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Venezuela's Maduro Set For First Court Appearance Monday; Sources: WH To Brief Select Lawmakers On Venezuela Monday; U.N. Security Council Calls Emergency Meeting On Venezuela; Venezuelan Opposition Leader Asks Military To Honor 2024 Vote; Trump Claims Machado Doesn't Have Respect In Venezuela; Trump Says The U.S. Is "In Charge" Of Venezuela; Denmark Pushes Back After Trump Says U.S. Needs Greenland; Maduro's Capture Sparks Concern Across Latin America; Global Oil Prices Dip Slightly After U.S. Action In Venezuela. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired January 04, 2025 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:01:42]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. And we're continuing our breaking news coverage of the fallout over the U.S. operation in Venezuela and the capture of Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

Just a short time ago, President Donald Trump returned to Washington. Had this to say on Air Force One about who is now in charge of Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're dealing with the people. We're dealing with the people that just got sworn in. And don't ask me who's in charge because I'll give you an answer and it'll be very controversial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that mean?

TRUMP: It means we're in charge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you spoken with her?

TRUMP: We're in charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, at the same time, Venezuela's Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, she was Vice President under Maduro, is now officially the acting President of Venezuela. She's now striking a somewhat softer tone, extending an invitation to the U.S. government to collaborate on a, quote, "agenda of cooperation."

All this as Nicolas Maduro, now in custody in New York, gets set to make his first court appearance on Monday. He faces drug, weapons and narcoterrorism charges. President Trump says the case against Maduro is strong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The case is -- it's infallible. People are so happy with what we've done. You know, you go down to Miami, you go down to a lot of places and they're all dancing in the streets of this country. Now, he was a rough man, killed millions of people. He killed millions and millions of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Not clear where he gets those statistics. CNN's Evan Perez is following developments from New York.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have now spent their first day in federal detention here at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Now, this is a place with a fairly notorious reputation. Everyone from judges and members of Congress and even the Justice Department's inspector general have cataloged the number of poor and inhumane conditions here at this facility, including inmates with illegal weapons and illegal electronics, as well as poor medical treatment for the people who are detained here.

Now, that's -- those are the conditions under which the Maduros have been living here over the last 24 hours. Far cry from the presidential palace in Miraflores in Caracas, where they were just a day before. Now, what happens next is that the Maduros will be taken to federal court on Monday. This is just going to be their first federal court appearance. They'll be before a judge at noon in downtown Manhattan.

The judge will read them the four federal charges that they are facing, including narcotrafficking and cocaine importation conspiracy. And that begins the process inside the U.S. justice system for the Maduros. We don't know yet who is representing them in a federal court, but we expect that this is going to be a process that's going to take some months, perhaps more than a year, before a trial gets started.

We anticipate that the Maduros will make the argument that the U.S. plucking them from Caracas is an illegal action and that they should not face these charges. All of that, of course, is going to be worked out before a federal judge in the coming months. Again, that gets started in downtown Manhattan at noon on Monday.

Evan Perez, CNN, Brooklyn, New York.

[23:05:15]

SCIUTTO: David Weinstein is a criminal defense attorney and partner at Jones Walker LLP. He's a former state and federal prosecutor, served as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and he joins me now from Miami. David, thanks so much for joining.

DAVID WEINSTEIN, FMR. STATE & FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: You're welcome, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So you heard the President there saying that the case, the legal case against Maduro is infallible. Do you agree?

WEINSTEIN: Well, we haven't seen any evidence yet, Jim. We've seen an indictment, a rather very long-speaking indictment talking about overt acts and acts that were committed in furtherance of this conspiracy, very serious allegations. But we haven't seen any of the evidence that the government intends to present to the jury to prove their case.

I suspect there will be a lot of cooperating former co-conspirators, perhaps some wiretap evidence, some seized loads of cocaine, things of that nature. But until we see it, nobody really knows how strong it is.

