Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro raced to close the 6ins-thick steel door of a safe room seconds before he and wife Cilia were snatched by US Special Forces, it emerged on Saturday.
The full details of one of the most audacious military raids in modern history were revealed by Donald Trump and his closest advisers who watched the daring two-hour 28-minute operation unfold on screens inside a secure room at Mar-a-Lago, the US President’s Florida estate.
After weeks of meticulous planning and waiting for the weather to be ‘perfect’, Mr Trump gave the go-ahead for Operation Absolute Resolve at 10.46pm Eastern Standard Time on Friday night (11.46pm in Venezuela, 3.46am on Saturday in the UK) with the words: ‘Good luck and God speed.’
Maduro was ‘heavily guarded’ in a bunker on a military base in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, that was ‘like a fortress’, Mr Trump said.
‘It had what they call a safe space where it’s solid steel all around. He didn’t get that space closed. He was trying to get into it, but got bum-rushed so fast that he didn’t get into it.
‘It was a very thick door, a very heavy door. But he was unable to get to that door. He made it to the door but he was unable to close it.’ Soldiers from Delta Force – the US Army’s elite special operations unit – were equipped with blow torches to cut through the steel door in case Mr Maduro managed to lock himself in.
‘Did we get him by surprise? Sort of surprise, but they were waiting for something. It was a lot of opposition. There was a lot of gunfire.’
Caracas was plunged into darkness as the raid began. The US President said the extraction force had practised for months, adding: ‘They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all that steel all over the place. They were ready for anything. Then we turned off all the lights.’
Mr Trump declined to reveal whether CIA spies on the ground who have been monitoring Maduro’s movements for months hijacked the power grid or launched a cyber attack.
He said: ‘The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.’ General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, hailed the joint effort by US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Special Forces and intelligence agencies who ‘spent months’ on the operation, including studying Maduro’s movements, what he wore, what he ate, his children and even his pets.
He said: ‘This mission was meticulously planned. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do, an extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the western hemisphere in close co-ordination, all coming together in time and place to create a layered effect all for a single purpose – to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of surprise.’
Aircraft including F-18, F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, Seahawk and Chinook helicopters, B-1 supersonic bombers and unmanned drones were launched from a fleet of more than a dozen US warships and the aircraft carrier the Gerald R. Ford, which have been off the Venezuelan coast since December. Aircraft were also deployed from US bases around the Caribbean.
The helicopters carrying Special Forces came from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment – nicknamed the Night Stalkers – and included MH-60 Seahawks and MH-47 Chinooks. Delta Force choppers flew just at 100ft above the sea as they approached Caracas, supported by fighter jets and bombers high above which bombed five military sites around the city to distract Venezuelan troops on the ground.
US forces reached the Venezuelan leader’s compound at 1.01am EST yesterday and were back over the sea returning to the USS Iwo Jima by 3.29am, although a Pentagon source said the ground firefight and capture of Maduro took less than 30 minutes.
Around a dozen Special Forces troops entered Maduro’s heavily guarded compound by ‘fast roping’ – deploying rapidly from helicopters by sliding down ropes – before facing heavy gunfire.
There was then what a CIA source described as a ‘brutal’ firefight before special forces entered the area at Fort Tiuna where Mr Maduro and his wife – who are thought to have been wearing only their pyjamas – were trying to get into their safe space.
A helicopter was hit by ground fire but made it back to the USS Iwo Jima safely. General Caine said: ‘On arrival into the target area the helicopters came under fire and they replied to that fire with overwhelming force and self-defence. One of our aircraft was hit but remained flyable.
‘The force descended into Maduro’s compound and moved with speed, precision and discipline and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons.’
Maduro and his wife were bundled into a chopper that landed in the grounds of the compound.
They were then flown to the USS Iwo Jima and were arrested by FBI agents from the Southern District of New York, which released an indictment against Maduro and his wife on Saturday, citing narco-terrorism, cocaine smuggling and possession of machine guns.
The indictment was an updated version of one issued by a US grand jury in 2020.
Maduro and his wife were flown to New York on Saturday night, where they will be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Venezuela has yet to report whether any soldiers or civilians were killed in the raid, although one woman is said to have died.
Mr Trump warned that the US was prepared to mount a second-wave attack in Venezuela, but added: ‘We actually assumed that a second wave would be necessary, but now it’s probably not.’
Venezuela’s ally China said it ‘strongly condemns’ the US operation, and called for Maduro to be ‘immediately released.’
‘The U.S.’s move is in clear violation of international law, basic norms in international relations, and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter,’ China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement Sunday.
Elswhere, France warned a solution cannot ‘be imposed from outside.’
Labour is engulfed in a major internal row over Sir Keir Starmer‘s tepid support for Donald Trump‘s attack on Venezuela, after hard Left MPs demanded the US president be ostracised like Vladimir Putin.
Allies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn lashed out after the Prime Minister last night said his administration will ‘shed no tears’ over the end of Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
While he added the caveat that he still supported international law the statement sparked uproar, especially from MPs who have previously spoken out in support of the South American dictator and his regime.
Former shadow minister Richard Burgon said the PM’s statement was ‘shameful and reckless’ after action he branded a ‘coup’ by the US.
‘The Prime Minister should respond to an illegal bombing and kidnapping by Trump in exactly the way he would if Putin had carried it out,’ he said on X.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was ‘deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected.’
At Venezuela’s request, the UN Security Council will meet Monday to discuss the crisis, the Somali presidency of the Council told AFP.
Venezuelans had been bracing for attacks as US forces spent months massing off the coast.
Caracas residents woke to explosions and the whir of military helicopters around 2am (6am GMT). Air strikes hit a major military base and an airbase, among other sites, for nearly an hour.
