The President of the United States, Donald Trump, mocked alleged "Russian" and "Chinese" teams during a remark about the operation in which U.S. forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
In his speech, Trump stated that “the Russian team didn’t work, the Chinese team didn’t work” and that “everyone is trying to figure out why it didn’t work.”
In the same sentence, he referred to a "destabilizer," saying that they "never managed to fire."
Trump made those statements referring to Maduro's capture during a meeting with military personnel, where he praised the participating troops and presented the operation as a demonstration of the United States Army's capabilities.
During a visit to Fort Bragg (North Carolina), the leader celebrated the special forces members who participated in the assault on January 3, stating that the incursion demonstrated the "full power" of the United States military and that the country is "feared" by its adversaries.
The comment regarding the “Russian” and “Chinese” teams adds to the White House's public narrative about the operation, which Trump announced as a “joint military extraction” in Caracas to “bring Maduro to justice,” according to an official U.S. government report.
During the early hours of January 3, 2026, sources from the United States government confirmed that the special operations unit Delta Force was responsible for the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a military operation carried out in Caracas.
The mission was executed with surgical precision and was directly authorized by President Donald Trump, who described the operation as "successful" just hours later from his residence in Florida.
The Delta Force, regarded as the most secretive and lethal unit of the U.S. Army, specializes in counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and capturing high-value targets.
Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that Maduro and Cilia Flores were caught while sleeping, inside a residence protected by their security detail.
A Delta Force command stormed into the residence, apprehended the couple without U.S. casualties, and extracted them from the country in a maneuver that lasted less than an hour.
The operation, planned for weeks with the support of the CIA, represented a decisive blow against chavismo and its allies, marking the end of a political cycle that lasted over two decades in Venezuela.
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