One view sees it as the abduction of a sitting head of state and his spouse — a clear violation of international norms, including the much-touted “rules-based international order” that Washington routinely invokes. The other frames it as an audacious special forces mission, remarkable for its scale, precision and execution, and almost without parallel in recent military history.
Few militaries possess the capability to insert special forces deep into a sovereign country larger than Pakistan, penetrate a heavily fortified military garrison in a major capital, and extract the most heavily guarded individual in the country without suffering casualties. That level of success demands exceptional intelligence preparation, rehearsal, coordination and elite military infrastructure.
Speaking to Fox News hours before his White House address, President Donald Trump boasted that only the United States could carry out such an operation. That claim is only partly true. Israel remains the only other country to have demonstrated similar capability.
In July 1976, Israeli commandos flew more than 8,000 kilometres through hostile airspace to Entebbe airport in Uganda, stormed the terminal held by Palestinian hijackers and Ugandan troops, rescued 102 Israeli hostages, destroyed a quarter of Uganda’s air force on the ground, and returned home. Lt Col Jonathan Netanyahu, who led the assault, was the operation’s only military casualty. The mission was later named Operation Jonathan in his honour.
American attempts to replicate such feats have not always ended well. In April 1980, Operation Eagle Claw, ordered by President Jimmy Carter to rescue US hostages in Tehran, collapsed in the Iranian desert when a helicopter collided with a tanker aircraft, killing eight US servicemen and forcing an abort.
Thirteen years later, Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia ended disastrously after US forces attempting to capture warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid lost three Black Hawk helicopters and 18 soldiers in Mogadishu. The surviving US troops were eventually extracted with the help of Pakistani and Malaysian UN forces.
Operation Neptune Spear, the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, was tactically successful but not flawless. While the Al-Qaeda leader was eliminated, a classified stealth helicopter crashed inside the compound, debris of which Pakistani authorities are believed to have shared with China.
Against this backdrop, the Maduro operation appears designed to exorcise the ghosts of past failures. It was intelligence-led, tightly compartmentalised, and showcased a fusion of American capabilities — overwhelming force to distract, precision teams to extract, and political theatre for the president.
Last October, I outlined multiple scenarios for a potential Venezuela conflict, ranging from covert actions to full-scale invasion. The use of special forces, I argued, was the most likely option. That assessment now appears prescient.
While official details of Operation Absolute Resolve remain classified, available information and past precedents allow for a reasonable reconstruction.
The target
Until 2019, Maduro and his wife resided at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. Following the presidential crisis that year, he reportedly relocated to Fuerte Tiuna, a vast military complex housing Venezuela’s defence ministry, military academy and troop barracks. Intelligence assessments suggested he slept in a fortified underground bunker known as La Roca and was guarded by Cuban personnel. Miraflores continued to serve ceremonial functions, including hosting foreign delegations.
The plan
Admiral William McRaven, who oversaw the bin Laden raid, once studied eight major special forces operations to identify the elements of success. His conclusion: simplicity in planning, secrecy and repetition in preparation, and surprise, speed and purpose in execution.
Planning for Absolute Resolve likely began months earlier, as US naval assets quietly positioned themselves off Venezuela’s coast and intelligence agencies built behavioural profiles of Maduro’s movements. General John Daniel Cain later confirmed that months of intelligence work went into tracking Maduro’s routines, habits and security patterns.
CIA and NSA assets would have generated exhaustive visual and electronic intelligence, including detailed layouts of Fort Tiuna and the bunker complex. Trump himself mentioned that the assault team carried gas cutters, anticipating reinforced steel doors — a detail that suggests meticulous rehearsal.
The helicopters and assault force
The mission almost certainly relied on the US Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the Night Stalkers, created after the Iran debacle of 1980. Their aircraft — Chinooks, Pave Hawks and MH-60 gunships — provide SOCOM with unmatched night-flying and assault capability.
The assault team is believed to have come from Delta Force, one of America’s Tier One units alongside SEAL Team Six. Escort gunships, including MH-60 DAPs armed with miniguns, Hellfire missiles and advanced FLIR systems, would have provided aerial dominance.
D-Day
The operation was timed for maximum surprise — shortly after Maduro hosted a Chinese delegation and amid apparent US preoccupation with Iran. Shortly after midnight, US forces struck air defence sites, ammunition depots and infrastructure around Caracas, creating the impression of a broader military campaign while carving a safe corridor for helicopters launched from the USS Iwo Jima.
Over 150 US aircraft were reportedly involved, overwhelming Venezuelan defences and suppressing radar and missile systems before the assault force moved in.
Extraction
The helicopters are believed to have landed on rooftops inside the Tiuna complex around 1:00 am local time. Rooftop insertions reduce exposure to small-arms fire and allow rapid entry. Ground time in such missions is ruthlessly limited — usually under an hour. During Neptune Spear, it was about 40 minutes.
Under fire but unimpeded, the commandos breached the bunker, secured Maduro and his wife, and extracted along a different route, using Caracas’ mountainous terrain to evade pursuit. By 3:29 pm EST, the helicopters were reportedly clear over open water.
Maduro and Flores were likely flown first to Cuba and then onward to New York.
If confirmed in full, Operation Absolute Resolve will stand as one of the most daring and consequential special operations of the 21st century — one that reshapes not just Venezuela’s future, but the global understanding of power, sovereignty and intervention.