Delta Force veteran shares his thoughts on the capture of Maduro

Whether the Maduro abduction is against international law depends on who you ask… therefore there can be no right or wrong answer. The truth lies in the eyes of the executor and with the entity that has the power to own and hold it. The incident may fall into a legal gray area, but in short, Maduro was seized and brought to the U.S. to face narco-terrorism charges and other charges – a grave matter to be sure.

There is an empty jail cell all ready for occupation by defunct Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro; that cell is right next to former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega. I say this to illustrate the parallel between the two dictators. In fact, Manuel Noriega died in an American prison on May 29, 2017, at the age of 83.

Both Operation Just Cause/Acid Gambit in Panama in 1989, which overthrew Noriega, and now Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela, happened when America deemed that enough was enough when it came to corruption and illegal drug running to the United States. These sorts of operations are largely why Delta Force exists – they are truly missions for Delta.

I was in Caracas, Venezuela with Delta in 1996 when Rafael Caldera was president. In that year, there was already a Green Beret A-Team on the ground teaching the Venezuelan military Close Quarter Combat (CQC). Me and my Delta counterpart were teaching the Venezuelan Guardia Nationál (National Guard) a very specialized CQC technique of liberating a passenger airliner form highjackers.

The mug shot of Manuel Noriega. (U.S. Marshals Service)

Even in that year there was such internal unrest in the government that we were not certain we would be able to fly out by commercial airline services (as we had flown in). So, we began to plan for an overland evacuation route to exit the country. Some things just never change.

Minus the bottomless pit of hate that is bipartisan politics, from a military aspect Operation Absolute Resolve was a textbook case of flawlessly executing an incredibly complex joint military operation; it will be hailed and studied for many years to come on how.

Militaries around the globe will be offering sincere kudos to the great green machine that is the American armed forces.

There were over 150 aircraft to coordinate, including fighters, bombers, Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft, and Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft of many kinds, not to mention the all-important logistic fleet of refueling the aircraft. During the operation, one helicopter was hit by ground fire but continued to operate as planned. The pilot of the helo was injured but not seriously. He was able to continue the mission in spite of his wounds.

The multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) sits at anchor off the coast of Colombia while conducting well deck operations, August 2010. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Zane Ecklund)

All operators of Delta’s squadron that conducted the raid returned to their launch point aboard the Amphibious Assault Ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) to stand down from the operation and receive an intelligence update on the next threat to the United States.

When I was in Somalia, the usual daily intel briefs began to center on the growing threat situation in Haiti. We began preliminary planning on potential actions in Haiti even as war lord Muhammad Aideed ran from assaults conducted by Delta’s C Squadron. Always ready for the next thing, that’s just the way the Delta Force has always done business.

By Almighty God and with Honor,
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Feature Image: Night Stalker helicopters over Caracas. (The Team House/X)

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