. . . "the agency also surprisingly briefed it had a human source inside the Venezuelan government – a bold statement given it could risk leading to a person being discovered – though also a way, perhaps, of undermining the confidence Maduro’s successors will have in their own security system."
"It took the US two hours and 28 minutes to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the small hours of Saturday morning, an extraordinary display of imperial power that plunges 30 million Venezuelans into a profound uncertainty. But it was also months in the planning.
"Critical to Operation Absolute Resolve was the work of the CIA and other US intelligence agencies. From as early as August, their goal was to establish Maduro’s “pattern of life”, or as Gen Dan Caine, the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, described it, to “understand how he moved, where he lived, where he travelled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets”.
"As the US built up its military presence in the Caribbean from September, Maduro had tightened his personal security in an effort to evade capture. Gone were the well-trailed public speeches. He changed his sleeping location regularly – using between six to eight places to spend the night, according to the New York Times.
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| One of the helicopters believed to be carrying Maduro |
"The president also relied even more heavily on Cuban counterintelligence and bodyguards, more trusted than Venezuelans, with the latter not allowed to use mobile phones. Yet such measures were not enough. On Friday evening, as the weather was finally clear enough for the US operation go ahead, Maduro’s location was fixed at a compound on Fuerte Tiuna, a key military base in Caracas.
"Spy drones were part of how the CIA monitored Maduro, but after his capture on Saturday the agency also surprisingly briefed it had a human source inside the Venezuelan government – a bold statement given it could risk leading to a person being discovered – though also a way, perhaps, of undermining the confidence Maduro’s successors will have in their own security system."
"As many as a quarter of all US navy warships had been in the Caribbean since November, bolstered by the arrival of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, with about 4,000 sailors and aircrew onboard. But despite the nearby deployment, on the night of the operation the aim of the US military was to achieve tactical surprise and air dominance." ..
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