Spies, drones and blowtorches: how the US captured Maduro

For months, American spies had been monitoring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s every move.

A small team, including a source within the Venezuelan government, observed where the 63-year-old slept, what he ate, what he wore and even, according to senior military officials, “his pets.”

Then, in early December, a planned mission dubbed “Operation Absolute Resolve” was finalized. It was the result of months of meticulous planning and rehearsals, during which elite U.S. troops even created an exact life-size replica of Maduro’s Caracas hideaway to practice their entry routes.

The plan – which amounted to an extraordinary US military intervention in Latin America, not seen since the Cold War – was closely watched. Congress was not informed or consulted in advance. Once the precise details were worked out, senior military officials simply had to wait until optimal conditions were met for launch.

They wanted to maximize the element of surprise, officials said Saturday. There was a false start four days earlier when U.S. President Donald Trump gave his approval, but they opted to wait for warmer weather and less cloud cover.

“In the weeks after Christmas and New Years, the men and women of the United States military stood at the ready, waiting patiently for the right triggers to be met and for the president to order us to act,” Gen. Dan Caine, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, said at a news conference Saturday morning.

The president’s order to begin the mission finally came at 10:46 p.m. EST (03:46 GMT Saturday) Friday.

“We were going to do it four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, and then all of a sudden it all opened up. And we said, go for it,” Trump himself told Fox & Friends on Saturday, hours after the nighttime raid.

“He told us, and we appreciate it…good luck and good luck,” General Caine said. Trump’s order arrived shortly before midnight in Caracas, giving the military most of the night to operate in the darkness.

What followed was a two-hour, twenty-minute mission by air, land and sea that stunned many in Washington and around the world.

In terms of scale and precision, it was virtually unprecedented. And it drew immediate condemnation from several regional powers, with Brazilian President Lula da Silva saying the violent capture of the Venezuelan leader set “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 advisers at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he watched the operation live, accompanied by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“It was an incredible thing to see,” Trump said Saturday. “If you saw what happened, I mean, I literally watched it like I was watching a TV show. And if you saw the speed, the violence… it’s just it was an incredible thing, an incredible job that these people did.”

In recent months, thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed to the region, joining an aircraft carrier and dozens of warships in the largest military deployment in decades, as Trump accused Maduro of drug trafficking and narcoterrorism and blew up dozens of small boats accused of transporting drugs through the region.

But the first signs of Operation Absolute Resolve were in the sky. More than 150 planes – including bombers, fighters and reconnaissance planes – were ultimately deployed overnight, according to US officials.

“It was very complex, extremely complex, the whole maneuver, the landings, the number of planes,” Trump told Fox News. “We had a fighter jet for every possible situation.”

Loud explosions were heard in Caracas around 02:00 local time (06:00 GMT), and plumes of smoke were seen rising above the city. “I heard a huge noise, a loud bang,” journalist Ana Vanessa Herrero told the BBC. “It moved all the windows. Immediately afterwards I saw a huge cloud of smoke that blocked almost the entire view.”

She added: “Planes and helicopters were flying over the whole city.”

Soon, videos showing numerous planes in the sky – and others showing the apparent aftermath of explosions – began circulating widely on social media. One showed a convoy of helicopters flying low over Caracas as smoke rose from apparent detonations.

“We woke up around 1:55 a.m. to the roar of explosions and the buzz of planes flying over Caracas,” Daniela, a witness, told the BBC. “Everything was plunged into absolute darkness, lit only by the flashes of nearby detonations.”

She added: “Neighbors were messaging in the condo chat group, all confused and unaware of what was happening. [and] frightened by the explosions.

BBC Verify examined a number of videos showing explosions, fires and smoke in locations around Caracas to identify exactly which sites were targeted.

So far, five sites have been confirmed, including Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base, an airfield known as La Carlota, and Port La Guaira, Caracas’ main communications channel to the Caribbean Sea.

Some of the U.S. strikes targeted air defense systems and other military targets, officials said. Trump also suggested that the United States cut power to Caracas before the mission begins, although he did not specify how.

“The lights in Caracas have largely been turned off thanks to some expertise that we have,” he said. “It was dark and it was deadly.”

As strikes broke out around Caracas, American forces entered the city. They included members of the elite Delta Force, the US military’s main special mission unit, sources told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner. They were heavily armed and carried a blowtorch in case they had to break through the metal doors of Maduro’s hideout.

Troops arrived at the Maduro site shortly after the strikes began, at 2:01 a.m. local time, according to General Caine. Trump described the shelter as a military “fortress” in the heart of Caracas, saying: “They were ready to wait for us. They knew we were coming. »

The troops caught fire when they arrived and one of the American helicopters was hit but was still able to fly. “The arresting force descended on Maduro’s compound and moved with speed, precision and discipline,” General Caine said.

“They just broke in, and they broke into places that weren’t really passable, you know, steel doors that were put there for just that reason,” Trump remarked.

Only as the operation – in which Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, was also seized – was unfolding did Rubio begin informing lawmakers of the action, a move that has since angered some members of the US Congress.

“Let me be clear: Nicolas Maduro is an illegitimate dictator. But launching military action without Congressional authorization and without a credible plan for what comes next is reckless,” Democratic Party leader Chuck Schumer said in the Senate.

Informing Congress in advance would have put the mission at risk, Rubio told reporters at Saturday’s news conference. “Congress has a tendency to leak,” Trump added. “That wouldn’t be good.”

At Maduro’s compound, as elite U.S. troops poured in, Trump said the Venezuelan president — who has reportedly increased his use of Cuban bodyguards in recent months — tried to flee to a safe room.

“He was trying to get to a safe place, which wasn’t safe because the door would have blown off in about 47 seconds,” Trump said.

“He got to the door. He couldn’t close it. He got pushed around so fast that he didn’t get in that door. [room]”.

Asked whether the United States could have killed Maduro, an authoritarian leader who rose to the presidency in 2013, if he had resisted arrest, Trump replied: “It could have happened.”

On the American side, “a few guys were hit,” he said, but no American service members were killed.

In a statement Sunday, Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said a “large part” of Maduro’s security team and “soldiers and innocent civilians” were killed in the U.S. operation.

The US had previously offered a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest. But at 4:20 a.m. local time on Saturday, helicopters were leaving Venezuelan territory carrying Maduro and his wife, detained by the US Department of Justice, en route to New York, where they are expected to face criminal charges.

Almost exactly an hour later, Trump announced to the world the news of his ca pture. “Maduro and his wife will soon face the full power of American justice,” he said.

Additional reporting by Cristobal Vasquez