From the CIA to the NSA, via NGA and DEA: which US government agencies made the capture of Nicolás Maduro possible, how they operated and with what tasks, in an operation conducted in absolute secrecy
Behind the military operation Absolute Resolvethis is the name of what happened in Caracas on January 3, with over 150 aircraft, naval groups and satellites employed, several intelligence agencies worked and provided a wealth of essential information to capture the leader Nicolás Maduro while he was in Caracas, or where he felt safest. These agencies created specialized crisis teams that continuously sent information to the Special Operations Command and the Southern Military Command for weeks.
The role of intelligence and the NSA
Among these was the National Security Agency (NSA), which had the task of listening to foreign signals and communications, as well as supervising the geolocation of so-called high-value targets, namely the Venezuelan president and his wife, generals and government ministers. Many agents were and still are in the field, so it is reasonable to expect a reaction from the Venezuelan regime for the search and arrest of these spies, obviously protected by anonymity.
The NSA also acted by using so-called “indicators”, physical but also electromagnetic traces (mobile phones, web connections, radio communications, etc.), which allow us to deduce when and how an adversary orders or carries out troop movements, especially those needed to activate radar systems and anti-aircraft batteries. Days of listening by equipment installed on drones such as the RQ-70, which was captured in a video released via social media as it returned to the US base in Puerto Rico.
CIA, NGA and Maduro tracking
For this reason, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, declared in a press conference that the CIA, the NSA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) were involved in the mission, the latter in particular in the analysis of images and cartographic data to support military activities.
In the months leading up to the operation, all US intelligence agencies drew a detailed portrait of Maduro’s daily life, learning how he moved, where he lived and traveled, what he ate and how he dressed, even details about how he interacted with his pets. Several reports also indicate that the CIA has helped the Delta Force, the Army’s elite force, and the Navy Seals (Navy), track down and locate Maduro for months, conducting covert operations in Caracas, using resources that are among the most protected secrets. And they certainly include the presence of American spies very close to the arrested president.
Cyber warfare and infrastructure control
Knowledge of the country’s infrastructure and above all of Caracas’ energy networks has allowed the US military to shut down entire inhabited blocks of Caracas, as Trump proudly underlined in a press conference, alluding to an unspecified “expertise we have”. However, we know that the US Cyber Command was authorized to conduct offensive cyber operations and that it participated in the operation, as General Caine himself confirmed.
For the soldiers and agents who monitored the activation of the defense missile batteries from the control centers, there was no alarm, since the Venezuelan forces responsible for this purpose were neutralized before they left the barracks.
Drones, satellites and favorable weather
To protect the flight of drones, planes and helicopters (only one of these was damaged by a Manpad rocket), the objectives of the satellites and the weather conditions with clear skies which allowed movements on the ground to be seen thanks to the lack of clouds. And that’s why weather forecasts also played a key role in deciding the perfect time to act.
The final assault and the consequences on the field
As for the killing of his personal guards, which occurred in the final stages of the approach to the presidential couple, it must be remembered that those soldiers had the task of protecting him at the cost of their lives, therefore they would not have hesitated to react. And that the raiding team also had with them heavy equipment such as a blowtorch to be able to open steel doors placed to protect the leader.
The spy network is obviously still standing and active; now any sudden change in people’s habits is immediately linked to their possible belonging to enemy agencies, therefore those who “disappear” are only the figures who were necessarily compromised by the events after the operation.
Military coordination and transfer to New York
In the command and control centers on board the ship Iwo Jima and the aircraft carrier Gerard Ford, the existing situation was monitored, coordinating the movement of the individual attack groups. These also included aircraft coming from bases in the USA and not departing from Gerard Ford, to refuel which a tanker orbited for hours in a protected airspace and away from potentially hot areas, although it remained visible in the West even on the Flight Radar 24 tracking site.
Movements are facilitated by the lack of a counter air force, therefore a reduced risk over distances, i.e. limited to low-altitude helicopter operations targeted by light weapons. It should be noted that the “target” was to be handed over immediately to the agents of the DEA (the US anti-drug agency), the ones we saw in the photograph of Maduro as he got off the ladder of the government aircraft that took him from the Caribbean area of operations to New York.
The political factor and silence in Congress
If in Hollywood cinema the interference between government agencies has been the subject of mythical films, in the recent reality of Venezuela the Pentagon has been able to perfectly coordinate different institutions with a single purpose. Without informing the US Congress in advance, an operation that would have put the mission at risk, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated to journalists the day after the operation.
For two reasons, the first: “Congress has a tendency to leak information and this would not be good,” he said. The second: no one can exclude that the Caracas regime also has its intelligence agents operating in the USA. But if there were and still are, they evidently were unable to intercept information that had been collected and processed for months on board the Ford aircraft carrier. And not even understanding the moment in which “Aboslute Resolve” was started.
