The audacious US operation to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro came down to an intense final firefight in which US helicopters were exposed to an extraordinary level of risk as they descended into a heavily fortified compound in Caracas, according to key eyewitness videos analyzed by CNN.

CNN has reconstructed the January 3 mission, analyzing more than 50 videos and images filmed by eyewitnesses and mapping the flight paths of US helicopters to focus on those critical final moments. They unfolded at a location CNN has pinpointed as Maduro’s likely extraction point, a compound inside the military complex of Fort Tiuna.

Footage shows that in the moments leading up to the descent into this area there was fierce crossfire between American attack aircraft hovering overhead and Venezuelan air defenses.

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