Name: Why NOTHING About Maduro's Kidnapping Makes Sense
Uploaded: 2026-01-25T17:37:20.000Z
Duration: 45 min 59 s
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In the very early morning hours over the night of the 3rd of January, an absolutely Earth shattering development took place in Venezuela that captured headlines around the world.

The US Military began bombarding targets across the country while US Special forces launched a rapid late night raid into the country, seized their sitting president, Nicolas Maduro, along with his wife, Celia Flores, and

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then just loaded them both up onto a helicopter and flew them out of the country on a journey that eventually ended with them both in New York City just a few hours later facing criminal charges in American courts.

One country effectively kidnapping the sitting head of state of another country like this in an explosive military raid is utterly unprecedented.

And there are a million different questions around the operation floating around right now.

Why did Trump order the mission in the first place?

Why did the operation go so well for the Americans and so disastrously for Maduro?

Is the US Military involvement in Venezuela going to escalate further?

And what does it all mean for America, Venezuela and the rest of the world beyond?

I'm going to do my best to answer as many questions around this operation here as possible.

So let's start with how the actual raid itself went and why it was so absurdly successful from a tactical perspective for the Americans.

Many months worth of planning, preparation and escalation took place before the raid was launched.

Beginning In August of 2025, the US military began conducting an overt naval buildup in the Caribbean Sea that steadily developed into the largest concentration of U.S.

military assets anywhere in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

Eventually, the Navy and Marines concentrated in the area with an amphibious ready group centered around the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault ship, and

a carrier strike group centered around the USS Gerald R.

Ford, an ultra modern nuclear powered aircraft carrier, along with all of their accompanying escort vessels totaling around 11,000 sailors and marines and nearly 100 aircraft.

While additional aircraft like advanced F35 fighter jets and B1 bombers were increasingly forward deployed air bases in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands nearby.

Initially, the Trump administration publicly claimed that this entire military buildup was intended solely to counter drugs and narcotics trafficking into the US and beginning in September, they began an airstrike campaign against boats in international waters that they claimed were smuggling drugs.

Between then and the start of the raid around four months later, at least 35 known strikes on various boats and other targets in this campaign were carried out that killed at least 115 confirmed people.

Then in December, the pressure continued escalating when Trump declared that the flotilla would begin enforcing a blockade on Venezuela's oil exports.

They were being ferried by blacklisted tankers, which resulted in the Americans boarding and seizing one of these blacklisted oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela on 10 December.

At around the same time, the Trump administration labeled Maduro as the head of a foreign terrorist organization.

And in late December, the CIA conducted a drone strike on a remote port facility on the Venezuelan coast itself that they allege was being used by the Trender Agua cartel to store drums at before moving them onto boats for shipping.

Although nobody was present at the facility at the time of the drone strike and no casualties were reported, it notably marked the first known time that the US military directly attacked Venezuelan territory itself.

And it was a clear message to Maduro of what might be in store for him soon as well.

And all the while, the Trump administration was pursuing their real objective of removing Maduro from power in Venezuela with a Plan A and a Plan B.

Plan A, they hoped, was that their increasing pressure on Venezuela through the military buildup, the strikes on boats and ports, and

the blockade would all convince Maduro that his personal situation was hopeless and compel him to step down from office and surrender voluntarily.

And all the while, in case he didn't, Plan B was always to launch the Special Forces raid to seize him through force.

Behind the overt military deployments and escalation that was going on in the Caribbean, the US was also simultaneously pursuing a deep covert operation behind the scenes as well, in order to make the option for a raid as highly likely to succeed as possible.

In August, at around the same time as the naval buildup began, the CIA managed to quietly insert a small team within Venezuela that was able to gain extraordinary access to Maduro himself.

One source, speaking anonymously to CNN after the raid, reported that the CIA had managed to secure the cooperation of at least one one significant individual within the Venezuelan government itself, who aided with tracking Maduro's location and movements.

Through months of methodical studying, the CIA was able to acquire accurate intelligence on Maduro's travel patterns, where and how he moved around, where he slept, what he ate, what he wore, and

All of this enabled the CIA to pinpoint the exact location that Maduro would be at on the ultimate night of the raid.

