VIDEO What was the name of the American mission to capture Maduro / The Venezuelan dictator will make a stop at Guantanamo

Last night's mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was called Operation Absolute Resolve, US Army Chief of Staff General Dan Caine said on Saturday.

“This operation, Absolute Resolve, was discreet, precise and conducted during the hours of maximum darkness on Jan. 2. It was the culmination of months of preparation and training — an operation that, frankly, only the United States military could pull off,” said Gen. Dan Caine, who joined President Donald Trump in Saturday's news conference at Mar-a-Lago about the operation. US military in Venezuela.

Stressing that the operation against the Venezuelan leader had been prepared “for months”, the head of the American army specified that it had mobilized more than 150 planes.

“Nicolás Maduro and his wife, both accused, surrendered without resistance and were taken into custody by the Department of Justice with the help of our incredible U.S. military,” the senior U.S. military official added.

Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine details the “audacious” joint military and intelligence operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro that “only the United States could do”

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Earlier, Trump said in a phone call to Fox News that he watched the “amazing” operation in Venezuela like a movie.

According to the US president, Maduro and his wife are on board the USS Iwo Jima, which is heading to New York, where the dictator will be tried for drug and arms trafficking in the federal court in Manhattan.

Maduro, briefly held at the US base in Guantanamo Bay

On his way to the US, the Venezuelan leader is expected to make a brief stop at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay before being transferred to New York, two sources familiar with the mission's plans told CNN.

The reasoning would be, according to the sources cited, that this would allow the transfer to be made more quickly. Specifically, by putting him on a plane from there, US officials can take him directly to New York, rather than having to bring him to another court first.

The US military base, sometimes called “Gitmo”, is located in southeastern Cuba on the coast of Guantanamo Bay.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were forced out of their bedroom by US special forces during the raid, sources told CNN.

Trump, who spent the holidays in Palm Beach at his private Mar-a-Lago club, said he watched as the US military captured Maduro, including breaking down the steel doors there.