Clip shows hostage rescue drill, not footage of US forces capturing Venezuelan president
- Published on January 22, 2026 at 09:47
- 2 min read
- By AFP Thailand
Hours after Washington announced in January 2026 US forces had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and taken him to New York to face narcotrafficking charges, a video was shared in social media posts falsely claiming it showed a Delta Force raid of the deposed president's home. The video has in fact circulated online since at least 2021 in posts calling it a hostage rescue training exercise.
"Video of the raid on Venezuela president's house," reads the Burmese-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on January 3, 2026.
The video, which has more than 24,000 views, appears to show the point of view of a soldier shooting at armed individuals as his squad goes room to room through a dimly lit house. The video ends with a photo of three soldiers posing in a room, with their faces blurred.
The video's voiceover tells viewers to like and subscribe to his channel, and describes it as a "Delta Force video".
The same footage was also shared in similar Facebook and TikTok posts after US Delta Force operatives swooped into Caracas, seized president Nicolás Maduro and spirited him to a US jail to face narcotrafficking charges (archived here and here).
Delcy Rodriguez, a former vice president and long-time insider in Venezuela's authoritarian and anti-American government, was sworn in as interim president two days after Maduro's seizure.
With a flotilla of US warships amassed off the Venezuelan coast, she has changed tack and allowed Washington to broker the sale of Venezuelan oil, facilitated foreign investment and released dozens of political prisoners.
The circulating video, however, does not show the military operation that extracted Maduro.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video found several longer versions of the clip shared on YouTube channels that regularly post military content.
One version, titled "CAG A Squadron HR CQB training", was shared on YouTube on December 9, 2021 (archived link). "HR CQB" refers to "Hostage Rescue Close Quarters Battle".
The portion used in the false posts begins at the YouTube video's 23-second mark.
Elements in the video, not used in the clip falsely shared online, provide indications it was not filmed in Venezuela.
At the 10-second mark, a sign reading "road closed" in English can be seen. An American flag is also visible at the 20-second mark.
Users in the comments claimed the footage was filmed by a "Matt Pranka". A subsequent keyword search shows Pranka is the founder of Xray Alpha, a company providing military training service in the United States (archived link).
Clips from the falsely shared video were also shared on the company's Instagram account in February 2024, in a post about teaching CQB techniques (archived link).
Xray Alpha did not respond to AFP's request for a comment.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the US military intervention in Venezuela.
Copyright © AFP 2017-2026. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
