‘Greatest Americans’: Nearly 200 US troops involved in operation to capture Maduro, bomb Caracas

Nearly 200 US military personnel were involved in the US operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Monday (Jan 5). This comes after American forces on Saturday (Jan 3) seized the Venezuelan leader in what it described as its war against drug cartels and drug lords. In an operation titled Operation Absolute Resolve, the American forces entered Venezuela, bombed Caracas and captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their presidential palace under the orders of US President Donald Trump.

Washington has accused Maduro of running a drug cartel and had placed a bounty of $50 million on him. Maduro was flown to USS Iwo Jima, then to Guantánamo Bay, and finally by government plane to Stewart Air National Guard Base in NY. He is held at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center and is facing charges of narco-terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracies. He made his first appearance in Manhattan federal court on Jan 5, where he pleaded not guilty.

“Nearly 200 of our greatest Americans went downtown in Caracas… and grabbed an indicted individual wanted by American justice, in support of law enforcement, without a single American killed,” Hegseth said in a speech to US sailors and shipbuilders in Virginia. The American operation involved more than 150 military aircraft in various roles, including striking Venezuelan defenses.

A day after the US operation, Trump claimed that “a lot of Cubans were killed”, while no US casualty was reported died in the operation. Havana authorities said that 32 Cubans were killed, while the Colombian President said that one person from his country was also killed.

Earlier, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine revealed that the attack on Venezuelan capital Caracas and the capture of leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife was not an instantaneous plan by Trump and the US state machinery. US spies had been monitoring Maduro’s every move for months. A small team, including one source within the Venezuelan government kept a track of the 63-year-old’s movements like when he slept, what he wore and what he ate. His pets were also tracked by the intelligence staff.

US troops also created a full-size replica of Maduro’s Caracas safe house to practise their entry routes. And after keeping a track for months, the mission called “Operation Absolute Resolve” was finalised in early December last year. While the operation was approved by Trump four days earlier when it was executed, the US military delayed it due to weather conditions.