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First photo of Maduro released by Donald Trump after his capture by American forces
Since August, the Americans have been studying Maduro’s every move to understand his routines and even created a life-size replica of the Venezuelan leader’s fortress.
For months, American spies monitored Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s every move.
A small team, including a source within the Venezuelan government, observed where the 63-year-old man slept, what he ate, what he wore and even, according to senior military officials, “your pets“.
Then, in early December, a planned mission, called “Operation Absolute Resolution”, was completed. It was the result of months of meticulous planning and rehearsals, which included elite American troops create an exact life-size replica from Maduro’s house in Caracas to practice his entry routes.
The plan — which represented an extraordinary US military intervention in Latin America, unprecedented since the Cold War — was kept completely secret. THE Congress was not informed nor consulted in advance. With the precise details in place, senior military officials simply had to wait for ideal launch conditions.
They wanted to maximize the element of surprise, officials said Saturday. There was a false alarm four days beforewhen US President Donald Trump gave approval, but they chose to wait for better weather conditions and fewer clouds.
“During the weeks between Christmas and New Year’s, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces remained on standby, patiently waiting for the right moment to take action,” said General Dan Caine, the country’s highest-ranking military officer, at Trump’s address this Saturday.
“Good luck and may God accompany you’”
The president’s order to begin the mission finally arrived at 10:46 pm EST on Friday (3:46 am Saturday in Lisbon).
“We were going to do this four days, three days, two days, and then, suddenly, the opportunity arose. And we said: let’s go,” Trump himself said on the Fox & Friends program on Saturday, hours after the night operation.
“He told us, and we thanked him… good luck and may God be with us,” said General Caine. Trump’s order arrived shortly before midnight in Caracasgiving the military most of the night to operate in darkness. What followed was a two-hour and twenty-minute mission by air, land and sea that shocked many in Washington and around the world.
In terms of scale and precision, it was practically unprecedented. And it attracted , with the president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, stating that the violent capture of the Venezuelan leader established “yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.”
Trump did not follow the mission from the White House situation room. Instead, he was surrounded by his advisors at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where watched a live broadcast of the operationflanked by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“It was an incredible thing to see,” Trump said Saturday. “If they had seen what happened, I mean, I literally watched as if you were watching a television program. And if they had seen the speed, the violence… it’s just incredible, an incredible job that these people did.”
In recent months, thousands of US soldiers have been sent to the region, joining an aircraft carrier and dozens of warships in the largest military mobilization in decades, while countering narcoterrorism, and destroying dozens of small vessels accused of transporting drugs through the region.
But the first signs of Operation Absolute Resolution were in the skies. More than 150 aircraft – including bombers, fighters and reconnaissance planes – were mobilized throughout the night, according to US authorities.
“It was very complex, extremely complex, the whole maneuver, the landings, the number of aircraft,” Trump told Fox News. “We had a fighter for every possible situation.”
Strong explosions were heard in Caracas around 2 amlocal time (6am in Lisbon), and columns of smoke were seen rising over the city. “I heard a huge sound, a loud explosion,” reporter Ana Vanessa Herrero told the BBC. “All the windows moved. Right after that, I saw a huge cloud of smoke that almost blocked the entire view.”
The reporter added: “Planes and helicopters flew over the entire city.”
Soon, videos showing numerous aircraft in the sky — and others showing the apparent consequences of the explosions — began circulating widely on social media. One showed a convoy of helicopters flying at low altitude over Caracas as smoke rose from apparent detonations.
“We woke up around 1:55 am to the sound of explosions and the buzz of planes flying over Caracas,” a witness, Daniela, told the BBC. “Everything was plunged into total darknessilluminated only by the flashes of nearby detonations. The neighbors were exchanging messages in the condominium group, all confused and unaware of what was happening and scared by the explosions.”
BBC Verify analyzed several videos showing explosions, fires and smoke in locations around Caracas to identify exactly which locations were hit.
So far, they have been five locations confirmedincluding the Generalíssimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base, an airfield known as La Carlota and La Guaira Port, the main access route from Caracas to the Caribbean Sea.
Some of the U.S. strikes targeted air defense systems and other military targets, officials said. Trump further suggested that the US cut power to Caracas before the mission began, although he did not specify how.
“The lights in Caracas were practically turned off due to a certain expertise we have,” he said. “It was dark and it was deadly“.
“They knew we were coming”
As attacks echoed across Caracas, US forces entered the city. Among them were elite members of Delta Forcethe main special missions unit of the U.S. Military, sources told CBS. They were heavily armed and carried a blowtorch in case they needed to cut through the metal doors of Maduro’s house.
Troops arrived at Maduro’s location shortly after the attacks began, at 2:01 am local time, according to General Caine. Trump described the house as a “fortress” military in the heart of Caracas, saying: “They were in a ready position, waiting for us. They knew we were coming.”
The troops were fired upon upon arrival, and one of the American helicopters was hit but still managed to fly. “The capture force descended on Maduro’s compound and advanced with speed, precision and discipline“, said General Caine.
“They just invaded, and they invaded places that normally couldn’t be invaded, you know, steel doors that were placed there precisely for that purpose,” commented Trump.
It was only during the course of the operation — which also resulted in the arrest of Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores — that Rubio began notifying parliamentarians about the action, a decision that has since provoked anger of some members of Congress North American.
“Let me be clear: Nicolás Maduro is an illegitimate dictator. But launching military action without authorization from Congress and without a credible plan for what follows is reckless,” said Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, the party’s Senate leader.
Inform Congress in advance would have put the mission at riskRubio told reporters during Saturday’s press conference. “Congress has a tendency to leak information,” Trump added. “That wouldn’t be good.”
At Maduro’s compound, as elite U.S. troops stormed the compound, Trump said the Venezuelan president — who has reportedly increased his reliance on Cuban bodyguards in recent months — tried to flee to a safe room.
“He was trying to get to a safe place, which was not safe, because we would have blown the door open in about 47 seconds,” Trump said.
“He arrived at the door. Couldn’t close it. He was surrounded so quickly that he was unable to enter that division.”
Asked whether the US could have killed Maduro, an authoritarian leader who assumed the presidency in 2013, if he had resisted detention, Trump said: “Could have happened“.
On the American side, “some men were hit,” he said, but no American soldiers died. Venezuelan authorities have not confirmed any casualties.
The United States had previously offered a $55 million reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. But, at 4:20 am on Saturdaylocal time, the helicopters left Venezuelan territory with Maduro and his wife on board, in the custody of the US Department of Justice and on their way to New York, where they will face criminal charges.
