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It is a little before 2:00 a.m. in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, on January the 3rd, 2026, and every light in the city has just turned off, all at once. Soldiers stationed at bases who are on high alert begin radioing one another to try and work out what on earth's going on, but they are met with silence. The quiet is soon broken by the rhythmic thumping of helicopter blades, Chinooks and Black Hawks flying low along the mountains to the north. The moment these troops have been fearing for 5 months has finally arrived. The Americans are launching their attack. On board these helicopters right now are 200 Delta Force operators, the pinnacle of America's fighting forces, who are
here with a singular purpose: find and capture Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's dictatorial ruler, who is currently holed up inside a safe house on the southern side of the city. This mission flies in the face of decades of international law and historical precedent, but that is not Delta's concern. They are here to do a job, and this is how they plan to do it. First, under the cover of darkness, they will descend on the heavily fortified Fuerte Tiuna compound, where Maduro and his wife are hiding. Once there, they will blast their way inside, take out Maduro's bodyguards, and then grab the president. Then, they will load the Maduros back on the same helicopters and head for the coast. The aim is to get in
and out again as quickly as possible before Venezuela's extensive air defenses could spot them and start shooting. Maduro will then be taken to the US, where he could be tried for running a drug cartel which smuggled tons of cocaine into America. This is the story of one of the most audacious special forces raids in history, why it was carried out, how it was executed, and what it means for the future of war. This is Operation Absolute Resolve, and is Battle Board. Here is Venezuela, on the northern coast of South America. Sandwiched between much larger neighbors, Brazil to the south and America to the north, it is able to wield outsized power thanks in large
part to its huge oil reserves. Saying that Venezuela has a lot of oil is like saying there's a lot of sand in the Sahara. It's true, but it doesn't really do it justice. Venezuela actually has the largest known reserves on the planet, 300 billion barrels give or take, which is almost 30 billion more than Saudi Arabia. To put that in context, if a single barrel of oil sells for $70, then Venezuela's reserves are worth 21 trillion. This oil is far from perfect, however. In industry lingo, it's both heavy and sour, meaning it's very thick. Think like the consistency of peanut butter, and it has a lot of corrosive sulfur in it.
Weirdly, that's because it's laced with bacteria, but that's beside the point. The point is that this oil is hard to extract and hard to process. Not just anyone can get it out of the ground, and not just anyone can refine it. America, though, has all the technology required to do both. In Washington's hands, that massive reserve is incredibly valuable. That's why historically, America has been the largest consumer of Venezuelan oil. Peak production in the late '90s and early 2000s was in large part driven by US companies operating in Venezuela under license, which got the oil out of the ground and sent it back home to be refined. But, over the years, as
relations between the two countries worsened, those companies cut back and then largely stopped operating, causing a huge drop in production. These days, it is China, and not America, which is responsible for buying most of Venezuela's oil. Another country which has the technology to both extract and refine it. Starting in 2020, Beijing began harvesting these reserves under loans for oil deals. This meant that Chinese companies invested huge sums in refineries, pipelines, and infrastructure in Venezuela in return for barrels sold on the cheap. This not only gave China long-term access to Venezuelan oil, but gave Beijing leverage over Caracas. Altering the terms of those loans could cause huge
damage to the Venezuelan economy, an old trick known as the Chinese debt trap. This is one major reason that Trump decided to carry out the raid to capture Maduro, which I'll explain a little more in just a second. The second is that Venezuela and America don't get along and haven't done for a very long time, way before Trump became president. The reason for that is largely down to this guy, whose name you've probably heard, Hugo Chávez. A hero of the political left and an enemy of the right, Chávez was the son of poor school teachers and a military officer turned socialist revolutionary. He tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the Venezuelan government in the early '90s before eventually
being elected president in 1999. Chávez had two heroes, Simón Bolívar, the South American liberation hero who helped kick out the colonists back in the 1800s, and Karl Marx, the father of communism. For that reason, during his rule from 1999 until his death from cancer in 2013, he set up Venezuela as the South American opponent to US power in the north. He openly defied US leaders and embraced their enemies. For example, he spent decades propping up arch-nemesis Fidel Castro in Cuba by sending him boatloads of cheap oil. Among his friends, he counted Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Libya's Colonel Gaddafi, the Iranian Ayatollahs, and Russia's Vladimir Putin, a who's who of American bad guys. Meanwhile, at a UN summit in 2006, he actually likened George W. Bush
