On 2 January, China’s special envoy held a three-hour meeting with former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, with the then Venezuelan leader appearing unaware that events were about to unfold that would permanently alter his fate.
At 10:30pm local time, US President Donald Trump issued the order to launch one of the most successful and swift military operations ever conducted — Operation Absolute Resolve.
In just five hours, Maduro and his wife were aboard the US Navy amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima being prepared for transfer to the United States. The objective was not the destruction of Venezuela, but rather the definitive removal of Maduro from the political scene.
He is now set to face trial in the US on charges of drug trafficking, not as a head of state, but as an ordinary defendant. Maduro, and his wife pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other federal charges. “I am still president of my country,” Maduro said.
Trump did conceal his intentions. The US president has vowed to control Venezuela’s oil reserves — the largest in the world — saying the US will run the country until a safe transition.
He said US companies would fix Venezuela’s “badly broken” oil infrastructure and “start making money for the country”.
Speaking in an interview with the US network Fox News about the operation, Trump said “I was told by real military people that there is no other country on Earth that can do such a manoeuvre.”
“I watched it literally like I was watching a TV show. It was an amazing thing.”
Trump’s admiration can be understood in the light of the operation’s details, as outlined by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine.
A total of 150 aircraft took part in the operation, including F-22 Raptors, F-35 Lightning lls, F/A-18 Super Hornets, EA-18 Growlers, and B-1 Lancers, together with Remotely Piloted Aircraft. The aircraft were launched from 20 different bases both on land and at sea.
Operating with such a concentration of combat units mirrors the US Air-Sea Battle (ASB) concept. At its core, this relies on one critical element: intensive reconnaissance and intelligence. This is achieved not only through a wide array of aerial and space-based systems, but also through intelligence assets deployed on the ground.
According to a source with direct knowledge, the CIA provided the intelligence that enabled the US Delta Force to carry out the operation. The source said the agency had deployed “a small team clandestinely on the ground starting in August,” which was able to deliver insight into Maduro’s daily routines, making the eventual seizure seamless.
The operation was coordinated over several months and involved senior US officials, including White House Adviser Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“They had consistent meetings and phone calls, sometimes even daily, often meeting both with the president and separately,” the source told Axios.
An image of Maduro at the moment of his arrest stood in stark contrast to the defiant image he had earlier projected in a widely circulated video posted by Trump on the Truth Social platform, where Maduro had dared the US president to come to capture him and branding him a coward.
Commentators have questioned how the US forces had been able to reach him so swiftly and why the Venezuelan defences had collapsed so completely.
The answer, analysts suggest, is complex. The Venezuelan military has long suffered from a lack of readiness across many of its combat units, and the US operation was meticulously designed to deny its adversary any chance of response.
The US Air Force employed a Combined Air Operations (COMAO) strategy. In this approach, air formations fly in close proximity, and as they near hostile airspace, cyber attacks are launched to disrupt power grids and communications.
The objective is to sow confusion and isolate enemy combat units, a tactic that directly undermines balance, awareness, and ultimately breaks the adversary’s decision-making cycle.
This was the case in the strike against Venezuela’s military command at Fuerte Tiuna in the Maduro operation. The outcome proved catastrophic: frontline units received no orders to engage, and not a single air-defence missile was fired — not even the shoulder‑launched Igla systems that Maduro had boasted of possessing.
For the Venezuelan military, the result was devastating. With no contingency plans to counter coordinated missile strikes accompanied by heavy electronic jamming, their forces were left paralysed.
The Venezuelan military possesses combat units capable of counter‑operations. Yet, its failure lay in not recognising the possibility of such a mission and in lacking training for scenarios of this kind, despite months of reports showing US helicopters deployed nearby.
Strategically, the impact of the US strike extends far beyond Venezuela itself. While regime change may open the door to greater opportunities for US companies in the country, the operation aligns with Washington’s broader strategy of prioritising the Americas.
It also sends a direct message to Colombia and Cuba, entities that have historically posed challenges for the United States, even if their influence today is less than in past decades.
China, meanwhile, has sought closer ties with these actors, much as it did with Maduro, attempting to balance its geostrategic influence with the US. Rather than limiting itself to the Pacific, Beijing continues to invest quietly in South America, consistent with its strategy of avoiding direct confrontation with Washington or actions that could trigger economic sanctions.
The raid on Venezuela also reverberates across the Middle East and serves as a signal to America’s adversaries, and by extension Israel’s adversaries, most notably Iran.
According to The Times of Israel, Trump threatened Iran while standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week in Florida. “If [Iran] will continue with the missiles – yes. [And if they continue with] the [production of] nuclear [capabilities] — fast. One will be yes, absolutely. The other, we’ll do it immediately,” Trump said, indicating that the US could again join Israel in an attack on Iran.
The US strike on Venezuela marks a dramatic opening to the new year, signaling what may lie ahead. It is possible this will not be the last attempt to change regimes in states considered hostile to Washington.
The writer is a senior researcher at the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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