What you will read here sounds like the plot of a fictional series, but it is the chronology of a series of “overwhelming” real events.
The capture of Nicolás Maduro by North American forces was the culmination of a highly complex military operation, prepared for months and carried out in a few hours, in the heart of Caracas. The mission, unprecedented in its objective – to detain a serving head of state alive – combined deep intelligence, total air supremacy, electronic warfare and short, fast and highly controlled ground action. According to the reconstruction carried out by CNN Portugal, based on known information and the analysis of military and security experts, everything was designed so that, when the first helicopter took flight, the outcome was practically decided.
Months before: preparation
Long before the dawn of the operation, the United States already knew exactly where Nicolás Maduro slept. The information was collected over several months through information collection work considered exceptionally thorough, with human infiltration at the highest level and continuous technical surveillance.
According to , the CIA secretly installed a small team inside Venezuela in August to follow the patterns, locations and movements of the Venezuelan president. , chief of staff of the US Armed Forces, the team discovered “how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore and what his pets were.”
According to Lieutenant General Marco Serronha, this type of information is the true foundation of an operation of this type. “This is only possible with very well placed human intelligence, infiltrated at the highest level. When this point is reached, the military operation is no longer a question of ‘if’, but of ‘when’.”
In parallel, North American military assets were positioned in the Caribbean region. Amphibious ships, combat and surveillance aircraft and support systems were on standby for weeks, waiting for the ideal moment to advance. That moment arrived in the early hours of Saturday, January 3, after “months” of planning and rehearsals.
Donald Trump gave the go-ahead just minutes before 11 p.m., when military aircraft began flying in the Western Hemisphere.
A “blind and deaf” territory
At around 1:50, the active phase of the operation begins. Before any force enters the field, the United States launches an electronic and cyber warfare offensive to “shape the battlefield.” Radars, communications and command and control systems began to fail.
“It was a military operation that had, from the outset, all the necessary means already in the neighborhood of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea, in addition to the numerous military bases at close range. 150 planes, F-35 fighters, fighter bombers… there was overwhelming firepower in the region. Furthermore, there was a clear phase of electronic isolation: the radar, weapons and air defense systems were jammed. The territory where the operations took place was left, from a military point of view, blind and deaf”, describes the Major General Jorge Saramago.
Between 2:00 and 2:20, the offensive intensifies. Anti-aircraft defense systems of Russian origin, located in strategic bases such as La Carlota and Higuerote Airport, will have been neutralized before the insertion of special forces. Antennas and command centers are destroyed to prevent any response coordination.
During this period, residents of Caracas reported several explosions in a short space of time, widespread power outages and intense air movement.
“Caracas was left in the dark and this was central to the success of the mission”, adds Jorge Saramago.
only one North American helicopter was hit, but it remained in the air.
Assault and capture
With the defenses neutralized, special operations helicopters advance towards the Fuerte Tiuna military complex. On board were elements of the Delta Force – “a force created in the 70s, as a result of the identification of a need, which was for special operations detachments not to be directly involved in training and operations against terrorism”, as explained by Lieutenant General Marco Serronha – supported by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known for its ability to operate at night, “at low altitude” and in a hostile urban environment.
At around 2:50 am, special forces landed inside the complex with the aim of capturing Nicolás Maduro alive. In recent months, elite U.S. troops created an exact replica of Maduro’s hideout and practiced how they would enter the heavily fortified residence. Upon their arrival, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were surprised and tried to take refuge in a safe room reinforced with steel doors, without success.
“The special forces were prepared for this scenario. They carried blowtorches to cut doors or steel plates, if necessary. There were guards neutralized, there was a confrontation outside, but the operation on the ground lasted less than half an hour”, explains Major General Jorge Saramago.
“It was an operation planned in detail. There was necessarily very strong intelligence work inside Venezuela itself with the collaboration of Venezuelans, sources or elements of the resistance, of the opposition to the Government, which made it possible to precisely locate their position and then attack this infrastructure by surprise”, adds Jorge Saramago.