to Satan. He also used billions of dollars in oil revenue, much of which came from selling to the Americans to back terror groups like the FARC in neighboring Colombia, who were smuggling tons of cocaine into the US and causing migrants to journey north in order to escape the cartel. In that context, it is perhaps no wonder that Venezuela has been seen by some as one of the biggest security threats facing America, and removing the regime has been a goal among certain circles in Washington for decades. One attempt at removing the regime came in 2002, when a coup against Chávez, at the very least carried out with the tacit backing of America, actually ousted him from power for 47
hours before it was crushed. Another attempt came in 2019 following elections which Maduro, Chávez's disciple and heir, almost certainly lost. Donald Trump, then in his first term, had been ramping up pressure on Maduro in advance of the vote as Venezuela's economy collapsed. Inflation, which was running at 1.3 million percent, had seen poverty rates rise from 30% when he first took power to more than 90%. One in five people were unable to access enough food to lead a normal life, while Venezuela had gone from being one of the richest South American countries to one of the poorest. That sparked protests, which led to a violent crackdown, and in response, Trump sanctioned Maduro,
shutting down those oil companies we mentioned earlier. In 2018, Maduro ran for re-election and is widely suspected to have stolen the vote, prompting Trump and 60 other countries to recognize this guy, Juan Guaidó, as the legitimate president. That led to an attempt to depose Maduro in 2019 and replace him with Guaidó, which ultimately failed. However, that whole experience would not be forgotten. And when Trump came back to office in 2025, he arrived with unfinished business. This is the US National Security Strategy, which was published later that same year. If you flip through it, you'll quickly happen upon this section, which commits the US to achieving dominance in the
Western Hemisphere, which obviously includes South America. There's two lines that are worth highlighting. First, we will deny any non-hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities or to own or strategically control vital assets in our hemisphere. And second, we should make every effort to push out foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region. Given everything we just talked about, it shouldn't be hard to see why Venezuela topped the list of Trump's targets. All of which brings us to the events of late 2025 and early 2026, when Trump decided to make his move and solve the issue of Venezuela once and for all. This is Venezuela.
It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and looks out across the Caribbean Sea to Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico in the north. The capital, Caracas, is here, nestled among mountains which stretch from the western border all the way along the northern coast. It is now mid-August 2025, and Donald Trump is beginning to make his move against Maduro. Already, the president has authorized the Pentagon to use powers usually reserved for terrorist groups to allow the military to go after what he calls narco-terrorists. That is, cartels which he says pose an extraordinary threat to America by smuggling people and drugs across the southern border.
This includes the Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Sun, which the Trump administration accuses Maduro and his family of leading. Under this presidential authority, the legality of which is hotly disputed, the US intelligence community begins deploying assets to the region. The key to any special forces raid is top-quality intelligence on the target. So, a CIA team is sent into Venezuela to gather this intel. America has no embassy in Caracas, so the agents cannot use diplomatic cover. In all likelihood, they go in as tourists, leaving them exposed to the full force of Venezuelan law if they're caught. Despite the danger, the team goes to work gathering what's known as pattern-of-life information on Maduro. Where he goes, who he goes with, his daily schedule,
and so on. Anything and everything that will help the special forces know when and where he is at his most vulnerable, even down to what kind of pets he keeps. They recruit locals to their cause, sympathizers who want to see an end to Maduro and are willing to sabotage their own military to make it happen. This team even manages to recruit someone in Maduro's household who can feed them information from behind closed doors. What time he goes to bed, where he sleeps, who stands guard over him. The CIA is not the only undercover agency involved, however. The geospatial intelligence agency, which manages America's satellites, is also brought to bear.
Satellite imagery no doubt helps map out the location of Maduro's multiple safe houses and the air defenses assigned to protect them. The National Security Agency, which handles wiretaps and America's cyber weapons, is also deployed, intercepting secure communications to give even better insight into Maduro's life. As this clandestine activity is taking place, Trump also begins overt moves to pressure Maduro into leaving office. On August the 14th, three warships are sent to the Caribbean. Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyers, the USS Gravely and USS Jason Dunham, and the USS Sampson. They are joined by a nuclear-powered attack submarine and P-8 Poseidon spy plane, likely stationed on Puerto Rico. Together, they will help spy on Venezuela, but also
provide Trump with the ability to strike targets at sea or on land. The ships and subs are all armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Two days later, the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit is deployed aboard the USS Iwo Jima and its support ships, the USS Fort Lauderdale and the USS San Antonio. The Iwo Jima is like a miniature aircraft carrier, designed to land thousands of Marines on hostile soil using Osprey helicopters and support them using jets like the Harrier. Meanwhile, the USS Fort Lauderdale and USS San Antonio are designed to do the same thing, but using landing craft, which can carry armored vehicles and tanks.
