WASHINGTON, United States, Jan 6, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Close to 200 US military personnel entered the Venezuelan capital Caracas as part of the operation to seize leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on Monday.

US forces captured Maduro and his wife over the weekend, bringing to an end 12 years of increasingly authoritarian rule by the left-wing leader, whom Washington accused of running a drug cartel and targeted with a $50 million bounty.

"Nearly 200 of our greatest Americans went downtown in Caracas... and grabbed an indicted individual wanted by American justice, in support of law enforcement, without a single American killed," Hegseth said in a speech to US sailors and shipbuilders in Virginia.

It was the first time that a US official had provided a figure for American forces who swooped into Caracas via helicopter as part of the stunning operation, which also involved more than 150 military aircraft in various roles, including striking Venezuelan defenses.

Maduro, a self-described socialist, led Venezuela with an iron fist and maintained power through a series of elections that were widely considered to have been rigged. He and his wife Cilia Flores both entered pleas of not guilty in a New York court on Monday.