US Military's Daring Operation to Capture Nicolás Maduro

Tue Jan 06 2026 03:39:17 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

In an unprecedented military intervention, US forces executed Operation Absolute Resolve to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This article details the meticulous planning, execution, and international implications of the operation.

In the early hours of January 3, 2026, US military forces launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a critical mission aimed at capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. After months of surveillance and preparation, including the construction of a replica of Maduro's safe house, the mission involved approximately 150 aircraft and elite military units. The operation raised significant international concerns, particularly regarding the legality and consequences of such a military action in Latin America.

For months, US spies had been monitoring Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's every move.

A small team, including one source within the Venezuelan government, had been observing where the 63-year-old slept, what he ate, what he wore and even, according to top military officials, his pets.

Then, in early December, a planned mission dubbed Operation Absolute Resolve was finalised. It was the result of months of meticulous planning and rehearsals, which even included elite US troops creating an exact full-size replica of Maduro's Caracas safe house to practise their entry routes.

The plan - which amounted to an extraordinary US military intervention in Latin America not seen since the Cold War - was closely guarded. Congress was not informed or consulted ahead of time. With the precise details set, top military officials simply had to wait for the optimal conditions to launch.

They wanted to maximise the element of surprise, officials said on Saturday. There was a false start four days earlier when US President Donald Trump gave approval, but they opted to wait for better weather and less cloud cover.

Over the weeks through Christmas and New Year, the men and women of the United States military sat ready, patiently waiting for the right triggers to be met and the president to order us into action, General Dan Caine, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, told a news conference on Saturday morning.

The order from the president to begin the mission finally came at 22:46 EST on Friday (03:46 GMT on Saturday).

We were going to do this four days ago, three days ago, two days ago, and then all of a sudden it opened up. And we said: go, Trump himself told Fox & Friends on Saturday, hours after the overnight raid.

What followed was a two-hour-and-twenty-minute mission by air, land and sea that stunned many in Washington and around the world.

In terms of scale and precision, it was virtually unprecedented. And it drew immediate condemnation from several regional powers, with Brazil's President Lula da Silva saying the violent capture of Venezuela's leader set yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.

Trump did not follow the mission from the White House situation room. Instead, he was surrounded by his advisers at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he watched a live stream of the operation flanked by CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.