This massively expands the range of options available to Trump, who can now put boots on the ground if he wants to, while at the same time ramping up pressure on Maduro. September 2nd, and the pressure on Maduro increases once more as America begins blowing up what it describes as drug-smuggling boats off the Venezuelan coast. Again, this is hugely legally contentious. It's unclear how exactly Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, are deciding which boats to target, and experts argue that these strikes almost certainly violate international law. That doesn't stop the Pentagon from ordering more, though. Over the course of the next 2 months, the US carries out at least 19
such attacks, killing more than 70 people. At first, they target ships in the Caribbean Sea only, but this soon extends to vessels in the Eastern Pacific, as well. The longer the campaign goes on, the more controversial it becomes. At one point, the Colombian president complains that a vessel from his country has been wrongly hit. In another case, two survivors are pulled from the wreck of a boat and turn out to be Colombian and Ecuadorian, rather than Venezuelan. They are arrested and taken for detention in the US. The pace of attacks does not slow down, nor does the military build-up. In mid-September, satellite images suggest the US is rebuilding one of its bases on Puerto Rico so it can station more aircraft there.
Roosevelt Roads was at one point one of the biggest naval stations in the world, but was abandoned in 2004 as US attention shifted to the Middle East. Now, it is being used to host aircraft. By mid-October, it is home to squadrons of F-35 fighter jets alongside those P-8 Poseidon spy planes we mentioned earlier. Another curious addition to the garrison here is the RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone. One of the most secretive drones in the US arsenal, very little is known about the capabilities of this aircraft, whose existence wasn't acknowledged by the military for years. The little we do know about it suggests it overflew Bin
Laden's compound in Pakistan shortly before the raid which killed him. Meanwhile, Rafael Hernández Airport on the other side of the island is also being adapted, this time so it can host MQ-9 Reaper drones. Their role is different to the MQ-170. Rather than spying, they're adapted for carrying out air strikes from high altitudes. And on San Juan just here, the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport is also being upgraded to host Pegasus mid-air refueling jets. These allow US aircraft to stay in the air for longer, increasing the number of targets they can hit in any one mission. Around the end of October, another curious piece of kit turns up in the Caribbean which hints at Trump's ultimate plan.
This is the MV Ocean Trader, a former commercial truck transport that has been turned into a floating command post for US special forces. At 630 ft long, it has been outfitted with hangar space for helicopters, ranging from the MH-6 Little Bird, one of the US military's smallest, all the way up to the MH-53, one of the largest. It also carries multiple smaller boats that can be lowered from the sides, along with jet skis and dive gear, and houses sweets where intelligence can be analyzed and missions prepared. On board are roughly 200 special forces operators who will soon be at the forefront of operations. But for now, are content to keep to the shadows and bide their time.
Along with them, come pilots of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, perhaps the best trained airmen in the US military, who specialize in dangerous raids. They routinely fly missions for the special forces and were heavily involved in the Bin Laden capture back in 2011. We know this because in October, they're spotted flying Little Birds and MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters just off the coast of Trinidad, here. Sweeping low over the ocean, they were practicing a nap-of-the-earth approach, which will be vitally important to the actual raid, as we'll see in just a minute. For now, though, the US is not set on ousting Maduro by force and is actually trying to pressure him into leaving without a
fight. Behind the scenes, talks are ongoing. According to Trump, around this time, the Venezuelan leader got in touch to offer the US basically whatever it wanted to avoid military action. He allegedly said he was willing to give up a majority stake in the country's state-owned oil company, open up all future oil and gold projects to the US companies, and cut ties with China. The one thing that Maduro was not willing to offer, however, was to step down from office. America was more than welcome to plunder Venezuela's riches as long as Maduro got to oversee it. Washington turned him down. It went on striking boats and then moved even more forces to the region. On November 11th, the Gerald R. Ford, the
world's largest aircraft carrier, arrives off the coast of Venezuela having sailed all the way from Europe. It brings with it a carrier strike group. A bunch of accompanying warships designed to protect it from attacks. These are two missile destroyers, the USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan, along with the missile defense command ship USS Winston S. Churchill. Three additional warships are also moved to the south around this time. Missile cruisers USS Gettysburg and USS Lake Erie, along with the littoral combat ship USS Wichita. The cruisers, which are similar in design to the destroyers, are armed with cruise missiles and can be used for striking both ships at sea and targets on land.
