It went around the world in just minutes.

The first image of Nicolas Maduro after being arrested in a US military operation this Saturday will remain in the memory of many.

The photographic record was released just hours after US elite troops arrested the former leader of the Venezuelan regime. 2013, in an operation ordered by Donald Trump himself.

It was Trump himself who shared the photograph of Maduro on the Truth Social network, at a time when the then Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, was asking for proof of life after the capture of the president and his wife.

So far, it is known that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested in the early morning at Fort Tiuna, in southwest Caracas, and were then transferred by helicopter to the warship Iwo Jima to be taken—via Cuba—to New York.

There, both will face US justice on charges of conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the US, and other weapons-related crimes.

At BBC Mundo, we consulted experts in defense and military operations about what conclusions can be drawn from that first image in which Maduro is seen wearing sportswear, with his hands apparently cuffed, and with his senses, such as sight and hearing, impaired. heard, blocked.

Common Techniques

For Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior advisor to the Department of Defense and Security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), “the government has treated this arrest as a law enforcement matter, not a military operation, so they have treated Maduro as a detainee.”

“That is seen first in the rhetoric and also in the treatment: he is captured, taken to detention.” centers, and all the procedures that would be applied to any prisoner accused of a crime are applied to him,” he adds.

According to experts, in that context, It would be common practice—particularly in the United States—to block senses such as sight and hearing in operations of this nature.

“These are common detention techniques in military apprehensions,used both to silence or isolate the detainee and prevent communication with others, and to protect mission security by preventing the detainee from learning about the methods, personnel, locations, and capabilities employed during the operation,” says John Spencer, a US expert on military operations and urban warfare and chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

Matthew Savill, director of Military Science at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world's oldest defense and security studies center and the UK's leading one, agrees that these protocols are based on tactical reasons.

“Most likely, it's done to make the detainee more subdued and less likely to escape, and also to make it difficult for them to identify any of the Delta Force team members involved in their capture,” he argues.

Some analysts, however, have pointed out that Maduro's use of headphones may simply be due to the helicopter trip he took when he was transferred to the warship Iwo Jima, where this type of protection is required by protocol.

Another element in the image is the water bottle Maduro is holding.

“I consider it a standard health and safety measure for detainees; they need water. I think that's a fairly standard measure,” Cancian maintains.

Life preserver

The image also shows Nicolas Maduro with something around his neck.

According to experts consulted by BBC Mundo, it is an inflatable life preserver, like those typically used on aircraft and in the navy as a safety measure in case passengers come into contact with water.

The life preserver appears to have a manual inflation system and one using CO2 cartridges, which look like small balls. detained.The position of his hands suggests he was apparently handcuffed, and his clothing—a tracksuit—indicates that the operation may have caught him off guard at that late hour. This coincides with the version given by President Donald Trump, who asserted that both Maduro and his wife were captured while trying to lock themselves in a secure room at Fort Tiuna. “He was trying to get to a secure place, which wasn't, because we would have blown the door off in about 47 seconds,” Trump said. "He got to the door. He couldn't close it. He was subdued so quickly that he didn't even get into that room," he added.