At 2 a.m. local Caracas time, the United States conducted an invasion of Venezuela using, as President Trump put it, "overwhelming military power, air land and sea, [that] was used to launch a spectacular assault, and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II." The objective was multifold: Arrest illegitimate President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, who have been under U.S. indictment since 2020; take control of the communist state run by drug cartel outlaws and Cuban revolutionaries; and place Iran and China in check, starving them of one of their chief sources of power — Venezuelan crude.
Maduro had been given multiple opportunities to give himself up, but chose to dance and mock the U.S.as if he had not a care in the world.
How was this apparently flawless operation, code named Operation Absolute Resolve, carried out without the loss of U.S. life?
After days of bad weather, a weather-window presented itself on Saturday morning, and the operation commenced.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan "Raizin'" Caine described the assets used in what he called "an apprehension" operation that was, "discreet, precise, and conducted during the darkest hours of January 2nd and was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsal."
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"This particular mission required every component of our joint force with soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and guardians working in unison with our intelligence agency partners and law enforcement teammates in an unprecedented operation," Caine told reporters during the post-operation presser. He said "CIA, NSA, and NGA [National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency]" worked together and, "We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional. This mission was meticulously planned..." He said, "This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do. It required the utmost of precision and integration within our joint force."
Caine said the spooks learned "how [Maduro] moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets." They watched him for weeks to get a pattern of life.
In November, the USS Gerald Ford strike group was stationed in the Caribbean in an effort to urge Maduro to leave. As PJ Media's Sarah Anderson has detailed, Maduro preferred to dance his days away than to capitulate to the U.S.
He learned too late that it was the wrong move.
Caine said that 150 aircraft were used in the operation to retrieve the Maduros. F-22s, F-35s, F/A 18 strike fighters and EA-18G craft were deployed from more than 20 bases "on land and sea across the Western Hemisphere" to carry out the op.
"Our youngest crew member was 20 and our oldest crew member was 49," Caine said. "And there's simply no match for American military might."
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Special-operations helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Night Stalkers) inserted Delta Force operators into Caracas to capture the Maduros. President Trump told reporters that U.S. forces captured Maduro as he and his wife were fleeing to the safety of their safe room. Trump said they got to him "before he could close the door."
Caine described a hair-raising helicopter flight that included flying 100 feet above the water to send in the Delta operators and "law enforcement officers" to grab the Venezuelan leader.
And then the jamming and overwatch began in earnest.
Caine explained:
As they approached Venezuelan shores, the United States began layering different effects provided by SpaceCom, CyberCom, and other members of the inter agency to create a pathway overhead. Those forces were protected from aircraft were protected by aircraft from the United States Marines, the United States Navy, the United States Air Force, and the Air National Guard. The force included F-22s, F-35s, F-18s, EA18s, E2s, B1 bombers, and other support aircraft, as well as numerous remotely piloted drones.
As that occurred, the Joint Chiefs boss said "the joint air component began dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area. The goal of our air component is, was, and always will be to protect the helicopters and the ground force..."
Above, drones and other craft provided suppressive fire to protect the operators.
But "on arrival into the target area" — the Maduro compound — Caine says the Night Stalker helos and Delta Force operators came under "heavy fire." One helicopter was hit but remained airworthy, Caine said, and finished the mission. They "replied with that fire with overwhelming force in self-defense."
The U.S. Marines pulled up with the USS Iwo Jima, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship to exfiltrate the Maduros and take them into custody.
Caine described the operation as "audacious" and "complex... all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise."
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Trump watched the operation from his secure place at Mar-a-Lago.
You know that old church joke, the one about a man in a flood who asks God to save him and ignores the neighbor's offer of help, a boat, and helicopter to get him out of danger, and ends up in heaven and asks God why He didn't save him?
That's Maduro today.
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