The littoral combat ship is much smaller and more lightly armed and is designed to carry out attack missions closer to shore. With the arrival of these vessels, around a third of all US naval power is now concentrated in the Caribbean along with about 15,000 personnel. That's dwarfed by Venezuela, which has 123,000 men at its disposal. But decades of mismanagement has left this army short of kit and training. On December the 10th, the US ramps up the pressure on Venezuela once again and begins seizing oil tankers, cutting off the lifeblood of the Venezuelan economy. The first tanker raid occurs here, in the waters between Grenada and Trinidad. In broad daylight, a pair of navy Seahawk helicopters descend onto the tanker
named Skipper before marines fast rope onto the deck and begin searching it. The vessel is loaded with oil belonging to Venezuela's state oil firm and is thought to be heading for Cuba. Trump says the US ship is violating US sanctions and that he will be keeping the oil. This begins a campaign of tanker seizures that will eventually spread way beyond the Caribbean Sea and continue even after Maduro is captured. The second raid occurs just off the coast of Venezuela on December the 20th, but later raids will happen as far afield as Scotland and the Indian Ocean.
The noose is tightening, and yet Maduro either fails to notice or pretends not to. Throughout December, he appears repeatedly on public television in front of cheering sycophants. In one video, he dances along to electronic music while chanting "No crazy war." It is amid this atmosphere that the Trump White House delivers a final ultimatum. "Leave office voluntarily or we will remove you by force." Rumor has it that Maduro is offered safe passage to a neutral country such as Turkey or Qatar with a promise that the US will not seek his extradition. In return, sanctions will be lifted on Venezuelan oil companies, allowing Maduro and the United States to profit from the country's huge reserves once more. But Maduro turns the offer down.
That, combined with the dancing videos, is enough to persuade Trump and his team that the dictator cannot be reasoned with. They are going to have to force him from power. And in mid-December, planning for that mission begins in earnest. It is thought that Maduro had spent the last few months hopping around various safe houses throughout Venezuela, but around this time settled at Fort Tiuna in the capital. This allows special forces to start preparing for the raid using all the intel that this CIA team has gathered. Thanks to their source within Maduro's household, they've been able to supply these Delta Force operators with a full floor plan of Maduro's bunkers at Tiuna.
So, one of the first things that happens is that these troops decamp back to the US where they construct a full life-size replica of the bunker and begin rehearsing their attack. Speed will be absolutely essential to their survival. The longer they spend on the ground, known as time on target, the longer Venezuela's military has to react. Take too long and thousands of Venezuelan troops will descend on the compound while air defense batteries around the capital will activate and cut off their escape. Meanwhile, the US begins positioning all the assets it will need to carry out the attack. Additional units, most likely Chinook helicopters, are sent to Trinidad and Tobago, which is allowed the use of its
airbases for staging the raid. Chinooks and Black Hawk helicopters are also seen at airbases in Nicaragua over here. B-1 supersonic bombers begin flying past the Venezuelan coast, likely probing the reactions of Maduro's army, testing how long it takes them to spot the aircraft and what they do once they've spotted them. More strikes are carried out on drug boats, again, likely testing Venezuela's reactions. And on December 24th, the CIA blows up a remote port somewhere along the coast using a drone. This is the first strike on a land target in Venezuela, and at the time, the US played this off as a strike on drug smugglers. That may be true, but it was also likely a test of Venezuela's
reaction. How does the military respond to an attack like this? We can only assume the response encouraged the Americans to push forward with their plan. By Christmas Day, everything is in place. The special forces operators are back in the Caribbean and awaiting their go signal. The timing is not coincidental. They have deliberately chosen the festive season because they know that many Venezuelan troops, and especially the higher-ranked officers, will be on leave. But they're forced to wait. Bad weather, in particular low-lying cloud, makes
launching the mission too risky. The wait finally comes to an end on January the 2nd. With conditions looking like they'll improve, surveillance drones are sent into the air at around 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. They spend several hours circling over Caracas, unseen at high altitude, before the final go issue is ordered at 10:46 p.m. Trump's message to his troops simply says, "Good luck and Godspeed." Final preparations now begin. Aircraft are loaded with missiles and fuel. Troops kit up with rifles and explosive charges and board their helicopters.
