Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro lost his race for safety as America forces closed in, according to President Donald Trump.
Trump said he watched events unfold from Mar-a-Lago, noting that U.S. forces had been stymied by weather when they wanted to nab Maduro earlier in the week, according to Fox News.
“We waited four days. We were going to do this, four days ago, three days ago, two days ago. And then all of a sudden it opened up, and we said, ‘go,’” he said.
American forces took Maduro from a “very highly-guarded” house at the time he was confronted.
“He was in a house that was more like a fortress than a house. It had steel doors. It had what they call a safety space, where it’s, you know, solid steel all around. He didn’t get that space closed. He was trying to get into it, but he got bum rushed so fast that he didn’t get into that,” Trump said.
“We were prepared. We had, you know, massive blowtorches and everything else that you need to get through that steel. But we didn’t need it. He didn’t make it to that area of the house,” Trump said.
Trump said the attack was planned to the smallest details.
“Everything was pinpoint… everything they practiced. They actually built a house which was identical to the one they went into with all the safes, all the steel all over the place,” Trump said.
A U.S. official said members of the Army’s Delta Force captured Maduro.
“He was trying to get into a safe place. The safe place is all steel, and he wasn’t able to make it to the door because our guys were so fast,” Trump said, according to CBS.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Trump signed off on the mission at 10:46 p.m. Friday.
Operation Absolute Resolve, involved more than 150 aircraft that took off from 20 Western Hemisphere bases, Caine said.
“As the night began, the helicopters took off with the extraction force, which included law enforcement officers, and began their flight into Venezuela at 100 feet above the water,” Caine said.
Drones, fighters and bombers protected the helicopters by neutralizing Venezuela’s air defense systems “to ensure the safe passage of the helicopters into the target area.”
Trump said Caracas was blacked out “due to a certain experience that we have.”
“As the force crossed the last point of high terrain where they’d been hiding in the clutter, we assessed that we had maintained totally the element of surprise,” Caine said.
The helicopters were attacked as they reached their destination, Caine said.
Caine said after taking Maduro captive, it was not an easy ride out.
“There were multiple self-defense engagements as the force began to withdraw out of Venezuela,” Caine said, according to the New York Post.
The Post reported on U.S. aircraft was damaged and “about half a dozen” Americans were injured, but no U.S. service members were killed.
A report in The New York Times quoted a Venezuelan source as estimating that 40 Venezuelans will killed in the raid that captured Maduro.
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