The U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro was a months-in-the-making mission rehearsed using replicas of Maduro’s fortified compound, showcasing military might, ingenuity — and good timing.
The Venezuelan dictator was stopped just steps from the steel doors of his fortified lair as elite Army Delta Force commandos closed in, President Trump said.
“He was trying to get into a safe place … the safe place’s all steel, and he wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast,” Trump said.
The commandos closed in “in a matter of seconds,” Trump said on Fox News.
The Delta Force commandos were flown in by the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment — known as the Night Stalkers — as helicopters pushed toward the compound under fire.
The Night Stalkers flew modified MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters, executing low-level nighttime insertions as U.S. aircraft first dismantled Venezuela’s air defenses to clear the path into Caracas.
“People were wondering, do we get them by surprise?” Trump added. “Sort of surprised, but they were waiting for something. It was a lot of opposition. There was a lot of gunfire.”
At a late morning press conference at Mar-a-Lago General, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said months of intelligence gathering produced critical details about Maduro, enabling US forces to find him “and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.”
Follow The Post’s live coverage of US strikes on Venezuela and the capture of Nicolás Maduro
The C.I.A. collected intelligence from a fleet of stealth drones and a human source who could get close to Mr. Maduro and monitor his movements, according to people briefed on the matter.
The intelligence campaign began as early as August, combining human sources with aerial surveillance, while the mission itself involved months of “pinpoint” planning and rehearsal.
Ahead of the operation, US forces trained on a mock-up of Maduro’s compound.
“They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the safes and all the steel all over the place,” Trump told “Fox & Friends.”
Trump said the raid on Caracas — dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve — was ordered at 10:46 p.m. Friday after weather briefly cleared, setting off a tightly choreographed mission that unfolded over roughly two hours and 20 minutes.
“At my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela,” Trump said.
“Overwhelming American military power, air, land and sea, was used to launch a spectacular assault, and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” he added.
Trump later said Maduro was holed up inside a “fortress”-like house with steel doors and a reinforced safe space, but never made it inside.
“He was trying to get into it, but he got bum rushed so fast that he didn’t get into that area,” Trump said, adding U.S. forces were prepared with blowtorches to cut through the steel if needed.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said aircraft began launching soon after the go-ahead from about 20 bases and Navy ships, with Marines, the Navy, the Air Force and the Air National Guard providing cover as B-1 bombers loomed overhead.
“Over the course of the night, aircraft began launching from 20 different bases on land and sea,” Caine said. “In total, more than 150 aircraft — bombers, fighters, intelligence, surveillance and rotary-wing — were in the air.”
Just after 1:01 a.m., U.S. forces arrived at Maduro’s compound at the Fort Tiuna military complex in Caracas, Caine said, describing how the apprehension force “moved with speed, precision and discipline.”
As helicopters provided air support, they came under fire, with one aircraft hit but remaining flyable, Caine said.
Explosions began rocking Caracas shortly before 2 a.m., according to AFP correspondents on the ground, as U.S. aircraft returned fire.
“They knew we were coming,” Trump said, pointing to months of escalating pressure. “But they were completely overwhelmed and very quickly incapacitated.”
Caine said U.S. warplanes dismantled Venezuelan air defenses to clear the way into the capital, while power was cut to parts of the city in what officials described as a cyber operation.
“The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have,” Trump said. “It was dark, it was deadly.”
By 3:29 a.m., helicopters were reporting back over water as the force withdrew.
“There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela,” Caine said.
By the end of the roughly two-hour mission, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “gave up” and were “taken into custody by the Department of Justice,” Caine said.
Caine said the operation involved aircraft launching across the hemisphere.
One US aircraft was hit but remained flyable.
The youngest US service member involved was 20, the oldest 49, according to Caine.
Despite the intensity, Trump and Caine said there were no US fatalities.
“Not a single American service member was killed,” Trump said, adding that no equipment was lost.
Two U.S. officials later said roughly half a dozen American service members were injured during the operation, including personnel aboard the aircraft that was hit while remaining flyable.
At least 40 Venezuelans, including soldiers and civilians, were killed in the strike, officials from the South American nation told the New York Times.
Behind the scenes, US intelligence had been quietly tracking Maduro for months.
Alex Plistsas, an ex-senior US intelligence official and Atlantic Council fellow, told The Post that the CIA had a small team on the ground since August, building a “pattern of life” on Maduro and developing sources.
“The operation was supposed to go down a few days ago, but the weather wasn’t good,” Plitsas said.
Once conditions improved, the CIA fed the intelligence forward and the US Army Delta Force team led the raid.
Trump said the mission had been authorized days earlier but that Pentagon planners waited for a narrow weather window to ensure tactical surprise and limit civilian harm.
The ground force was bolstered by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team because the mission was executed under a federal arrest warrant tied to narcoterrorism charges dating back to 2020.
“It was actually really conducted under law enforcement authorities with U.S. military support,” Plitsas said.
FBI personnel accompanied the military assault force to formally place Maduro under arrest once the compound was secured.
Maduro and Flores were flown out by helicopter and later placed on a warship bound for New York City, where Trump said they will face trial.
“Right now, they’re on a ship,” Trump said. “They’ll be heading to, ultimately, New York.”
By 4:29 a.m. local time, Maduro and his wife had been transferred to the USS Iwo Jima, a U.S. Navy warship positioned in the Caribbean.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the raid as “flawlessly executed,” saying Trump was “deadly serious” about stopping drugs and gangs.
Con el Mazo Dando/ X
“Nicolás Maduro had his chance,” Hegseth said. “He effed around and he found out.”
Trump said the US was prepared to launch a second larger wave if needed, but quickly realized it wouldn’t be necessary.
The capture raised immediate questions about who will take over Venezuela.