January 3rd, 2026. At 2:00 AM, the lights in Caracas went dark. Moments later, the silence was shattered by the roar of over 150 U.S. aircraft. In a lightning-fast mission codenamed Operation Absolute Resolve , U.S. Delta Force operators descended on the presidential compound. Their mission: to capture Nicolás Maduro. Within hours, the man who led Venezuela for over a decade was in handcuffs, flying toward a federal court in New York. This wasn’t just a raid—it was the most significant U.S. military intervention in the Western Hemisphere in decades. Today, we look at how it happened, why it happened, and what it means for the world." The operation was a masterclass in modern warfare. While B-1B Lancer bombers and F-35 stealth fighters dismantled Venezuelan air defenses across the north, helicopters from the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment flew just 100 feet above the water to avoid detection. President Trump later revealed that U.S. forces had rehearsed the ra...