Around ten to two in the morning, local time, the residents of Caracas were startled by a series of explosions in and around the Venezuelan capital. Citizens spot low-flying helicopters and fighter planes above the city, including near the residence of President Nicolás Maduro. The power goes out in a few places in Caracas, including at an air force base. Several hours later message US President Trump said Maduro and his wife had been “captured” and “flown out of the country”.
Trump did not provide any more information about the operation in the early American morning, except that the United States “successfully carried out a major attack against Venezuela and its leader.” The Venezuelan authorities speak of an “imperialist attack” and announce a general mobilization. It was still unclear on Saturday afternoon who will take over leadership in Venezuela after Maduro’s capture.
Many details about the capture of President Maduro and his wife are not yet known, but the American lightning attack and de facto kidnapping of the Venezuelan president has no precedent. The covert attack was carried out by specialized elite forces, a US government representative told Reuters.
The whereabouts of the Venezuelan president and his wife at the time of the operation was not yet known on Saturday afternoon. However, residents of the presidential Miraflores Palace in Caracas reported increased military activity and power outages early in the morning.
According to reporters according to the AP news agency in Caracas, the attack lasted less than half an hour. In the hours that followed, more details slowly trickled out about the operation, which followed a months-long, large-scale US troop build-up off the coast and a series of shellings on alleged ‘drug boats’ in the Caribbean Sea (and later also the Pacific Ocean) since early September.
Explosions in Caracas
It appears that the Americans are using a method that is common at the beginning of a military operation: disabling Venezuelan radar and air defense installations to clear the airspace for the US air force and combat helicoptersincluding Chinooks.
Witnesses in Caracas first reported a series of about seven explosions in and around the capital on Saturday morning. On images circulating on social media shows explosions and fires at the Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda air base, formerly known as La Carlota. The images cannot be independently verified. The Venezuelan authorities soon report that the Americans are attacking not only in Caracas, but also in the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
In Caracas, the Americans also bombarded the important military complex Fuerte Tiuna from the air. Just north of the capital, the port of La Guaira is a target of American air raids. Several photos show large fires in the port. There have also been reports of attacks on the Cerro El Volcán telecommunications tower, Higuerote airport in Miranda state, east of Caracas, and on El Libertador air base in the city of Maracay.
Fire after explosions in Caracas. Still from a third-party video obtained by Reuters news agency.
Photo REUTERS
Outdated equipment
The Americans do not seem to encounter much resistance from the Venezuelan armed forces, which are known to predominantly work with outdated Russian weapon systems. The Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariananamed by former President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) after Simón Bolívar, the nineteenth-century freedom fighter who led many countries in Latin America to independence, has approximately 123,000 military personnel, according to estimates by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
Many Venezuelan tanks and fighter planes are still of Soviet make. The armed forces have, among other things, T-72 tanks, Sukhoi-30 fighter planes and S300 anti-aircraft systems. That kind of equipment is no match for the most modern American weapons.
Washington has been building a huge force off the coast of Venezuela in recent months. At least fifteen thousand troops were stationed around the country in December, mainly on a fleet of warships around the largest US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Fordincluding several fighters and amphibious assault ships carrying Marine helicopters and Harrier aircraft. They are able to transport and deliver large numbers of Marines in a war zone in a short time.
Tomahawks
Tomahawk cruise missiles can be fired with great precision from the sea and from a submarine near Latin America. Furthermore, the US military in the Caribbean has several bombers and fighter aircraft at its disposal, including a squadron of F-35s that were stationed in Puerto Rico in September. The US Department of Defense does not provide exact figures for the military presence near Venezuela.
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