According to a Venezuelan official interviewed by the New York Times, . The official number of deaths or injuries has not been released.
The Venezuelan Minister of Defense said that all of Maduro’s personal guards, “essentially Cubans”, were “killed in cold blood”.
“Maduro was more confident in his guard than he should have been. Which is also a lesson identified for other South American leaders who were focused on yesterday at the press conference”, considers Lieutenant General Marco Serronha.
Maduro’s withdrawal
A few minutes after capture, the extraction phase begins. The president and his wife are placed on board the helicopters, which take off almost immediately. Around 40 minutes after the start of the land operation, they are already flying over the Caribbean Sea, towards the amphibious ship USS Iwo Jima, which serves as a platform for the withdrawal.
“It’s a ship about 270 meters long, with a beam of 40 meters, which transports helicopters and planes with propellers. Therefore, it has a substantial size”, explains Major General Jorge Saramago.
As a result, Iwo Jima made a stop at the US military base at Guantánamo Bay, in Cuba. From there, Maduro and his wife were transferred to a plane, which landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base, in New York.
Trump confirms arrest
Early Saturday morning, at 6:21 am, Donald Trump publicly confirmed the capture of Nicolás Maduro. In Truth Social, he writes that the US “successfully carried out a large-scale attack against Venezuela” and that “President Nicolás Maduro, together with his wife, was captured and removed from the country by air”. “This operation was carried out in conjunction with United States law enforcement authorities,” he adds.
Twenty minutes after the North American president’s announcement, he made a statement classifying the action as a serious international aggression. According to the statement, the act “constitutes a flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations, particularly articles 1 and 2, which enshrine respect for sovereignty, the legal equality of States and the prohibition of the use of force.”
“The objective of this attack is none other than to confiscate Venezuela’s strategic resources, particularly its oil and minerals, while trying to break the nation’s political independence by force,” he adds.
In photo
At 1:23 pm, the North American president released the first image of his Venezuelan counterpart after his capture. In the photo, published in Truth Social, Maduro appears blindfolded, with headphones and, apparently, handcuffed. Until that moment, Maduro’s exact location was not known.
Shortly afterwards, Trump announces, at a press conference in Mar-a-Lago, that the US will govern Venezuela “until a safe, adequate and sensible transition can be made”.
“We don’t want someone else to take power and for the situation to repeat itself for many years. Therefore, we will govern the country,” he added.
The American president also defended that the leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, does not have the necessary respect to govern Venezuela.
The vice-president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, in a speech on state television in Caracas, then stated that and classified the capture as a “kidnapping” promoted by the USA.
However, at the end of the day, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Venezuela orders her to assume the role of interim president of the country in the absence of Nicolás Maduro, “in order to guarantee administrative continuity and the full defense of the Nation”.
Arrival in the USA
At 6:40 pm, the deposed president arrives in the United States. Nicolás Maduro is seen disembarking escorted by more than a dozen federal agents.
At 11:00 pm, he is taken to the Brooklyn detention center. Several personalities involved in high-profile federal cases, such as Sean “Diddy” Combs, have been detained there.
The CNNJ, which is “extremely dangerous”
According to Security expert Paulo Dias, Nicolás Maduro’s stance upon arrival in the USA shows that “he may be collaborating with the authorities, especially the DEA”, in a larger concerted action.
“Maduro will be able to talk a lot more about the cartels operating in Venezuela, namely a new cartel, the CJNJ, which is extremely dangerous and which could be getting closer and closer to the European Union, similar to cartels like Pablo Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel. This leads us to believe that one of the DEA’s main focuses could be to have Maduro on its side and obtain information about what is happening not only in the Caribbean, but throughout Latin America.”
Lieutenant General Marco Serronha recalls that, in this operation, “it was necessary to capture the high-evaluate target alive and in good health”, unlike what happened “several times” in the Middle East. “It would have been easier to bomb all that, but this time, [os EUA] They didn’t do that.”
The trial begins this Monday and takes place at Manhattan Federal Court. At issue are accusations of drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons.
