President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US had captured Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro after launching an attack on the country.
“Details to follow. There will be a news conference,” Mr Trump announced.
If the US did pull off the capture of Mr Maduro and his wife, it would almost certainly have followed one of many hard-learned playbooks, all reliant on intelligence penetration rather than brute force.
Here are three of the most plausible scenarios:
Inside job
The first, and least dramatic, is an inside job. In this scenario, Mr Maduro was not overpowered but quietly abandoned.
Senior figures within Venezuela’s security or military apparatus may have withdrawn protection, restricted his movements or provided access and timing to US operators.
Authoritarian systems often collapse this way: loyalty erodes under sanctions, fear of prosecution and elite infighting. When the centre weakens, survival instincts take over. The precedent is Panama's Manuel Noriega, whose isolation by insiders in 1989 paved the way for his removal by US forces.
President Donald Trump said the US had captured President Nicolas Maduro, pictured
Continue Reading on The National UAE
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.