One by one, at precise intervals over the next several hours, aircraft take off from no fewer than 20 bases and ships on the mainland US and around the Caribbean. B-1 bombers, F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters and bombers, FA-18 attack jets, EA-18 Growler anti-air jets, E-2 Hawkeye spy planes, Chinooks, and Black Hawks. In total, 150 aircraft are now in the skies, part of a meticulously choreographed ballet that will see them all converge on Caracas at precisely the same moment. All of which brings us back to the Venezuelan capital a little before 2:00 a.m. local time.
This is Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Though it has ocean to its north and east, it is actually nestled in a valley separated from the water by mountains to the north and south. Fort Tiuna is here, on the south side of the city at one of its highest points. This is where Maduro is currently holed up alongside his wife, Cilia Flores. The pair are thought to be living in underground bunkers concealed beneath industrial buildings and warehouses at the fort's southern edge. Alongside them are believed to be several dozen highly trained bodyguards, including 32 Cubans sent by Havana to help keep their ally safe. Also stationed inside the fort is the Ayala Battalion, made up of around a thousand
soldiers. This rapid reaction force fields armored personnel carriers like the Dragoon 300, an American design that Venezuela bought back in the 1980s. These are the units that American forces will have to contend with in order to get Maduro, but their biggest and most immediate concern are Caracas' air defenses, which they will have to neutralize if they are to have any hope of even making it to the ground. Venezuela possesses one of the most complex and layered air defense networks in Latin America, largely resting on Russian weapons backed by Chinese radar. While Venezuela operates long-range S-300 batteries elsewhere in the
country, Caracas is mostly protected by medium-range BUK systems. These are concentrated in airbases such as Higuerote on the coast, Fort Gaicaipuro off to the south, La Carlota airbase inside Caracas, Catia La Mar, and La Guaira Port in the north, capable of targeting up to 24 aircraft simultaneously and of hitting targets up to 80,000 feet. These are formidable weapons in the right set of hands. At Fort Tiuna itself are very likely additional troops armed with Russian Igla man-portable air defense systems, otherwise known as MANPADS. These over-the-shoulder weapons have a much shorter range than the BUK systems, but are more than capable of taking out low-flying helicopters like the ones the US plans to use for this raid.
Another site worth mentioning is here, the El Volcan communications array, a radar base situated on high ground near Fort Tiuna. This is thought to house the JY-27A radar, which Beijing claims can detect even stealth aircraft at a range of up to 150 miles, more than enough to cover the city and beyond. Flying into this web of danger right now are 150 US aircraft whose job it is to take it down before it can be activated. At the tip of the spear are Air Force F-35 fighter-bombers backed up by F-22 Raptors. These are stealth aircraft supposedly invisible to enemy radar whose role it is to disable air defenses without ever being spotted. The F-35s drop the bombs, the F-22s protect the F-35s from enemy fighters.
Alongside them are Navy EA-18 Growlers and FA-18 Super Hornets. They're not as stealthy, but they play a similar role. The Growlers are specialists in taking down air defenses while the Super Hornets protect them from enemy aircraft. Also in the air are B-1 supersonic bombers which are capable of carrying up to 75,000 lbs of bombs each, the heaviest payload of any US aircraft. They're all being supported by the high-flying drones we talked about earlier like the RQ-170 and E-2 Hawkeyes, basically flying radar dishes.
Impressive as all that is, these aircrafts are not the star of the show. They are following up behind. A dozen or so highly specialized Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters flown by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, these are carrying the roughly 200 special forces operators who will actually carry out the raid. The advantage of using helicopters for a mission like this is they don't need a runway to land and can easily drop troops straight into Maduro's compound. The disadvantage is they're slow compared to jets and make very easy targets. If they went in alone, they'd be lucky to make it to the city limits before being shot down. So they're hanging back waiting for all this firepower to clear
the way for them before they swoop in for the kill. Already, this is enough to get the job done. But, just before the strike package hits the coast, America plays a trump card to tip the scales even further in its favor. First, cyber warriors at the NSA activate a computer virus they've embedded within Venezuela's power grid to shut off the station supplying the capital. Known as a SCADA attack, this kind of weapon was previously deployed against Ukraine by Russia. And this is one of the first times we know of the Americans using it. That's why, just as these aircraft arrive, every light in the city shuts off. But, that's not all.
