they uncovered an operation targeting the USS Gravely, a guided-missile destroyer that docked Sunday in Trinidad and Tobago -- within firing distance of the Venezuelan mainland.

The ship's arrival sparked outrage in Caracas, which called it a "provocation" and claimed it was "aimed at provoking a war in the Caribbean."

It also deepened tensions with Trinidad and Tobago, whose Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is a strong critic of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, and a supporter of US President Donald Trump's military campaign against drug traffick

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