The assault that captured the president of Venezuela was the result of months of intense rehearsal to ensure that hundreds of aircraft and thousands of troops could carry out myriad interlocking tasks to the second, the Joint Chiefs chairman said Saturday.
“The word ‘integration’ does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission,” Gen. Dan Caine said at a press conference held at President Trump’s Florida compound. “An extraction so precise it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas while maintaining the element of tactical surprise. Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission.”
“We think, we develop, we train, we rehearse, we debrief, we rehearse again and again, not to get it right, but to ensure that we cannot get it wrong,” Caine said.
For months, the general said, U.S. intelligence teams had been watching Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cecilia Maduro. The teams sought “to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.”
In the meantime, Caine said, leaders and troops in all branches of the military, plus officials with intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, developed plans and began to rehearse the operation.
In early December, he said, “our force was set pending a series of aligned events,” including finding “the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise, and minimize the harm to the indicted personnel [the Maduros] so, as the president said, they could be brought to justice.”
ABC News has reported that Christmas Day had been considered for the Venezuelan operation, which was pushed back while the U.S. military bombed targets in Nigeria in actions against “ISIS terrorist scum,” as Trump put it last week.
Caine said weather in particular was a factor in the timing of the Venezuelan operation, dubbed Absolute Resolve.
“Last night the weather broke just enough, clearing a path that only the most skilled aviators in the world can maneuver through—ocean, mountain, low cloud, ceilings, but when tasked with a mission, this organization does not quit,” he said in apparent reference to the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne).
At 10:46 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 2, Trump gave the order to proceed, Caine said.
More than 150 aircraft and drones began launching from about 20 bases and warships “across the Western Hemisphere,” he said, including F-22, F-35, and F/A-18 fighters; EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft; B-1 bombers; reconnaissance planes; and more. Aerial tankers likely took part as well.
“Our youngest crew member was 20 and our oldest crew member was 49,” he said.
Helicopters carrying an “extraction force” of U.S. troops and Justice Department personnel took off and flew at 100 feet above the water toward the Venezuelan shore, he said.
The force also included members of Delta Force, elite special operators often assigned to hostage-rescue missions, Task and Purpose reported.
As this team approached Venezuelan airspace, Caine said, “the United States began layering different effects provided by SpaceCom, CyberCom, and other members of the interagency to create a pathway.”
This included airstrikes on military facilities, he said: “dismantling and disabling the air defense systems in Venezuela, employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area.”
U.S. forces plunged Venezuela’s capital city into darkness, Trump said at the press conference.
“The lights of Caracas were largely turned off, due to a certain expertise that we have,” he said.
Caine said that tactical aircraft overhead covered the extraction force as mission commanders monitored their approach.
“As the force crossed the last point of high terrain, where they’d been hiding in the [radar] clutter, we assessed that we had maintained totally the element of surprise.”
The helicopters touched down at Maduro’s palace at 2:01 a.m. local time (1:01 a.m. Eastern) on Jan. 3, and soon came under fire, to which the U.S. team responded with “overwhelming force in self-defense,” he said. “One of our aircraft was hit, but remained flyable.”
Meanwhile, he said, “The apprehension force descended into Maduro’s compound and moved with speed, precision, and discipline towards their objective, and isolated the area to ensure the safety and security of the ground force while apprehending the indicted persons.”
Caine continued, “As the operation unfolded at the compound, our air and ground intelligence teams provided real-time updates to the ground force, ensuring those forces could safely navigate the complex environment without unnecessary risk. The force remained protected by overhead tactical aviation. Maduro and his wife, both indicted, gave up, and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by our incredible U.S. military with professionalism and precision, with no loss of U.S. life.
Finally, the general said, “After securing the indicted persons, the force began to prep for departure. Helicopters were called in to exfiltrate the extraction force, while fighter aircraft and remotely piloted aircraft provided overhead coverage and suppressive fire. There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela. The force successfully exfiltrated and returned to their afloat launch bases, and the force was over the water at 3.29 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, with indicted persons on board. And both Maduro and his wife were embarked aboard the USS Iwo Jima.”
No U.S. troops were killed, nor any U.S. aircraft lost, Caine said.
“While the past two decades have honed the skills of our special operations forces, this particular mission required every component of our joint force, with soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and guardians, working in unison with our intelligence agency partners and law enforcement teammates in an unprecedented operation,” he said. “We leveraged our unmatched intelligence capabilities and our years of experience in hunting terrorists. And we could not have done this mission without the incredible work by various intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA and NGA.”
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