New details obtained by the American channel CNN reveal that Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were surprised and forcibly removed from their rooms by elite American troops. According to sources familiar with the matter, the couple was sleeping when Delta Force, the US military’s most prestigious counterterrorism unit, invaded their dormitory in the early hours of Saturday. The tactical raid was described as an unqualified success by Washington officials, with no U.S. military casualties reported.
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According to CNN, the Trump administration began preparing for this attack and Maduro’s capture in mid-December. The original plan called for the execution to take place sooner, but external factors forced its postponement. Among the reasons given by government officials are adverse weather conditions and Donald Trump’s strategic decision to prioritize an attack on Nigeria on Christmas Day.
The American president also declared this Saturday (3) that he had witnessed “live” the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, a military operation that was “like a television show”.
“I literally saw it like I was watching a TV show. We saw it in a room and followed every aspect of it,” Trump said in an interview with Fox. The operation was “very well organized” and no American lost their life, added the Republican president.
The central objective of the White House, as determined by CNN with official sources, has always been the removal of Maduro to establish a transitional government composed of Venezuelan leaders, with a view to calling new elections. Although the Trump administration has been quietly developing plans for the “morning after” for weeks, Washington has not yet publicly commented on the formation of this new leadership structure after the fall of the regime.
Behind the scenes, the American channel emphasizes that the first drafts of this plan aimed to support the leader of the opposition, Edmundo González, as a key player to fill the power vacuum. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio remained confidential last month when asked about what guarantees of stability the United States would offer Venezuela in the event of impeachment.
Videos circulating on social media show US special operations forces helicopters flying over Caracas in the early hours of Saturday, as multiple explosions light up the sky over the Venezuelan capital. According to unconfirmed reports, these were CH-47G Chinook helicopters, designed for covert operations.
At least seven explosions and noises similar to aircraft flying overhead were reported in the early hours of Saturday, around 2 a.m., in Caracas. According to local sources, one of the targets was the La Carlota military base and Fort Tiuna of the Venezuelan Air Force.
According to a team from the American network CNN, certain areas of the Venezuelan capital were left without electricity. “One of them (explosions) was so strong that my window shook,” wrote Osmary Hernández, CNN correspondent in Caracas.
The explosions come after U.S. President Donald Trump sent a fleet of warships to the Caribbean, raised the possibility of attacks on Venezuelan territory and declared that President Nicolas Maduro’s days in power were numbered.
Unverified images shared on social media show large fires with columns of smoke, but without evidence to identify the exact location of the explosions, which appear to be occurring in the south and east of the city. However, it is still not possible to verify its authenticity.
Last Monday, Trump said the United States had destroyed a docking area used by ships accused of drug trafficking in Venezuela, in what would be the first U.S. ground attack on Venezuelan soil. Maduro, in turn, expressed his confidence in an interview broadcast last Thursday.
— The national defense system has guaranteed and continues to guarantee territorial integrity, peace in the country and the use and enjoyment of all our territories, — said the Venezuelan leader.
Since September, the US military has carried out more than 30 attacks on suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, killing at least 115 people. At the same time, Washington has mobilized the largest military deployment in the Caribbean Sea since the 1962 missile crisis, with the world’s largest aircraft carrier, more than 15,000 troops and several warships.
Trump accuses Maduro of running a vast drug trafficking network, an accusation that Caracas denies, saying Washington wants to overthrow him to seize the country’s oil reserves, the largest in the world.
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