Tiffany Wertheimerand
BBC Visual Journalism team
@realdonaldtrumpThe US says its military operation to capture Venezuela’s president took months of planning, but when Donald Trump gave the order was given to launch, “Operation Absolute Resolve” only lasted about 150 minutes.
The surprise early-morning attack on Saturday marked an unprecedented event in modern politics and culminated in the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
Captured by troops from an elite US army unit as they tried to flee into a fortified safe room, the pair are now being held being held in a detention centre in New York and face narco-terrorism charges.
As the sun rose on Saturday, the scale of the military operation in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, was clear.
Pictures from Fuerte Tiuna, a huge military complex where top government officials live, show bombed out buildings and charred, smouldering cars.
It was at this compound that Maduro and his wife were captured, Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told the Associated Press news agency.
Hours earlier – Trump gives the order
Operation Absolute Resolve began with reports of explosions at about 02:00 local time (06:00 GMT) in Caracas.
The US cut power to the city, Trump has since said, describing it as “dark and deadly”.
The aim was to disable Venezuela’s air defences and clear the path for US military helicopters to get to Fuerte Tiuna.
“We assessed that we had maintained totally the element of surprise”, Gen Dan Caine, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, said.
The BBC has verified five strike locations, including the compound, a port and an airport. Pictures show Fuerte Tiuna on fire, with huge flames visible for miles.
Reuters
AFP via Getty Images
Venezuelans have described how US military helicopters flew low over Caracas, heading for Fuerte Tiuna.
Some of the helicopters came under fire, but were still able to fly, Gen Caine said.
“It was a lot of gunfire,” Trump added.
ReutersOnce on the ground, troops from the US Army’s Delta Force, an elite special forces unit, moved quickly.
They gained access to the compound at 02:01 local time, and the Maduros “gave up” without a struggle, Gen Caine said.
But Trump gave more details. The Maduros tried to escape into a safe place, the US president explained. He described the safe house as a military “fortress”.
“The safe place is all steel, and he wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast.
“It was a very thick door, a very heavy door,” Trump told reporters. “He made it to the door. He was unable to close it.”
But even if they had managed to get into the safe room, Trump said troops could have blown it open in about “47 seconds”.
From Caracas to Manhattan
Now in US custody, Nicolás Maduro and his wife were transported some 2,100 miles (3,400km), to New York City.
They were flown out of Caracas by helicopter, and taken to the USS Iwo Jima, a warship stationed in the Caribbean. The team was back “over the water” by 04:29, Gen Caine said.
It was on the ship that we got one of the defining pictures of the whole operation – Maduro in handcuffs, wearing ear protectors and a type of blindfold that looked like dark sunglasses.
Trump and Getty ImagesFrom the USS Iwo Jima, he was first flown to the US Navy base at Guantánamo Bay.
The Maduros were then flown on a government plane to Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York State, and then via helicopter into Manhattan.
AFP via Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images
ReutersOn Saturday, a video was released showing Maduro at the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) headquarters in New York.
He and Cilia Flores are now being held in a detention centre in the city.
They have been charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.
“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.
