Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro and his First Lady Cilia Flores were taken captive during a raid by the US during the middle of the night after they were dragged out of their bedrooms, as per reports.
The couple had slept on in their house at the high security Ft Tiuna military base in Caracas when American commandos invaded the house.
How the mission was completed in less than 30 minutes
The US Army Delta Force was on a mission and was assisted by the FBI and the mission was complete in less than 30 minutes. US officials claimed that there was no loss of American forces in the operation.
When asked to comment on the raid, the US President Donald Trump replied that Maduro had been taken out of what he called a fortress.
The lighting strike of the attack by the elite American commandos destroyed the air defences in Venezuela and stormed the fortified compound of the 12-year incumbent president, Nicolas Maduro.
Operation Absolute Resolve took place in the middle of the night when around 150 military planes, fighter jets, bombers, and reconnaissance aircrafts took off out of 20 bases, as well as the Navy ships in the area.
The Venezuelan dictator and his wife were bundled on a military helicopter and flown to a US warship that was waiting in the Caribbean within the space of hours.
The unusual operation was initiated between the hour of midnight and 1am Caracas time when the American strike force had entered the country underthe cover of darkness.
The hiding spot of Nicolas Maduro
Turns out, US forces didn’t just study Maduro’s safehouse from afar, they built a perfect copy of it. Trump actually said, “They built a house which was identical to the one they went into.” So, for weeks or maybe even months, Special Operations teams ran drills inside this replica. They memorised every hallway, every door, every weird corner. When they finally landed in Caracas, they knew the layout better than their own homes.
Trump talked about this with Fox News, and honestly, the level of detail is kind of scary. The replica wasn’t just about walls and rooms. It had “all the safes, all the steel all over the place.” Everything was exact.
That means the US had either the original blueprints or someone on the inside. They knew where the secret bunkers were, where the regime stashed cash or documents, down to the last safe.
How US forces practised barging in the fortress
“Steel all over the place,” that’s not your average presidential palace. Maduro was holed up in a fortress, built to take a hit. US forces knew this going in.
They practised on those steel barriers, brought the gear they’d need, special cutting charges, heavy breaching tools. They weren’t guessing; they knew exactly what kind of fight that safe room would put up.
Trump didn’t hide his awe. “I’ve never seen anything like this… It was amazing to see the professionalism.” He made it clear, this wasn’t some messy shootout. It was a tight, clean operation, probably led by Delta Force or DEVGRU. They pulled a hostile Head of State out of a fortified city without letting the place turn into a warzone.
