Overview
- Reporting attributes Maduro’s precise location to an insider cultivated within the Venezuelan government, described by some accounts as close to his inner circle.
- A fleet of stealth drones provided near-continuous surveillance over Venezuela, with a late-December armed-drone strike cited as a precedent for the operation.
- CIA teams operated covertly in Venezuela from August 2025, with formal approvals in November as a $50 million U.S. reward reportedly helped secure insider cooperation.
- Delta Force executed the capture in Caracas after months of interagency planning, and Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were flown to the United States to face federal charges.
- Officials characterize the mission as a law-enforcement-style special-operations action supported by CIA intelligence, and the disclosures have prompted questions about sovereignty and international law.