Simultaneously, yet more cyber weapons are deployed to cut off all communications networks and blind air defense radar. That's why, as these soldiers see the lights go off and radio each other for updates, they hear only silence. And then, when they go to check their radar screens, they're shown only clear skies. When in fact, billions of dollars of US kit is about to come roaring through the inky darkness. The first strikes take place here, at Higuerote, with the air defense unit based here being obliterated without getting a single shot away. Despite knowing that an American attack was imminent, troops have failed to relocate or disguise their vehicles from sites where they were parked in the weeks
beforehand. This makes very easy work for the US pilots, who know precisely where they need to hit and can easily assess whether the target has been destroyed. The attack package then swings in rooms, jets in the lead, helicopters following along behind. In order to deceive Maduro's air defenses even further, the helicopters hug these northern mountains, flying what's known as a nap-of-the-earth approach. This means they're barely a hundred feet off the ground and using the terrain to disguise themselves. Higuerote is too far from Caracas for the explosions to have registered. And with air defense radar still showing nothing, the only
sign that troops in the city have that something is coming is the darkness and the eerie silence on the radios. Then at 2:01 a.m. local time, just as the drumbeat of helicopter propellers becomes audible, all hell breaks loose. Near simultaneous attacks take out the radar arrays at El Volcán, further blinding all air defense radars in the area, and the air defenses at La Carlota Airport. Yet more strikes take place at Fort Guaicaipuro away to the south, ensuring these troops will merely be spectators to what comes next. But by far, the greatest amount of damage is dealt at Fort Tiuna itself. Here, multiple blasts take out the vehicle storage facility where the Ayala battalion keeps its armored vehicles.
If it had access to these, then it could easily overrun the lightly armored special forces who are about to land at the location. But without access to armor, they're fighting man-to-man and stand almost no chance. More strikes take out a power substation on the eastern side of the complex. This is likely disconnected from Venezuela's main grid, which is already deactivated. What this probably does is provide emergency power, ventilation, and air conditioning to Maduro's bunker. The embattled president, who until just a few moments ago was sleeping soundly, is suddenly awoken to the sound of explosions happening right on top of
him. Then, just as he's blinking himself awake, he's plunged into darkness and the temperature begins rising. This is the moment the helicopters have been waiting for. With the air defenses down and heavy cavalry out of action, they swoop in and unleash Delta Force. With practiced speed and armed with explosive charges and blow torches, they quickly move towards the bunker's hidden entrance, knowing exactly where it is. At the same time, the helicopters get back in the air and circle overhead. The troops in this compound are by now well aware that American boots are on the ground and are hunting them. The Black Hawks help keep these troops at bay with mini guns mounted on their side. Once
they arrive at the entrance to Maduro's bunker, the special forces set a large explosive charge. When it detonates, it blows a 9-ft crater through which they move into the compound. Next, blowtorches are used to cut through reinforced doors blocking their route as they advance towards where they know Maduro is hiding. His bodyguards throw themselves in the way and a firefight breaks out. But in the smoky, hot, pitch-black conditions, they stand no chance.
Several dozen are shot to death, including all 32 Cubans in a bloody but brief battle. A handful of US operators are wounded in return, but none are seriously hurt. Within 3 minutes of Delta Force breaching the bunker, they are blowtorching their way into Maduro's bedroom. Seeing this, the dictator and his wife bolt for a safe room where they intend to lock themselves away. But before they can get inside, Delta Force are in their room and blocking the safe door from closing. All those painstaking rehearsals paid off. They knew exactly where Maduro was and where he would try to escape to and got there first. The jig is finally up and even the delusional Maduro must surely know it.
Clad in a gray tracksuit, handcuffs are slapped on the Venezuelan president by US law enforcement who were brought along for this purpose. He's also blindfolded and has ear protectors put on before being led back out the bunker the same way the special forces went in. Outside, the situation is becoming more dangerous by the moment. One of the troops defending the fort grabs what we presume to be an Igla and opens fire with it, hitting one of the helicopters. The pilot is wounded, but luckily the helicopter manages to stay airborne. Even though they've only been on the ground a matter of minutes, Delta Force are already outstaying their welcome.
