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The US operation to “capture” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife in Caracas was months in the making.
Venezuelans had been bracing for attacks as US forces, including the USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest aircraft carrier — 11 warships and more than a dozen F-35 aircraft amassed in the Caribbean.
By the time the operation took place, more than 15,000 troops had poured into the region.
Operation Absolute Resolve was not just a military endeavor; it intricately wove in sophisticated intelligence operations.
The spy game
In August, a small team from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arrived in Venezuela, and began tracking Maduro’s pattern of life, Reuters reported.
Top US general Dan Caine said intelligence agents had spent months studying how Maduro “moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets”.
The CIA also had an asset close to Maduro who could monitor his movements. The person was instructed to pinpoint the exact location of Maduro as the operation unfolded.
“They’ve obviously got sources inside Maduro’s security detail,” former head of M16 John Sawers said.
With the information, the troops created an exact replica of Maduro’s safe house and practiced how they would enter the strongly fortified residence.
Among the US forces were the army’s Delta Force, known for capturing or killing high-value targets in counterterrorism operations.
While US President Donald Trump had approved the operation earlier, military and intelligence planners advised him to wait for better weather and less cloud cover.
“We didn’t know if all the things were going to line up,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
“[Maduro] had to be at the right place at the right time with the right weather.”
On Friday (local time), Trump gave the final order to launch the operation.
Strikes on Venezuela
Early on Saturday (local time), a number of US aircraft took off and carried out strikes against targets inside and close to Caracas, including Venezuela’s largest military complex Fort Tiuna and the country’s main port, La Guaira, north of the capital.
The first explosions were heard in Caracas and surrounding areas shortly before 2am and continued until around 3.15am.
Venezuela’s defence minister Vladimir Padrino López also accused US forces of firing missiles and rockets at residential areas.
Some homes in the town of Catia La Mar near Caracas were damaged or destroyed.
Caine said the operation involved more than 150 aircraft launched from 20 bases around the Western Hemisphere.
US troops arrived at Maduro’s compound in downtown Caracas while being fired on, according to Caine.
Once they reached Maduro’s safe house, members of the operation made their way into the residence, which Trump described as a “very highly guarded … fortress”.
Trump said Maduro had tried in vain to escape to a safe place, however Caine said he surrendered along with his wife without resistance.
Later, Trump posted on social media that the US had “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” and that Maduro and his wife had been “captured and flown out of the Country.”
Casualties
Speaking on Fox News, Trump boasted that no US soldiers had been killed and later told the New York Post that “many Cubans” who were protecting Maduro had died.
Speaking in a televised address on Sunday (local time), Padrino said a large part of Maduro’s security team was killed in the US raid.
A statement from the government in Havana confirmed a total of 32 Cuban nationals, including members of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior were killed during the US attack.
The Cuban government said they lost their lives “as a result of the criminal attack carried out by the government of the United States”.
Havana has declared two days of national mourning beginning on Monday (local time).
Now in New York, Maduro is expected to appear in a US court on Monday.
— Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse
