Overview
- Press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared an interview on X with an unnamed Venezuelan guard who alleges U.S. forces used a powerful sound‑like weapon during the January 3 operation.
- The guard claims radar systems failed, drones flooded the area, and roughly eight helicopters inserted about 20 U.S. troops before an “intense sound wave” left defenders bleeding from the nose, vomiting blood, and unable to stand.
- The witness asserts the small U.S. team suffered no casualties and killed “hundreds,” while Venezuela’s Interior Ministry reports about 100 security personnel died in the operation overall.
- U.S. authorities have offered no operational confirmation of the alleged weapon; a former U.S. intelligence source told media such symptoms could be consistent with directed‑energy systems, but independent evidence is lacking.
- Officials have described months of CIA‑supported intelligence, rehearsals on a replica of Maduro’s compound, and strikes that disabled air defenses before Maduro and Cilia Flores were transferred to New York, where both pleaded not guilty.