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The U.S. army launched strikes in opposition to Venezuela and captured its dictator, Nicolás Maduro, on Jan. 3 — rising from the operation largely unscathed because it handicapped Venezuela’s protection techniques and probably performed cyber operations in opposition to Caracas.
Altogether, greater than 150 plane — together with U.S. bombers and fighter jets — have been concerned within the operation, efficiently finishing a “large-scale strike” in opposition to Venezuela, based on President Donald Trump. Moreover, Caracas, Venezuela, suffered energy outages early Jan. 3 — a sign of a possible cyber operation.
Trump signaled that the U.S. could have been behind the blackout in Venezuela however didn’t present particulars concerning the character of a potential cyber operation concentrating on Venezuela’s civilian infrastructure.
“The lights of Caracas have been largely turned off on account of a sure experience that we’ve,” Trump stated.
President Donald Trump signaled that the U.S. could have been behind the blackout in Venezuela. (Alex Brandon/The Related Press )
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Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Middle for Strategic & Worldwide Research’ protection and safety division, stated that whereas it’s unclear what precisely U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and House Command (SPACECOM) contributed to the operation, they might have penetrated a few of Venezuela’s infrastructure.
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“We do not actually know what cyber did, a number of the lights did exit, and Caine did discuss it,” Cancian informed Fox Information Digital Wednesday. “It is potential that (they) obtained into a few of their command and management techniques.”
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, stated that as U.S. helicopters with the extraction pressure and different regulation enforcement belongings began to method Venezuela’s shores, the U.S. “started layering totally different results supplied by SPACECOM, CYBERCOM, and different members of the inter-agency to create a pathway.”
In keeping with Caine, U.S. plane concerned within the operation included F-22, F-35, F/A-18 and EA-18 fighter jets, E-2 airborne early warning plane, B-1 bombers and “different help plane, in addition to quite a few remotely piloted drones.”
“Because the pressure started to method Caracas, the joint air part started dismantling and disabling the air protection techniques in Venezuela, using weapons to make sure the protected passage of the helicopters into the goal space,” Caine informed reporters.
These plane concerned within the mission additionally doubtless employed weapons together with the AGM-88 HARM, or high-speed anti-radiation missile, which neutralizes radar-equipped enemy air protection techniques and different air-to-ground munitions to take out Venezuela’s air protection techniques, based on Cancian.
President Donald Trump re-established House Command in 2019. (Getty/AP Newsroom)
A spokesperson for SPACECOM stated that the command couldn’t touch upon the precise particulars of help SPACECOM supplied to Operation Absolute Resolve, on account of operational safety considerations. However the spokesperson added that space-based capabilities together with positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) that the army makes use of to help digital warfare, along with different issues, in addition to satellite tv for pc communications are “foundational to all trendy army actions.”
“To guard the Joint Power from space-enabled assault and guarantee their freedom of motion, U.S. House Command possesses the means and willingness to make use of combat-credible capabilities that deter and counter our opponents and venture energy in all warfighting domains,” the spokesperson stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital Friday.
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CYBERCOM didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Fox Information Digital.
Different elements that contributed to the U.S. army’s success undermining Venezuela’s defenses have been that CIA belongings had been on the bottom main as much as the raid, based on Cancian. Trump confirmed in October 2025 that he had approved the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela.
The Trump administration repeatedly acknowledged that it didn’t acknowledge Nicolás Maduro as a respectable head of state and insisted he was the chief of a drug cartel. (The Related Press)
“They gave detailed descriptions of Maduro’s headquarters, and I am certain positioned the entire air protection batteries round Caracas,” Cancian stated. “So we had a superb sense about the place every thing was, combining that with overhead surveillance and in addition electromagnetic intelligence.”
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Though Venezuela “on paper” has highly effective air protection techniques, Cancian stated that success pulling off the operation stemmed from stable efforts from the U.S. army to destroy and disrupt Venezuela’s air protection system, at the side of poor coaching for Venezuela’s army.
Venezuela is provided with Russian S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile techniques, in addition to Buk-M2E and Pechora-2M medium-range surface-to-air missile techniques, based on the Trendy Warfare Institute at West Level.
Of the greater than 150 U.S. plane concerned within the operation, just one was hit, and 0 have been shot down. An administration official informed Fox Information Digital that seven U.S. service members have been injured in the course of the operation, however have been “properly on their solution to restoration.”
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“Appears these Russian air defenses did not fairly work so properly, did they?” Secretary of Warfare Pete Hegseth informed reporters in Newport Information, Virginia.
Trump introduced that U.S. particular forces performed a strike in opposition to Caracas, Venezuela, and seized Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores. The 2 have been taken to New York and appeared in a Manhattan federal court docket Jan. 5 on drug fees. Each pleaded not responsible.
Nicolás Maduro is seen in handcuffs after touchdown at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by closely armed federal brokers as they make their method into an armored automotive en path to a Federal courthouse in Manhattan, New York, Jan. 5, 2026. (XNY/Star Max/GC Photographs by way of Getty Photographs)
The raid got here after months of strain on Venezuela amid a sequence of strikes in Latin American waters concentrating on alleged drug traffickers in alignment with Trump’s effort to crack down on the inflow of medicine into the U.S.
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The Trump administration repeatedly acknowledged that it didn’t acknowledge Maduro as a respectable head of state and insisted he was the chief of a drug cartel. Trump additionally stated in December he thought it might be “sensible” for Maduro to step down.
The Trump administration has since claimed that its actions seizing Maduro have been justified as a “regulation enforcement” operation, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated congressional approval wasn’t obligatory because the operation didn’t quantity to an “invasion.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated congressional approval wasn’t obligatory because the operation didn’t quantity to an “invasion.” (Oliver Contreras/Sipa/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)
Even so, lawmakers totally on the left have questioned the legality of the operation in Venezuela, which was performed with out Congress’ approval.
“This has been a profound constitutional failure,” the highest Democrat on the Senate Armed Providers Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., stated in a press release Jan. 3. “Congress — not the President — has the only energy to authorize struggle. Pursuing regime change with out the consent of the American folks is a reckless overreach and an abuse of energy.”
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“The query now is just not whether or not Maduro deserved removing. It’s what precedent america has simply set and what comes subsequent.”
Fox Information’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
