They call themselves the Night Stalkers and their unofficial motto hints at the group’s lethal nocturnal line of work: “Death Waits in the Dark.” “You can flee, but they will find you,” warns a rare book about the US army’s secretive 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).
Since the elite helicopter unit’s creation in 1981, its daredevil pilots have taken part in some of the most dangerous missions in recent US military history: battling Islamic State during Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria, and Somali warlords during Operation Gothic Serpent; and spiriting Navy Seals into Pakistan to kill the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as part of Operation Neptune Spear.
“I honestly think these people are the best rotor-wing pilots in the world … They are the Formula One drivers of aviation,” said Steven Hartov, the author of a book about the unit’s top secret missions, which nearly always happen under the cover of darkness.
In recent weeks the Night Stalkers have found themselves in a different part of the world, their egg-shaped Little Bird attack helicopters and Black Hawks spotted not in Idlib, Kandahar or Baghdad but 90 miles off the coast of Venezuela.
The group’s Caribbean training assignment – part of a major military deployment which has also seen B-52 bombers and F-35 fighter jets take to the region’s skies – comes as Donald Trump ratchets up the pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, in what many believe is an attempt to force him from power.
Last week Trump publicly confirmed authorising covert CIA operations within Venezuela and boasted that Maduro “doesn’t want to fuck around with the United States”. Since September, at least 27 people have been killed in US missile strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean.
“If there was a ‘probability of US military action in Venezuela’ radar, I would say it’s definitely leaning past the 75% probability at this stage, if not more, because things have never escalated to this level,” said Eva Golinger, an American lawyer who advised Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez. “I’m waiting for the text in the middle of the night or the call that [there has been] … some type of US incursion inside Venezuela or selective bombing.”
Trump was “willing to go for it because he believes his power is limitless”, Golinger said. “Venezuela is in the eye … and it’s pretty terrifying.”
Robert Evan Ellis, a Latin America expert who advised Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state during Trump’s first term, said the Caribbean exercises were one strand of“acarefully calibrated military messaging” campaign to pile pressure on Maduro’s regime as part of a “controlled negotiation” designed to advance US interests.
Ellis saw three possible outcomes: the pressure could convince Venezuelan military bossesto topple Maduro “and solve the problem without the US”; Maduro’s regime could be “decapitated” by a major US operation, paving the way for a democratic transition; or Trump could strike “some sort of substantive deal”that ensures Maduro’s exit and gives US companies access to Venezuela’s abundant natural resources.
He thought such a deal might leave an undemocratic regimein place. It might also involve building a Trump hotel “with a great golf course” in Venezuela’s capital.
“What is very difficult for me to imagine happening is that Maduro stays in power and this just goes on as it had before,” added Ellis, who suspected Trump’s failure to remove Maduro during his first term meant he would be loth to fail again.
“I’m inclined to believe that … if we arrive at end of November [or] early December and there’s not a good deal or a resolution with the military taking this into their own hands … [then] the president very well could pull the trigger and do the operation,” Ellis said.
The prospect of a US attack has spooked regional governments, with Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, this week warning against outside meddling in a “continent free of weapons of mass destruction”.
“Foreign intervention can cause more damage than it seeks to prevent,” said Lula, whose military commanders recently sent 10,000 troops to Brazil’s northern border with Venezuela for exercises.
Earlier this month, Venezuela’s UN ambassador, Samuel Moncada, claimed Washington was “walking towards a catastrophe that may destroy the whole region for generations”. He said: “They’re coming for an invasion … to take away our country and turn us into a colony,” noting the presence of US helicopters near Trinidad.
Some doubt Trump will follow through, viewing his military manoeuvres as a bluff designed to intimidate Maduro or his military top brass.
Hartov was also sceptical Washington would launch a “massive” snatch-and-grab operation targeting Maduro or his ministers. “But they did so with Noriega – and the Night Stalkers were heavily involved in that. They did so with Saddam Hussein – the Night Stalkers were involved in that. They did so with Osama bin Laden.
“I would be nervous if I were [Maduro].”
cdVia The Guardian
