Trump's takeover How US military made plans to snatch Maduro

It took the US two hours and 28 minutes to snatch President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, last Saturday morning - an extraordinary display of imperial power that plunges 30 million Venezuelans into a profound uncertainty.

- By Dan Sabbagh

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".

As the US built up its military presence in the Caribbean from September, Maduro tightened his personal security to evade capture. He used six to eight places to spend the night, according to the New York Times.

Maduro also relied even more heavily on Cuban counterintelligence and bodyguards. Yet such measures were not enough. Last 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 military base in Caracas.

Spy drones were part of how the CIA monitored Maduro, but after his capture the agency also surprisingly briefed it had a human source inside the Venezuelan government - a bold statement given that 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.