A CIA team, steel doors and a fateful phone call: How the U.S. captured Maduro in Venezuela

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump gave the Venezuelan leader one last chance to step down.

In a private phone call a week ago, Trump told Nicolás Maduro that he had to go.

By that point, an armada of U.S. warships was floating off Venezuela’s shores. A CIA team had crept into the country, tracking Maduro’s movements and habits: where he slept, what he ate, where he traveled.

“You got to surrender,” Trump said, recalling the conversation at a news conference Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago home.

Maduro took the gamble of his life. He “came close” to giving in, Trump said, but stayed put.

That act of defiance set in motion the final phase of a secret and risky plan to evict Maduro by force. At 10:46 p.m. ET Friday, Trump gave the final order to launch.

This account of “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the most audacious military action in either of Trump’s terms, is based on interviews with more than a dozen White House, administration and congressional officials, as well as public statements.

As early as August, the CIA quietly sent a small unit into Venezuela with the goal of providing “extraordinary insight” into Maduro’s movements, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Even his pets were known to U.S. intelligence agents, Dan “Raizin” Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the news conference Saturday.

Elite troops trained for months, going so far as to use a replica of the presidential compound based on intelligence that the U.S. had gathered, Trump said in an interview with Fox News — the same way the troops who killed Osama bin Laden practiced in 2011 with a model of his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. They trained with what Trump called “massive blowtorches” in case they had to cut through steel walls in Maduro’s safe room.

At the same time, a core Trump administration team worked privately on the project for months, holding regular meetings and phone calls and briefing Trump, a person knowledgeable about the matter said.

That group consisted of some of the people Trump said will now be running Venezuela, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the person said.

Throughout the fall, Trump steadily amped up the pressure on Maduro. In September, the Trump administration began sinking boats in the Caribbean that it alleged were sending drugs to the U.S. Experts said, however, that the boats were shipping cocaine to Europe. All told, the administration has struck at least 35 alleged drug vessels so far, killing 114 people.

The rationale for the boat strikes shifted over time. Was it drugs Trump wanted to destroy, or the Maduro regime? In an interview she gave Vanity Fair in November, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said the purpose was to attack the boats until Maduro “cries uncle.”

She also said in the interview that an attack on the Venezuela mainland would require congressional approval — something the White House hasn’t gotten.

“If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress,” Wiles told the author, Chris Whipple.

The same month, America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, swept into the Caribbean, part of a military buildup that Trump believed got the attention of Maduro.

“A lot of ships out there,” Trump said at the news conference.

Trump left the White House for the holidays on Dec. 19, with Mar-a-Lago serving as his headquarters for the final planning. He approved the operation before Christmas, though the exact day was uncertain, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning.

Venezuela wasn’t his only worry. On Christmas Day, he announced he had ordered strikes on militants in Nigeria in response to alleged persecution of Christians.

At a New Year’s Eve party at his home, dressed in a tuxedo with first lady Melania Trump at his side, Trump was asked by reporters about his resolution for 2026.

“Peace on Earth,” he said.

So secret was the Venezuela assault that even the precise timing wasn’t widely known at the Pentagon until Friday night, two U.S. officials told NBC News. Typically, the timing of such a military operation would have wider coordination.

Vice President JD Vance went to Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach and met with him during the day Friday to discuss the strikes. But he left before the attack started, in deference to concerns that a late-night motorcade movement might tip off the Venezuelans about the coming raid, a Vance spokesperson said.

Wind and cloud cover in Caracas had delayed the attack for days, but Friday, the weather broke. The moon was full, and the skies had mostly cleared — acceptable conditions for the pilots and crews.

The mission was on.

“Good luck and Godspeed,” Trump told military leaders, words they transmitted down the chain, Caine said.

Trump spent much of the night and early morning at his home watching the attack play out. A picture released by the White House shows him sitting at a table, fingers interlocked, wearing a jacket but not his customary tie, staring intently at what presumably was a video screen out of the frame. Standing to his left is Rubio; to his right, Ratcliffe. Miller is seated, arms crossed. Congress wouldn’t be notified until the attack was underway. Trump said Saturday he didn’t want lawmakers to leak details.

At least 150 aircraft flew toward Caracas from 20 different bases on land and sea. The fleet included bombers, fighters and craft that specialized in intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, Caine said. The crews ranged in age from 20 to 49.

Darkness cloaked the Venezuelan capital. Trump suggested that the U.S. had cut the electricity in Caracas to gain an edge in the battle. Flying at 100 feet above the water, helicopters carried the special forces and law enforcement officials who plucked Maduro from his residence, Caine said. Other aircraft fired weapons to disable Venezuela’s air defense systems and clear a path for the helicopters, he added.

Flames were seen billowing from explosions at Fort Tiuna, a large military complex in Caracas.

By 1 a.m. ET Saturday, U.S. soldiers had reached the compound in Caracas where Maduro was staying. “A heavily fortified military fortress,” Trump called it.

When Delta Force breached Maduro’s residence, he and his wife were taken “completely by surprise,” Caine said. Maduro tried to escape into what Trump described as a steel safe room but didn’t make it in time. The forces took Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, into custody.

A firefight broke out after Maduro was captured, Caine said, and a U.S. helicopter was hit. No Americans were killed, though there were several injuries to U.S. troops, all of whom are stable, according to a U.S. official and a White House official.

By 3:30 a.m. ET, U.S. forces were safely out of the country, Caine said. At that time, the air in Caracas smelled of gunpowder and smoke. The U.S. Embassy in Venezuela cautioned American citizens there to shelter in place.

Less than an hour later, Trump broke the news to the world on social media.

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country,” he wrote.

A picture the White House posted Saturday morning showed Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima assault ship in a sweatsuit, handcuffed and blindfolded.

By 4:30 p.m. ET, Maduro was in New York. He arrived at Stewart Airport in New Windsor north of New York City. Dozens of law enforcement officers flanked Maduro as he shuffled to the hangar. He and his wife were to be transported to a jail in New York City later in the day. On Monday, Maduro is expected to make his first court appearance.

He and his alleged co-conspirators face prosecution for a scheme in which a “cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States," the indictment alleges.

Following the strike, Trump made it clear that “Operation Absolute Resolve” wasn’t a one-off. Nor was it solely about apprehending someone the U.S. considers a fugitive. The military campaign amounts to a dramatic escalation of presidential authority, with Trump attempting to mold the hemisphere to a revised version of “America First” foreign policy.

In a twist on the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which asserted a distinct sphere of influence for the young American nation, Trump is demonstrating that he’ll use hard power to promote U.S. interests and create advantageous conditions for business.

“The Donroe Doctrine,” Trump called it.

The U.S. isn’t leaving Venezuela soon, he said.

“We’re going to run it essentially until such time as a proper transition can take place.”

Looking back at his fateful phone call with Maduro, Trump suggested at the news conference that Maduro had chosen poorly in not heeding his command.

“Now,” Trump said, “he wished he did.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com