Top US general says Maduro and his wife ‘gave up’ to American forces

By Agencies 3 January 2026, 7:27 pm

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Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine speaks during a press conference with President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago club on January 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)

The US military operation to extract Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a nighttime raid in Caracas took “months of planning and rehearsal,” and more than 150 US aircraft were used, top US General Dan Caine tells reporters.

“The word integration does not explain the sheer complexity of such a mission, an extraction so precise — it involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere,” Caine tells a joint press conference with President Donald Trump.

Caine adds that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “both indicted, gave up and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice, assisted by our incredible US military with professionalism and precision, with no loss of US life.”