Washington
Close to 200 U.S. military personnel entered the Venezuelan capital Caracas as part of the operation to seize leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Monday (January 5, 2026).
U.S. forces captured Mr. Maduro and his wife over the weekend, bringing to an end 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule by the left-wing leader, whom Washington accused of running a drug cartel and targeted with a $50 million bounty.
"Nearly 200 of our greatest Americans went downtown in Caracas... and grabbed an indicted individual wanted by American justice, in support of law enforcement, without a single American killed," Mr. Hegseth said in a speech to U.S. sailors and shipbuilders in Virginia.
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