The Fortietuna military base just to the south of central Caracas, Venezuela's capital.

A sprawling military complex and fortress built into the side of the mountains for defense.

The CIA's intelligence gathering operation was so insidious and successful that they even managed to acquire detailed knowledge about the internal structure of Maduro's own safe house, where he stayed at within Fort Tiuna.

This enabled the US Army's Delta Force, the branch of the Special Forces that would ultimately be tasked with carrying the raid out, to reconstruct a perfect one to one replica of Maduro's safehouse so that they were able to practice and practice and practice storming repeatedly until they had the whole operation down to precise memory.

In a similar manner to how the Navy SEALs were able to build an exact replica of Osama bin Laden's safe house that was also based on CIA intelligence in the lead up to the raid that killed him back in 2011.

By late December, after Christmas, the Trump administration apparently concluded that after months of trying to build pressure on Maduro, Plan A wasn't working and he wasn't going anywhere without force.

On 29 December, Trump himself reportedly gave the green light to Plan B instead, and

the preparations for the raid rapidly began being set into motion.

But for days, the launch of the raid would be consistently delayed due to unfavorable cloudy weather conditions in the area around Caracas that would make the jobs of the helicopter pilots flying into the Delta Force extraction team exceptionally challenging.

Finally, on the night of the 2nd of January, the weather broke just enough to clear a possible path for the helicopters to take.

And so at 10:46pm Eastern Standard Time that night, Trump gave the order to launch.

And so the pieces immediately began being set into motion for what would become codenamed Operation Absolute Resolve.

Trump himself would watch the following events unfold live from his personal residence at Mar A Lago, Florida, rather than in the White House's Situation Room, along with a handful of key aides like the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, extremely specialized Chinook stealth helicopters, with the Delta Force extraction team on board, took off from the USS Iwo Jima and flew low only about 100ft above the surface of the sea in order to avoid detection on Venezuelan radar systems skimming their way toward Caracas.

The helicopters themselves belonged to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, alternatively known as the Night stalkers.

Simultaneously, the US committed around 150 additional aircraft, including F18, F22 and F35 fighters, B1 bombers and Reaper drones to provide support and cover for the extraction team.

These aircraft departed from around 20 different American bases at different times, from across the US mainland and Puerto Rico, and

then converged together near Caracas just as the helicopters were approaching the coast.

In order to clear the path for the helicopters towards the Fortuna complex where they knew Maduro was located.

The jets and drones conducted an overwhelming aerial bombardment against key air defense systems and other military targets across Caracas, as well as at this port, which was Caracas key conduit to the sea and this airport nearby and to the east.

As the strikes began pounding their targets, American cyber warfare specialists were also capable of shutting off large sections of Caracas power grid as well, using undisclosed capabilities, plunging much of the city into darkness and adding to the COVID for the helicopters.

With most of Venezuela's relevant air defense systems around Caracas apparently knocked offline by the airstrikes, the helicopters crossed over into Venezuelan airspace and hugged the mountainous terrain around Caracas to further conceal their path before they ultimately arrived at the Fort Tuna complex in Maduro safehouse at 1:01am EST, just a little over two hours after Trump had initially given the order to go.

Immediately upon their arrival at the Fort Tiyuna complex, the American helicopters began receiving small arms fire from the Venezuelan security and hired Cuban security forces on the ground, and

there was a major gunfight as the American forces returned fire.

One of the helicopters was apparently struck by the gunfire and lightly damaged, but

The heavily armed Delta Force extraction team then descended onto Maduro's safe house itself, which they had tirelessly rehearsed doing countless times beforehand on their exact replica of the place.

They even brought along blowtorches with them in case Maduro managed to escape into his panic room, which they knew existed and were prepared to pry open.

Trump apparently had authorized the team to kill Maduro if he resisted the extraction too heavily, but

Delta Force swiftly broke into Maduro's personal quarters, where he reportedly panicked and attempted to flee towards his panic room, as was expected before the Delta Force was able to tackle and apprehend him before he could get the heavy steel door to the panic room shut.