SCIUTTO: What's the best comparison for this kind of case where the U.S. exercises a warrant, in effect, in a foreign country and extradites that poor person to the U.S.? I imagine Manuel Noriega in 1990.

WEINSTEIN: That's the closest example we have. And it's important to note here that there was really no extradition. They extracted him from Venezuela. He wasn't expelled by the country of Venezuela. The U.S. forces went in and extracted him.

Now, they extracted Noriega from Panama, but that was after he surrendered. So it's probably the most similar to Noriega, and we will hear his name time and again, and we will hear about decisions that were made in that case as we leap into both the initial appearance, the arraignment, and then the trial in this case.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you a very basic question. Is it legal for one country to fly into another country and arrest someone?

WEINSTEIN: Well, under certain circumstances, it is, in fact, legal to do that. The (INAUDIBLE) with Noriega, it was further exhibited in other cases that have taken place since that time, but in most instances, the country where the person is taken from is cooperating, either through an extradition or by expelling that person from the country down here in South Florida.

We've seen that happen with Haiti, where there was no extradition treaty. We've seen the issue come up time and again with countries like Israel and other countries in the Middle East, as well as in Eastern Europe, where the U.S. has come in and has taken people out of there, and that's going to be a central issue here. We saw some of that happen in Mexico recently, where a cartel leader was coerced into coming into the U.S., and it's been fighting his extraction as well.

SCIUTTO: It's an important distinction, right, because it's not extradition where there's a legal process to do so. This was a extraction by military force. Does the use of military force to bring him to justice or putative justice here in the U.S., does that affect the legal case in any way?

WEINSTEIN: Well, it affects the case in its inception and its initial appearances here. The question becomes, did that extraction taint the process itself? And that's something that's going to be litigated here from the early part of the game. It remains to be seen whether or not they're going to even volunteer to be part of the process tomorrow or whether they're going to start their fight by saying you kidnapped me and brought me here. I'm not going to engage in this process until we hash that out and get to the bottom of what's going on there. The U.S., on the other hand, is going to say this was not a military extraction. This was a law enforcement action, and we went in, and we extracted him because there was this arrest warrant, and he was hiding out from us.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see how the case proceeds on U.S. soil.

David Weinstein in Miami, thanks so much for joining.

WEINSTEIN: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: Well, sources tell CNN the Trump administration will brief a select group of lawmakers from both parties on Venezuela, the path forward, as well as the operation in a classified setting on Monday night. This comes as the U.S. Secretary of State says approval from Congress was not necessary for this operation. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee disagrees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM HIMES, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: I'm a member of the Gang of Eight, and I have yet to get a phone call from anybody in the administration. Whether you think Congress leaks or not, the law says you must brief the Congress. So this is just yet another example of absolute lawlessness on the part of this administration.

[23:10:01]

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, we will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval, but otherwise they will get congressional notification. That -- and this is not an operation that requires congressional approval. In fact, this is an operation akin to what virtually every single president for the last 40 years has conducted. The difference is that when it's Donald Trump, you know, all these Democrats go bonkers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: How about the American public? A CBS/YouGov poll from November found that a majority, a big one, of Americans were opposed to military action in Venezuela by more than 2 to 1 margin. Three in four Americans polled said the President should get congressional approval before taking military action.

Earlier, I spoke with Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley, also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, for his opinion on whether the operation was legal. Here's our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE QUIGLEY, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: It was not, and actually the boat strikes weren't. And, you know, I think the public needs to know that Congress wasn't briefed before those strikes happened. They clearly weren't briefed as it relates to this. And this is what, my 17th year in Congress now.

We have been talking about Congress reasserting its constitutional role here in all those 17 years, and it simply hasn't stepped up. This is getting very scary. It's close to home. It has the ability to escalate very dramatically, and I think it's fair to ask what's next.

