WASHINGTON—On the morning of Jan. 3, many Americans woke up to news that U.S. special forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
A military buildup in the Caribbean had been underway for months, and many had anticipated some form of U.S. military action, but few expected an operation so ambitious and complex.
The operation was carried out with a high level of secrecy.
Late in the evening on Jan. 2, President Donald Trump ordered U.S. special operations forces to launch a helicopter-borne raid on the Venezuelan capital city of Caracas to capture Maduro. The operation was the culmination of months of preparation and weeks of waiting for the perfect weather and window of opportunity.
U.S. forces located Maduro and his wife, detained them, and brought them to the United States without any reported American casualties or damage to U.S. assets.
The U.S. forces had been trained extensively on a model of Maduro’s compound.
In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, dozens of manned and unmanned U.S. military aircraft began targeting Venezuela’s air defense arrays, paving the way for the helicopter-borne assault team to land at a fortified compound where Maduro was staying. Within minutes of landing, those special operations troops managed to rush through the complex and locate the Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, before the pair could barricade themselves in a steel vault safe room and potentially wait for the Venezuelan military to come to their rescue.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the operation in Venezuela as “unbelievable and a tremendous success.”
Some commentators view this as a potential legacy-defining foreign policy achievement for the Trump administration, likely to be discussed and debated for years to come.
Evan Ellis, a military strategist and former Latin America policy adviser to the U.S. State Department, said he believes that the capture of Maduro will be considered a success of Trump’s foreign policy, particularly if a democratic transition occurs in Venezuela in the coming months.
“I think suddenly there will be a lot of stories being printed about the dramatic successes of President Trump’s foreign policy and his role in restoring democracy throughout the world,” Ellis told The Epoch Times.
However, Ellis acknowledged the current uncertainty in Venezuela. He said the United States had the military capability and intelligence to remove most senior leaders, but chose to target only Maduro. In the coming days and weeks, he said, the socialist regime and its military leaders will need to decide whether to cooperate with the United States to protect themselves.
Soon after the operation’s success was confirmed, many Republicans praised the Trump administration, while Democrats questioned the president’s authority to order the operation and requested congressional briefings.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was among the few Democrats who praised the U.S. military operation in Venezuela, departing from his party’s position.
However, many Democrats said they were concerned that no congressional authorization was sought before the strike.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also criticized Trump’s plan for the United States to control Venezuela until elections become possible.
Trump said during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 3 that military plans were kept secret because “Congress has a tendency to leak.”
“This was not an action that required congressional approval,“ he said. ”In fact, it couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This is not an extended military operation.”
New National Security Strategy
Trump’s foreign policy is a significant departure from previous administrations. The new National Security Strategy, released in November, reflects this change by redefining U.S. geographic priorities.Trump’s “America First” approach, unlike traditional neoconservatism, puts the Western Hemisphere at the center of U.S. foreign policy. This has led to greater focus on the homeland and nearby regions, including Venezuela and Greenland.
“The Trump administration is not saying the Western Hemisphere is all they’re focused on,“ Michael Walsh, a nonresident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told The Epoch Times. ”They’re not saying they’re not focused on Russia and China. It’s just that they’re prioritizing the Western Hemisphere and the U.S. homeland, in a way that they haven’t been prioritized in recent memory.”
Rubio echoed this point during his interview with NBC on Jan. 4. He defended the U.S. operation in Venezuela, pointing to the administration’s new National Security Strategy as his justification.
“[The Western Hemisphere] is where we live,” Rubio said. “And we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States.”
