A recently declassified, though heavily redacted, legal memorandum has revealed additional details about “Operational Absolute Resolve,” – the US military operations in Venezuela to “extract” its President, Nicholas Maduro.
The bold US military operation, which ended in the arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, has continued to make headlines for nearly two weeks, with newer details emerging.
Some of these are definitive facts revealed by the Pentagon, while others are loosely tied theories put together by experts to make sense of this high-voltage operation.
In the dead of the night on January 3, 2026, nearly 150 aircraft, including fighter jets, rotary-wing aircraft, and drones, entered the capital city of Caracas, extracted the President from a heavily-defended military compound, and abducted him back to their warship, all within a span of less than two-and-a-half hours without suffering any casualties.
A new redacted legal memo released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) earlier this week states that the US military forces that went inside Venezuela that night had plans to obliterate three Venezuelan airfields if their combat jets tried to intercept or challenge the US operations.
The memo, dated December 23, 2025, was written by T. Elliot Gaiser, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the DoJ, to address questions linked to the legality of the operation, which was carried out without the approval of Congress.
“The War Department has identified three airfields that may be destroyed should it appear that fighters are being assembled there to intercept the assault force,” it stated. “The airfields will not be struck otherwise, as they are dual-use for military and civilian purposes.”
The memo did not specifically mention the three airfields, but we know that the three notable dual-use airfields in Venezuela are: Generalísimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base (La Carlota) in Caracas, Higuerote Airport east of Caracas along the coast, and El Libertador Air Base in Aragua State.
It is pertinent to note that the Venezuelan Air Force, officially known as the Bolivarian Military Aviation of Venezuela, is composed of the aging American-supplied F-16 and the Russian-made Su-30MK2V Flankers. However, none of these fighter jets was used to counter US military operations.
As per reports, the US warplanes targeted air defence systems such as Buk-2ME AD at sites like La Carlota Air Base and the Higuerote Airport. However, they did not attack the runways and hangars, demonstrating that the operation was primarily SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses)-oriented and sought to create corridors for helicopters carrying special forces to land at the military complex to extract Maduro.
The Higuerote Airport, east of Caracas, has been struck as part of the ongoing U.S. military operation. Secondary explosions are clearly visible. pic.twitter.com/TzEeej4SXP
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) January 3, 2026
In fact, satellite imagery released in the aftermath of the attack showed no damage to buildings or infrastructure at La Carlota beyond air defence assets. As per reports, one small civilian-type aircraft was purportedly destroyed alongside a Buk system at Higuerote, but it was likely collateral damage.
Neither the La Carlota Air Base nor the Higuerote Airport typically hosts fighter jets.
At La Carlota and Higuerote, imagery indicates strikes against exposed air defense units—not runways, hangars, or command facilities—while aircraft subsequently placed on runways appear intended for denial of follow-on fixed-wing operations. pic.twitter.com/I8I7DftWgl
— CSIS (@CSIS) January 9, 2026
Besides revealing the contingency plan, the memo also discusses Venezuelan resistance, fortifications at key bases, and the presence of anti-aircraft systems.
“The War Department had advised that Maduro spend considerable time at Fort Tiuna [Fuerte Tiuna], a fortified location at the southern end of Caracas, [redacted],” the memo states. “It is expected that U.S. forces will face heavy resistance on the approach.”
The memo said, “throughout our discussions, there has never been a suggestion that forces within Fort Tiuna will do anything other than go down fighting” and “it is indisputable that if Fort Tiuna were in the United States rather than Venezuela, there would be a sufficient threat of armed resistance,” he added.
These remarks were specifically aimed at Venezuela’s “anti-aircraft” systems. “There may be as many as 75 anti-aircraft battery sites along the approach route to Fort Tiuna,” the memo stated.
It is interesting to note that the US forces faced no significant resistance from Venezuelan air defenses, many of which had been blinded, as previously explained in detail by the EurAsian Times.
“Risks to the mission are significant,” and “success will depend on surprise,” the memo’s operational planning section, at least according to what is unredacted. Additionally, it stated that “Maduro’s exact location within the Fort at the time of the attack will determine, in part, the level of risk.”
Absolute Resolve Was A Success
The US employed a range of assets across land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains for ‘Operation Absolute Resolve,’ on January 2-3, 2026.
Announcing the military operation, Trump said, “It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.”
While he did not give more specific information on how that was achieved, analysts have noted that a cyberattack likely assisted in “turning out the lights” in Venezuela.
Additionally, Gen. Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had also cited “different effects provided by SPACECOM [U.S. Space Command], CYBERCOM [U.S. Cyber Command], and other members of the interagency [sic] to create a pathway” at the January 3 press conference following the operation.
The planning for this operation began in earnest in August 2025, with the CIA deploying a small team into Venezuela to gather real-time intelligence on Maduro’s everyday life, his movements, all the residences, and details about his pets. Meanwhile, the US military established the Joint Task Force Southern Spear in October 2025 to ensure better coordination and planning, making the high-stakes operation a resounding success.
Operation Absolute Resolve was led by the US Army’s elite Delta Force and a 200-strong force of special operations. The Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Stalkers, flew the force to and from Fuerte Tiuna using MH-60 Black Hawk and MH-47 Chinook helicopters.
Some of the MH-60s served as Direct Action Penetrators (DAP) or gunships, offering close air support to the main force.
In addition to the Night Stalker helicopters, these included B-1 bombers, EA-18G and EC-130H electronic warfare aircraft, F-22, F-35, and F/A-18E/F fighters, E-2 airborne early warning and control planes, and RQ-170 Sentinels stealth drones. The Navy warships offshore, such as the supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford and the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, also played key roles.
Warplanes such as Growlers, Super Hornets, F-35s, and drones may have conducted surveillance over Caracas and other areas, mapping air defenses, radars, and command nodes, in line with standard US tactics for building an “Electronic Order of Battle.”
On the day of the attack, the EA-18G Growlers, equipped with advanced jammers, likely overwhelmed and blinded radars through intensive jamming, spoofing, and possibly cyber-electromagnetic attacks, leading to the complete devastation of the country’s Command and Control system.
Experts believe that the US forces likely used spectrum-dominance tactics, including low-probability-of-intercept signals and decoys, to overwhelm the system. Additionally, they said that the age of the radars and the lack of integration with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven fusion may have contributed to the failure of Venezuelan radars.
Post-operation images from Venezuela confirmed that the US forces targeted Venezuelan air defenses, namely Russian-made Buk-M2E surface-to-air missile systems, using AGM-88-series anti-radiation missiles and AGM-154C Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW) precision-guided glide bombs.
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