I certainly don't doubt the competence of the US army, but the fact that they spent only minutes on active SEAD bombing raids to enable this operation suggests that it wasn't just cool tech or super competent SOF operators that truly enabled this operation.
Maduro is extremely unpopular so I don’t think it’s incredibly difficult for the CIA to recruit.
We're talking about the top #1 military power VS one of the most corrupt country in the world, lead by a dude who has a sub 20% approval rating, and a tiny ass army equipped with last century russian surplus equipment which hasn't been in any hot conflict since the 60s...