President Trump says US action will bring Venezuela President Maduro 'to justice' (youtube.com)
It might be that the fishing boat attacks, real or not, were to trigger Venezuelan military channels, part of planning and identification for this attack.
They captured Maduro's wife also, Cilia Flores. They were airlifted out and then put on the USS Iwo Jima, and they're bound for NY, and then either NY or Miami (for trial). Looks like some of the soldiers walking Maduro out of his building were wearing DEA badges (US law enforcement).
No American soldiers died in the attack. No US military equipment was destroyed. ‘There’s no equipment like we have,' said Trump. Sales might go up?
There will likely be a large remigration of all the Venezuelans in Colombia, Peru, Equador, Brazil, etc.
In his speech on Jan 3 morning, he talked about the Americans who are victims of drugs that come ‘mostly from Venezuela' and mentioned Tren de Aragua and other brutal gangs. ‘They were brutal, but they’re not so brutal now.' Trump said they were ‘sent by Maduro to terrorize America.’
‘The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superceded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the ‘Donroe Doctrine.’
‘American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned again.’ Trump
‘We did something about it. We’re late, but we did something about it.' Trump.
Trump said Petro ‘have cocaine mills’, they're making cocaine and sending it into the US, so ‘he does have to watch his ass.’
‘Mr President, did you notify any members of Congress in advance?’ Immeditely, Trump said, ‘Marco, do you want to talk about that, because you were involved,’ and shifted away from the podium. Rubio said, ‘Sure. We called members of Congress, and this is not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on, it was a trigger based mission on which conditions had to be met, night after night we watched and monitored. ... Remember, at the end of the day, at its core, this was an arrest of two indicted fugitives of American Justice, and the Department of War supported the Department of Justice in that job...' Trump stepped back to the podium and said, ‘Can I just add one thing to that? Congress has a tendency to leak. This would not be good. ... But Congress will leak. And we don't want leakers.’
He said to Venezuelans, ‘You're gonna have peace. You're gonna have justice. You're gonna have a country. You're gonna have potentially a great country.'
‘I think Cuba is something we’re gonna end up talking about, because Cuba is a failing nation right now. And we want to help the people in Cuba, and also help the people who were forced Cuba and are living in this country.'
US MISSION
Apparently, they cut off power ‘due to an expertise [the US] have’.
Over the course of the night, aircraft (150 total) launched from over 20 bases around the western hemisphere, including fighters, bombers, recon, rotary wing. The extraction fleet included US law enforcement, and they flew 100ft above the water. Spacecom, cybercom and other members of the interagency created a pathway, with cover by the marines, air force, National Guard, and drones. As the extraction team neared Caracas, the joint air component began dismanteling and disabling the air defense in Venezuela. As the extraction team passed the last mountains, they realized they'd 'maintained totally the element of surprise.'
(Later, we were told the pilot of the main helecopter had been shot 3 times in the leg but was alright, which was compared with Abbotabad (Pakistan, bin Laden, 2011, Navy Seals, downed helicopter had to be destroyed to prevent losing intelligence advantage).
The birds landed (receiving fire and returning fire ‘with overwhelming force in self defense’) on Maduro's compound at 1:01 Eastern Standard (2AM Caracas local time), and the extraction force moved with speed to apprehend Maduro. The force remained protected by overhead tactical aviation. Maduro and wife gave up and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice assisted by the US military. Suppressive fire from the US forces shot at multiple Venezuelan engagements during extraction.
Maduro had been trying to make it into a safe place, all steel, but he wasn't able to make it, because the US guys were so fast, Trump said. But they would have had the steel opened nomatter how thick it was in about 47 seconds. ‘He made it to the door. He was unable to close it.’
So a successful mission, but an easy one. Looks good, but unlikely it really demonstrates anything about the US military (except perhaps their information gathering).