Overview
- President Donald Trump suggested U.S. technical capabilities helped darken parts of Caracas during the operation that captured Nicolás Maduro, without specifying cyber or physical means.
- Gen. Dan Caine said U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Space Command, and combatant commands “began layering different effects” to clear a path for incoming forces, offering no details on the tools used.
- Internet tracking groups reported concurrent connectivity disruptions in Caracas, and Venezuela’s electric energy ministry attributed some outages to U.S. attacks.
- U.S. officials have not confirmed the cause of the blackout, leaving open whether the disruptions stemmed from cyber actions, physical strikes on infrastructure, or a combination.
- Analysts note that any confirmed U.S. cyber role would be among the most visible in a real-world operation, renewing scrutiny of Venezuela’s fragile grid and recalling PDVSA’s earlier claims of cyber disruptions.