The top US military officer, General Dan Caine, said 150 aircraft took part in the operation, supporting troops who choppered in to seize Maduro with the help of months of intelligence into his daily habits – down to ‘what he ate’ and what pets he kept.
Maduro and his wife ‘gave up’ without a struggle and there was ‘no loss of US life,’ he said.
WHAT THE US CLAIM MADURO DID TO THE US THAT WARRANTED THE INVASION & HIS CAPTURE
1. Criminal Charges — Narco-terrorism and Drug Trafficking
U.S. prosecutors allege Maduro led a corrupt regime that collaborated with major drug cartels (e.g., Sinaloa Cartel, Tren de Aragua) to traffic large quantities of cocaine into the United States, harming American communities. Federal indictments include charges such as:
Narco-terrorism conspiracy
Conspiracy to import cocaine
Possession and conspiracy to possess weapons in furtherance of drug offenses
Maduro, his wife, and close associates are named in these indictments. AP News
The U.S. government also put a reward on Maduro’s capture in past years, framing him as a major “narco-terrorist.”
2. Accusations of Corruption & Undermining Democracy
The U.S. has long accused Maduro of:
Rigging elections and clinging to power despite opposition victories
Crushing political dissent
Running a government that enables criminal networks
These political and human-rights concerns have underpinned sanctions and pressure campaigns for years. mint
WHAT EXPERT SAYS IS US’ ACTUAL MOTIVE
Maduro’s government controls the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, which makes Venezuela strategically important. Critics of the U.S. action say this factor has also played a role in U.S. motivations.
Trump has boasted of making Venezuelans rich by taking over the country’s oil production. By doing so he kills two birds with one stone.
He feeds refineries in Louisiana hungry for a special type of heavy oil in which Venezuela specialises. And he controls the supply that China had been leaning on.
It might be a global power ready to rival the US, but China is energy poor with not nearly enough deposits of gas and oil to keeps its factory furnaces ablaze. Now, China will have to find another source of cheap oil.
Fifty years ago this week Venezuela nationalised its oil industry, including the operations of US oil firms, which Trump recently called ‘theft’. Venezuela has used its oil revenues to poke Washington in ways that have irked successive US presidents, Obama and Biden included, not least by acting as chief supplier to Communist Cuba.
Few in Venezuela will shed a tear for Maduro. Many hate him as an election fraudster, having rigged his country’s poll last year, and Venezuelan refugees from Chile to the US will celebrate his downfall. That won’t stop the far Left here howling at his demise, as they have long lionised Venezuela as a socialist paradise.
But Maduro’s enemies should be careful what they wish for. His swift removal from power does not mean Venezuela will turn to democracy, or even benign dictatorship. The Maduro regime has been decapitated but his henchmen remain in place, and are determined to fight to retain their power.
Trump has made clear that Venezuela will not peacefully slip into a regime led by the cheated candidate in last year’s election, Edmundo Gonzalez, or opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last autumn. Instead it will be ruled at arms’ length by the US, temporarily.
Crucially American soldiers are not stationed in Caracas to keep the peace. Trump insists they are on standby. They need to be as the capital is awash with guns and ambitious leaders – not just in the still active army but of powerful drug gangs – who may fancy seizing territory amid the power vacuum.
There is a strong likelihood that chaos could ensue as in Libya after Obama helped to depose Gaddafi but then stood back and let the country become an ungovernable wreck.
US involvement in foreign wars rarely begins with a long-term commitment. More often it opens with a minor operation that unleashes forces it hadn’t intended. Then America is sucked back into the conflict against its will.
So Trump may soon find himself involved in an extended overseas military campaign, which he was elected to oppose.
VENUEZUELA’S GOVERNMENT CURRENT STANCE
Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, has hurled threats at Donald Trump after the capture of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, who is now languishing in a New York federal jail.
The Supreme Court of Venezuela confirmed hardline socialist Vice President Rodriguez as Maduro’s successor just hours after US forces detained him and his wife, Cilia Flores, on narco-terrorism and drug trafficking charges on Saturday.
Trump said he preferred Rodriguez, 56, in power rather than the country’s opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, adding that Maduro’s VP was prepared to work with the US.
‘She, I think, was quite gracious, but she really doesn’t have a choice,’ Trump said of Rodriguez during a news conference in which he said the US would ‘run’ the country. ‘She is essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again. Very simple.’
But the Maduro loyalist, who has helped him maintain his regime for over a decade, has vented her fury at Trump’s capture of the despot, whom she called her nation’s rightful leader.
Rodriguez, who also serves as minister for finance and oil, slammed Maduro’s arrest as ‘an atrocity that violates international law’ and called for his ‘immediate release.’
‘We call on the peoples of the great homeland to remain united, because what was done to Venezuela can be done to anyone,’ she asserted during a National Defense Council session after the US military operation.
‘That brutal use of force to bend the will of the people can be carried out against any country.’
She also insinuated that she was not as on board with helping the US essentially run Venezuela as Trump had suggested.
Trump offered little further detail on the logistics of running Venezuela, which has a population of 30 million, but suggested the country’s vast oil reserves would be used to fund its revival.
But others are skeptical of Rodriguez being a willing assistant to Trump’s plans.
‘I don’t think that we can count on Delcy Rodriguez to be friendly to the United States until she proves it,’ Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton said on CNN’s State of the Union with Dana Bash on Sunday.
Rodriguez has not publicly mentioned going along with Trump’s agenda for Venezuela – only a desire to protect the country’s independence.
‘Never again will we be slaves, never again will we be a colony of any empire, We’re ready to defend Venezuela‘ she said on Saturday.
