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Washington.- Delta Force, a U.S. Army airborne special operations unit with a long history of actions focused on high-priority targets, appears to be behind the furtive operation to capture in Venezuela the president, Nicolás Maduro, and the first lady, Cilia Flores.
Although very little is still known about the operation and the American president himself, Donald Trump, has refused to confirm whether or not this body was in charge of the apprehension of Maduro and Flores, the CBS network has assured that the mission bore the signature of the Delta Force and the 160th Aviation Special Operations Regiment.
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The media has pointed out that Apache attack helicopters and also Chinooks, helicopters that Delta Force usually employs as transport, flew over the skies of Caracas and other surrounding points that were attacked today. Trump has mentioned that the operation was carried out "with pinpoint accuracy" and that the unit built an exact replica of the residence in which they entered to capture the Venezuelan president and the first lady. All of this corresponds to the way the Delta Force operates, acquiring high-precision shooting skills, and demolition, surveillance, espionage, or high-level bodyguard skills. The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, its official designation, was founded in 1977 inspired by the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) and with the aim of participating in counter-terrorism actions. Following the setback of its first mission, an attempt to rescue the staff of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in April 1980 that failed because several helicopters broke down, the Joint Special Operations Command was created, which studies prerequisites for special missions to ensure interoperability and which has since been the command in charge of Delta Force. The unit, stationed at Fort Bragg, conducts reconnaissance operations, counter-terrorism, hostage rescue or executes direct actions, which are short-duration military attacks, and usually focuses on high-priority targets, a terminology used for both assets and people and which the US Army has applied to figures such as Osama Bin Laden. Although almost all information about Delta Force is "highly classified," it is believed to be composed of at least a dozen squadrons with several hundred personnel. Throughout its history, this body has participated in operations framed within the invasion of the island of Grenada in 1983, supported the Contras in Nicaragua, helped capture then-President Manuel Noriega in Panama in January 1990, and collaborated in different operations in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11, and also participated in the assassination of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Delta Force members were also among the crew of the helicopters shot down during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, an episode that inspired the film 'Black Hawk Down'. The elite unit is in turn the protagonist in the film 'The Delta Force' and its two sequels, all starring Oklahoma actor Chuck Norris.
