4. Tying back into the above, all of those senior leaders and that military seem
to have gotten the memo to change their bed down locations and not show up for
duty last night. The assault force, flying in slow and highly vulnerable
helicopters, took desultory small arms fire coming in but not the antiaircraft
buzzsaw they should have run into over Caracas given the Venezuelans have had
four months to prepare for war. It's unclear whether they faced any resistance
at all on the ground - for all we know by that point Maduro had already been
arrested by his own military and was simply handed over to the commandos.
Certainly the troops were in and out very quickly, suggesting actions on the
objective were largely pro forma.
-- https://nitter.net/ArmchairW/status/2007504591861231918
Jan 3, 2026 · 5:29 PM UTC

AW retweeted this from Patricia Marins:
To fully understand how the Venezuelan armed forces sold out Maduro, we must
also consider that Venezuela had - and still has -more military equipment than
most countries in the region.

"Helicopters flying low and opening fire over Caracas, over an army that
possesses 5,000 MANPADs and more than 100 air defence systems, doesn't make any
sense unless there was a ground cooptation operation. But there's something in
all this that doesn't fit. Every leader has at least a portion of the military
on their side. This all smells like something very negotiated. In fact, most
military bases were spared, which doesn't make any sense in an attack prepared
for so long. There's something that will still be explained."
-- https://nitter.net/pati_marins64/status/2007508951475089679
Jan 3, 2026 · 5:46 PM UTC