In the end, the Delta Force apprehended both Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, loaded them both back up onto one of their helicopters, and

immediately departed in the dead of the night under overhead coverage and suppressive fire by the fighter jets and Reaper drones that were still patrolling above as they flew out of the country with the President on board.

Multiple other engagements with Venezuelan and Cuban security forces were reported, but

they were ultimately powerless to stop them.

Within just 2 hours and 20 minutes of having launched the operation, it was all already over and the helicopters were all safely back on board the USS Iwo Jima, where they had initially departed from, plus their two additional new guests, the Venezuelan president and his wife.

From there, the pair were quickly taken by air to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base that the US controls in Cuba, where a jet was waiting for them.

That immediately took them further to the Steward Air National Guard base just north of New York City.

By that evening, Maduro was in the DEA's headquarters in Manhattan and moments later he and his wife were placed into cells at the Metropolitan Detention center in Brooklyn, where they are now expected to be held until their first court appearances.

Satellite images captured before and after the raid over the Fortuna military complex show the scale of the damage that was inflicted here.

In these sets of images captured before and after, you can see massive damage that was inflicted by the airstrikes on two different of buildings, one set in the left of the image and another set in the right of the image further away at the entrance to the Fort Unit complex.

Satellite imagery has also captured the destruction of the guardhouse and the security gate that was at the entrance, which was apparently struck by a missile during the raid.

Throughout the course of the raid there were multiple casualties.

So far, Venezuela has reported that 24 of their own security personnel were killed by the American forces during the course of the raid, while the Cuban government has reported that 32 of their separate security personnel were defending Maduro as his personal bodyguards were also killed during the raid, totaling up to 56 Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel who were collectively killed, in addition to at least 24 civilians around Caracas who were also killed in the process.

On the American side, not a single soldier who participated in the raid was killed, though six were reportedly injured in the helicopter that took small arms fire, though none were critical or life threatening injuries, with zero fatalities and zero loss in equipment.

On the American side, 56 inflicted fatalities on the Venezuelan and Cuban security personnel and the successful capture of Venezuela's sitting President.

The entire operation was an astronomical success for the US military from a tactical perspective, but

whether or not it will ultimately turn into an actual strategic victory for the US still remains to be seen, and

there are many, many long term strategic problems and consequences concerning just about everything about it.

From around the world and within the US There has been a sharp difference in reactions to the raid that have roughly followed along ideological and political lines.

The Trump administration deliberately withheld knowledge of the raid from the US Congress until it had already been launched and never secured any congressional approval for it, which has especially sparked anger among the Democrats in Congress.

After the raid had happened, the Trump administration asserted that they never informed or consulted Congress ahead of time due to fears that doing so would result in leaks that would have undermined the element of surprise and compromised the mission.

Nonetheless, it appears that some leaks happened anyway, very suspiciously.

Just one week before the launch of the raid, a brand new anonymous account was created on the online betting market Polymarket that placed tens of thousands of dollars worth of bets on the platform that Maduro would be out of office by the end of January following the conclusion of the raid.

These bets netted the anonymous account more than $409,000 in profits, which has led to a lot of speculation that whoever placed the bets was someone from within the administration who possessed insider knowledge.

The leadership of Argentina, Ecuador, Ukraine and Israel have put forward statements in support of America's actions, while the leadership of countries like Panama, Canada, the uk, France, Germany and the EU have put forward more neutral sounding statements.

Many other countries have sharply condemned America's seizure of Maduro, including other Latin American countries with current left wing governments in power like Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, in addition to other countries from around the world like Spain, South Africa, Iran and notably Russia and China.

A statement released by the Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs concerning the raid is perhaps the most ironic statement that anyone will release all this year.

It reads, the United States committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela.

This development gives rise to deep concern and warrants condemnation.

The pretexts used to justify these actions are untenable, which basically reads like a burglar who's upset that another burglar broke into a different house.

During the opening days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine In February of 2022, the Russian military attempted a strikingly similar operation to abduct the President of Ukraine, though it disastrously wrong by comparison.

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Why NOTHING About Maduro's Kidnapping Makes Sense

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