Overview
- President Trump authorized the Jan. 2–3 night mission, which opened with strikes on radars and air defenses and a power disruption in Caracas to clear an air corridor for helicopters.
- Delta Force breached Maduro’s compound at Fuerte Tiuna within minutes, with one helicopter hit by fire but remaining airborne, and extracted him and Cilia Flores under fighter cover.
- The pair were flown to the USS Iwo Jima by 4:29 a.m. local time, then transferred via Guantánamo to New York, where they are in U.S. custody on longstanding federal charges.
- U.S. officials report no American fatalities and about six injuries, while Venezuelan authorities now claim at least 40 deaths rising to roughly 80 and say much of Maduro’s security team was killed.
- Reporting details months of CIA groundwork, including a human source close to Maduro, stealth drone surveillance, and rehearsals on a full-scale replica of the compound, with weather delays shaping the final timing.