US military tried several times to extract Maduro - including on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, report says

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Sunday 04 January 2026 10:22 EST


The United States tried several times last year to extradite Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro – including on Christmas and New Year’s Day – before successfully carrying out the strike on Saturday, according to a report. The two earlier attempts to capture Maduro, who has ruled the country for 13 years,were hampered by weather, Trump administration officials and others familiar with the operation told the Wall Street Journal.

After the failed attempts, President Donald Trump deferred to the Pentagon on when to carry out the strike, and was given the go-ahead at 10:46 p.m. Friday, according to the report.

“Good luck and godspeed,” Trump told military leaders before watching the mission unfold from a makeshift secure facility at Mar-a-Lago. Surrounded by his top aides, Trump received constant updates as 150 warplanes flew to the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and forced their way into Maduro’s bedroom.

Images released by the Trump administration also showed officials monitoring X on a large screen for any mention of the word “Venezuela.”

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/venezuela-maduro-capture-christmas-new-years-b2894226.html

[underpants]

1. Makeshift

[paleotn]

4. Where's the "Big Board?"

[ArizonaLib]

6. It is like watching a still

of a really bad cover band.

[Hugin]

12. Kegsbreath is bringing the age old DU emoji to life..

My mind reels trying to find a word or phrase to describe the level of moronic violent criminal incompetent malevolence in this photo.

It’s like they were deliberately trying to make fun of very serious matters and they aren’t funny.

[dpibel]

2. Big, big bedroom!

Hard to imagine how you'd fit all those warplanes into a bedroom.

[paleotn]

3. One of the worst written sentences of all time!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. I'm sure it was only two or three planes at a time.

It takes a lot of coordination.

It's good rehearsal for landing the new Gold-Plated Qatari Air Force One Gifty Plane.

[Bayard]

5. 150 warplanes

What in the world were they expecting to find?

[hardluck]

8. Takes a lot to conduct an operation of that scale

Just off the top of my head, fighter overwatch in case Venezuela's air force scrambles, SEADS, electronic suppression, AWACS, tankers for all the aircraft, strike packages, rescue helicopters on standby, the actual helicopters that infiltrated, drones - I'm sure I'm missing some.

[ificandream]

7. "Makeshift secure facility at Mar-A-Lago"? You've got to be kidding ....

Is there any security at Mar-A-Lago at all when foreign agents have access to the grounds?

[Tanuki]

10. An oxymoron if ever there was one!

[LudwigPastorius]

9. "...Trump...watching the mission unfold from a makeshift secure facility at Mar-a-Lago."

"makeshift secure facility"

So, he was on the toilet the whole time?

[Hugin]

11. Once again what happened isn't even close to an "extradition"...

Using the word muddies a real legal means of the transfer of a suspected criminal from one nation to another via treaty and negotiation.

This was a violent smash and grab like stealing a television out of a shop window.

[Igel]

13. I think they aimed for the recent term of art "extraction."

After all, they use mostly the same letters, so they must be similar.

Like "except" and "expect" are really the same word.

[Hugin]

14. The title is correct using "extract"...

Even though it still softens an extreme use of lethal overkill I can barely manage “extract”.

Then they turned around and blew it in the opening sentence.