Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed new details Monday about the U.S. operation to capture and arrest Nicolás Maduro, describing a meticulously planned raid that caught the Venezuelan leader completely off guard.
Speaking to sailors aboard the USS John F. Kennedy aircraft carrier in Newport News, Virginia, Hegseth said Maduro had no warning the U.S. was closing in until moments before American forces arrived.
“Nicolás Maduro got to meet some great Americans wearing night vision goggles three nights ago,” Hegseth said. “He didn’t know they were coming until three minutes before they arrived. In fact, his wife said, ‘I think I hear aircraft outside.’ They didn’t know. You know why? Because every single part of that chain did their job.”
Roughly 200 Americans carried out the overnight raid Saturday at Maduro’s residence in downtown Caracas, Hegseth said. Fighter jets and bombers struck Venezuelan air defenses, clearing the way for Delta Force commandos to close in on the compound, where they came under heavy fire.
“They got off the helicopter, and the bullets were flying all over the place,” President Trump told reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One. “As you know, one of the helicopters got hit pretty badly, but we got everything back.”
Several U.S. soldiers were injured in the operation, according to U.S. officials. Dozens of Venezuelans were killed, along with 32 Cuban citizens who were part of Maduro’s security detail, Cuba’s government said.
“There was a lot of death on the other side, unfortunately. But a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday trying to protect him,” Trump said.
Once U.S. forces breached the compound, they intercepted Maduro before he could reach a safe room, officials said. The raid had been rehearsed for months using a replica of Maduro’s residence to prepare for multiple scenarios.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the operation was built around repetition and redundancy.
“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.
CIA personnel inside Venezuela had been tracking Maduro’s movements since August, including through an agent who penetrated his inner circle and provided key intelligence, according to U.S. officials.
Meanwhile, a massive U.S. military presence remains positioned off Venezuela’s coast. American forces are planning to intercept another sanctioned oil tanker they’ve been pursuing for months, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.