Delta Force, the elite US military unit that captured Maduro

The United States launched a surprise attack on Venezuelan territory early Saturday morning. The president of the Latin American country, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife have been captured, as announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

U.S. administration officials confirmed to CBS News that the operation was carried out by Delta Force, the country’s main special operations unit, but did not specify where Maduro was detained or subsequently taken. They also provided no details about how the operation unfolded.

Delta Force is officially known as the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment–Delta. It is a special operations military group tasked with high-risk missions, such as counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and the capture or elimination of high-value targets for the United States. The unit operates under strict secrecy, and its missions are rarely publicly acknowledged by authorities.

Popular imagination has associated them with a group of ruthless heroes due to numerous Hollywood films. Chuck Norris starred in the action film Delta Force in 1986, when the unit was less than a decade old. Popular video games have also been released based on supposed missions carried out by the military group.

The elite unit has extensive experience in U.S. military operations in Iraq over the past few decades. First deployed to the country in 1991 and again in 2003, it has returned occasionally for specific operations, according to The Washington Post. The rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq led the unit to its longest and most protracted campaign in the country.

Delta Force was established in 1979 as the U.S. military’s rescue and response team in the face of the increase in international terrorist incidents. One of the unit’s first missions was Operation Eagle Claw, the extraction of hostages from the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1980. Although unsuccessful at the time, the operation has been depicted in several films. Notable examples include the movie Argo, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, and Desert One, directed by Barbara Kopple. Delta Force also participated in the Battle of Mogadishu (Somalia) in 1993, an operation recounted in the film Black Hawk Down.

The elite unit was also responsible for the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Delta Force has also participated in operations in Latin America, such as the search for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. Delta also participated unsuccessfully in a mission in Syria in July 2014 to attempt to rescue Americans held captive by the Islamic State.

In a lengthy article about the role of the special forces unit, The Washington Post explained a few years ago that the existence of Delta Force, although classified, is an open secret. Soldiers who have served in the unit, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, leave little trace of their time with the group. The few memoirs published by veterans describe training that transforms soldiers into “operators” capable of working with minimal prior planning in both active combat zones and the chaos of the aftermath, sometimes storming into compounds with attack dogs barking and firing, and sometimes remaining completely undetected. Delta Force is one of the best-trained elite units in the world and also participated in the mission that killed former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.

Furthermore, they are often responsible for operations against high-profile targets considered critical to U.S. national security. The military also has other elite units, such as the Navy SEALs, which led the operation to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, and which has at times overshadowed Delta Force.

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