Sure, it’s Delta Force, and they don’t screw around, but you cannot fly blind into a situation, right? That’s obvious. So, even though our special forces were facing the equivalent of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Caracas, Venezuela, they needed on-the-ground intelligence, and they got it. CIA was able to obtain an asset who gave minute details about Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s movements.
🚨 NYT: 150+ U.S. Military aircraft were deployed from 20 different locations during last night's raid to capture Nicolas Maduro.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) January 4, 2026
The U.S. used cyberattacks to turn off the power to Caracas, allowing the U.S. to arrive in total darkness. pic.twitter.com/dwB2rFMT7h
They knew exactly where he was when the airstrikes began on January 3. Langley also had a team on the ground since August. Delta Force built a replica of the safehouse and practiced before the mission. They carried out Maduro like a dog (via Reuters):
POTUS on FOX right now:
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) January 3, 2026
- says he planned to do the strike four days ago but waited for the weather to be perfect
- "all of a sudden it opened up and we said go"
- says Maduro was in a "highly guarded" fortress
- says a couple of our guys were "hit" but he thinks nobody was…
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were dragged from their bedroom by US forces during the raid that led to their capture, two sources familiar with the matter said. via @Kevinliptakcnn @StePozzebon
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 3, 2026
The couple was captured in the middle of the night as they were sleeping, the…
Elite U.S. troops, including the Army's Delta Force, created an exact replica of Maduro's safe house and practiced how they would enter the strongly fortified residence.
The CIA had a small team on the ground starting in August who were able to provide insight into Maduro's pattern of life that made grabbing him seamless, according to one source familiar with the matter.
Two other sources told Reuters the intelligence agency also had an asset close to Maduro who would monitor his movements and was poised to pinpoint his exact location as the operation unfolded.
With the pieces in place, Trump approved the operation four days ago, but military and intelligence planners suggested he wait for better weather and less cloud cover. At 10:46 p.m. EST on Friday, Trump gave the final go ahead for what would be known as Operation Absolute Resolve, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine told reporters.
Trump, surrounded by his advisers at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, watched a live stream of the events.
How the hours-long operation unfolded is based on interviews with four sources familiar with the matter and details Trump himself has revealed.
"I've done some pretty good ones, but I've never seen anything like this," Trump said on Fox News just hours after the mission was completed.
Minus an extended air campaign, this was pretty much like how 1997’s Air Force One opened: a special forces team raiding the presidential palace and nabbing a dictator.
The Washington Post has more:
Late Friday night, the cloud cover lifted, and President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead.
Under cover of darkness, highly trained Delta Force troops arrived by helicopter and descended into the compound where Maduro, clad in a gray sweatsuit, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were sleeping. They scrambled out of bed to get to a safe room behind steel doors, as Trump watched a live feed from his Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
The commandos, armed with blow torches to cut through steel barriers, “bum-rushed” the couple, Trump said, adding that they did not put up much of a fight.
[…]
This account of Maduro’s capture is drawn from interviews with senior administration officials and other people familiar with the operation, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details about the secretive operation, as well as public remarks Saturday by Trump and his top aides.
[…]
Before the commandos launched, there was “months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets,” Caine said.
The CIA had a source within the Venezuelan government who provided information on Maduro’s movement and locations, a person familiar with the matter said. And in August, the spy agency inserted a small team of its own personnel into Venezuela to monitor Maduro’s routines, this person said, feeding information to U.S. military special operators.
By 3:29 a.m. Eastern, two and a half hours after the raid on the compound began, the helicopter carrying Maduro and Flores was back over the water taking the couple to the Iwo Jima.
The raid was the culmination of months of preparation and rehearsal, Trump said.
U.S. forces trained on a mock-up of Maduro’s compound, similar to preparations 15 years ago leading up to the raid that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. “They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the safes and all the steel all over the place,” Trump told “Fox & Friends.”
Nice work, fellas. Real Americans are very, very proud of you.
As Joe noted earlier this morning, the reactions have been magnificent:
A source familiar tells me that the CIA produced the intelligence that enabled Delta Force's capture of Maduro.
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) January 3, 2026
The source tells me that the CIA had a small team clandestinely on the ground beginning in August that was able to provide “extraordinary insight” into Maduro’s…
— Mostly Peaceful Memes (@MostlyPeaceful) January 3, 2026
— ☘️𝕃𝕦𝕔𝕜𝕪 Ƒʉͫcͧкͭιͪηͣ 𝕄𝕔𝔾𝕖𝕖 (@LuckyMcGee) January 3, 2026
La casa de Maduro a las 2 de la mañana pic.twitter.com/SR9pvtQk9c
— Los twitts del profe🇦🇷✈️🇺🇲 (@memesdelprofe) January 3, 2026
This one from the White House:
If you don’t know, now you know 🦅 pic.twitter.com/XrIps1OzY4
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 3, 2026
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