They need to get out of here as fast as possible. The remaining helicopters swoop down and begin their extraction. Maduro has a life preserver thrown around his neck and is bundled aboard. Seconds later, they're back in the sky and heading back towards open ocean. But they're not going back the way they came. This would be incredibly dangerous because while they've destroyed some air defenses on their way in, they haven't hit all of them. To maintain surprise, they've attacked only the minimum viable number of targets to clear a corridor for the
helicopters to pass through. But having passed through that corridor, there's every chance that additional air defense units, put on alert by the first explosions, have moved in and closed it. So, rather than turning east along the mountains, they head between them through this narrow valley northwards towards the coast. That necessitates two further strikes from the accompanying aircraft. One against the BUK system at Catia La Mar and another at La Guaira Port just here. With those destroyed, there's nothing between the helicopters and open ocean. By 3:29 a.m. local time, they're back out over open water. Maduro is photographed, blindfold, ear defenders, life preserver all still in place on his
way to the Iwo Jima. From there, he will be taken back to New York where he and his wife will be hauled in front of a court and charged with drug smuggling, supporting terrorists, and weapons offenses. In the space of just two and a half hours, the US has pulled off one of the most daring and successful special forces raids in history. They have managed to descend on one of the most heavily defended cities in Latin America and make off with the country's president. In the process, they have deployed a dizzying array of capabilities and equipment that left their opponents virtually powerless. In their wake, they leave 75 dead. Two civilians were sadly killed in strikes on Kaitalamar and El Vocan. And
in return, they have taken just six casualties. None of them serious. So, why was this operation so successful? There's a lot here that we could talk about. How a clear objective breeds success. The vital role of intelligence in operations. How failing to learn both those lessons led Trump to disaster in Iran. But what I actually want to focus on is how an unseen, yet incredibly potent set of tools made success here far less costly than it might otherwise have been. Cyber weapons. It was attacks in cyberspace that began the raid, turning off the lights in Caracas, disabling the communications between troops, and blinding its air defenses.
No doubt some will argue that air power could have done all those things on its own. The F-35s and F-22s were designed to be invisible to radar even when it's working. Meaning they could have attacked and destroyed it without being seen. The EA-18s are also specialists in suppressing air defenses, disabling and destroying radar to clear a path for other jets to pass through. With no defenses to shoot these jets down, they could then have taken out communications arrays and power stations. At least, that's in theory. Could they really have done it in practice without taking a single shot in return? We will never know the answer to that question.
What we do know is that America's cyber weapons did manage to do it bloodlessly. That is hugely significant all by itself. What's even more significant, however, is that it signals a new and more aggressive age of US cyber attacks in warfare. We have known for years that America has a very advanced suite of cyber weapons at its disposal, ever since it unleashed Stuxnet on Iran's nuclear centrifuges back in the mid-2010s. But, Pentagon policy has always been more defensive than offensive. It has preferred to keep those weapons on the shelf for fear that using them against America's enemies would make America's enemies more likely to use them back. It meant that others, primarily Russia, took the lead in the
cyber domain. It was the first known nation to carry out a SCADA attack, like the ones that turned off the lights in Caracas, except against Ukraine. That attack in 2015 turned off the lights for a quarter of a million people for up to 6 hours. It was then repeated several times, including in June 2022, as part of the full-scale invasion. But, it failed to achieve any significant strategic effect. Now, it seems America is employing those same weapons against his adversaries, only doing it with greater effectiveness. And that effectiveness has changed how the US views its cyber arsenal. Not long after the Maduro raid, the White House published a new cyber strategy. Unlike the defensive doctrines of the past, it
promised a far more aggressive stance. Using American capabilities not just to defend itself in cyberspace, but to actively punish its adversaries and impose costs on them by deploying the weapons in its arsenal. The Maduro operation is actually referenced in the cyber strategy as the kind of operation that America's enemies can expect more of in the future. And its use in Venezuela clearly inspired the operation in Iran, too, which is also referenced in the same strategy. This opens the way to an entirely new and largely unused suite of weapons being deployed routinely as part of US operations, and that could fundamentally change the way both America and its adversaries fight.
This operation could well become the blueprint for a radically evolved form of warfare with far-reaching consequences. Thanks for watching. If you like this kind of content and want to see more in your feed, don't forget to hit like and subscribe, or click the buttons on screen to watch other episodes.
