On January 3, 2026, the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a precision military strike that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in Caracas, marking a bold reassertion of American dominance in the Western Hemisphere under President Trump’s reinterpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. Rooted in the 2025 National Security Strategy’s Trump Corollary, the operation targeted Maduro’s regime as a hub for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian influence, narco-terrorism via the Cartel of the Suns, and threats to U.S. energy security through Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Months of preparation began with CIA’s Whispering Gale intelligence campaign in August 2025, building a detailed pattern-of-life profile on Maduro using HUMINT, NSA SIGINT, RQ-170 stealth drones, and rehearsals at a full-scale Kentucky mockup of his Fuerte Tiuna compound. Preceding strikes under Operation Southern Spear degraded Venezuelan logistics, positioning 15,000 U.S. troops, the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group, USS Iwo Jima, Delta Force, 160th SOAR helicopters, F-35s, B-1Bs, and over 150 aircraft in the region. Authorized by Trump at 10:46 PM EST on January 2, the raid unfolded in phases: U.S. Cyber Command blacked out Caracas power grids; EA-18G Growlers jammed S-300 and Buk-M2 radars with NGJ-MB and DRFM tech; F-35s and F-22s fired HARMs to suppress air defenses; MH-60M Black Hawks and MH-47G Chinooks flew low-altitude canyon routes to insert Delta operators at 1:01 AM EST. In a fierce 25-minute ground assault, operators breached reinforced doors with explosives and blowtorches, apprehending the couple before they reached a safe room amid clashes killing 32 Cuban guards and over 80 total. Maduro and Flores were exfiltrated to the USS Iwo Jima, then routed through Puerto Rico, Guantanamo, and New York for narco-terrorism trials in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center under Executive Order 14157 and the Alien Enemies Act. Post-operation, strikes damaged Fort Tiuna, La Carlota airbase, Higuerote airport, and La Guaira port, with no U.S. fatalities. Trump announced U.S. oversight of Venezuela via a “Petro-Protectorate,” led by Secretaries Rubio and Hegseth, to reconstruct PDVSA, exclude adversaries, curb migration, and reimburse intervention costs through oil contracts. The mission exposed Russian IADS vulnerabilities, normalized “kinetic law enforcement” for regime change, eroded sovereignty norms, and risks insurgency or Cuban retaliation, reshaping hemispheric power dynamics through integrated cyber-air-special ops warfare.