Part of that what's next is Congress reasserting that role, but also understanding the threats that exist with this and what's taking place and just how far President Trump will take this, you know, not just in Venezuela, but his rather overt threats to other countries, what he's talked about with Greenland. What's next is --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

QUIGLEY: -- probably top of everyone's mind as we go back to D.C.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, Trump's top diplomat is walking back President Trump's remarks that the U.S. will, quote, "run" Venezuela. This comes as Trump has ruled out or at least undermined the idea of a role for the popular opposition leader to go into leadership in Venezuela. We're going to have the details when we come back.

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[23:16:02]

SCIUTTO: The U.N. Security Council has granted Venezuela's request for an emergency meeting on Monday to address the U.S. operation inside the country. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier tried to walk back President Trump's statement that the U.S. will be, quote, "running Venezuela now."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: Well, it's not running. It's running policy. The policy with regards to this, we want Venezuela to move in a certain direction because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest. It either touches on something that's a threat to our national security or touches on something that's either beneficial or harmful.

This is a team effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country, but it is running this policy. And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United States, first and foremost, because that's who we work for, but also, we believe, beneficial for the people of Venezuela, who have suffered tremendously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: We should note President Trump did say run the country. The Venezuelan defense minister is demanding the immediate return of ousted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and offered this warning to the International Community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PADRINO LOPEZ, VENEZUELAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translation): It was an act of cowardice, but it also represents a threat. It's a world order. And what has happened against Venezuela could happen to any other country. This is a colonialist aggression and represents a repressive hand over Latin America and the Caribbean, and we reject that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: In comments to reporters, President Trump has warned that Venezuela's acting President, Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro's Vice President, needs to give the U.S., quote, "total access to oil." The President mentioned oil a number of times, as well as other resources in the short term. Otherwise, she might face a face -- face a fate worse than Maduro if she doesn't do the right thing.

Venezuela's exiled opposition leader is calling on the country's military to bring him to power. After Nicolas Maduro's ouster, the U.S. and most Western governments recognize Edmundo Gonzalez as the rightful winner of Venezuela's 2024 presidential election. Maduro remained in power, however, after the election board, stacked with his allies, claimed that he won the vote.

Gonzalez fled the country after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Opposition politician Maria Corina Machado, who was disqualified from running in that election by the Maduro regime, says the time has come for Gonzalez to take his rightful place as the country's elected leader. Gonzalez is calling for Venezuela to exercise democratic principles now that Maduro is gone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDMUNDO GONZALEZ, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translation): As President of the Venezuelan people, I issue a calm and clear call to the National Armed Forces and the State Security Forces. Your duty is to uphold and enforce the sovereign mandate expressed on July 28, 2024.

As commander-in-chief, I remind you that your loyalty is to the Constitution, to the people and to the republic. This is a historic moment and we are approaching it with serenity, clarity, and democratic commitment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The Trump administration seems to be saying now it will have the final say on who will lead Venezuela. President Trump says that the Venezuelan opposition leader and this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Corina Machado, lacks the, quote, "respect to lead her country."

Here's how he put it to reporters on Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, is the U.S. aware of the location of opposition leader Machado and have you been in contact with her?

TRUMP: No, we haven't. Really, no, we haven't. I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect to be the leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Earlier, I spoke with Venezuelan opposition politician and adviser to Machado, David Smolansky, to ask for his reaction to President Trump's assessment. Have a listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SMOLANSKY, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION POLITICIAN: Well, in that regard, with due respect to President Trump, Maria Corina Machado is the most trusted leader in Venezuela. She's got all the legitimacy when she won a primary with 93 percent of the vote. Then when she endorsed President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez after she was illegally banned from running, President-elect won with 70 percent of the outcome.

And she's very capable. She's brave. She's courageous. She was in hiding for over a year, and I don't have any doubt that she's going to be with President-elect Edmundo Gonzalez, the leaders of the rebuilding of Venezuela, where obviously the U.S. is going to be our main allies, and we will have plenty of other allies in Latin America and Europe and beyond. But Maria Corina Machado is a leader who is out of this world, and she's got the support for -- from almost every Venezuelan.

SCIUTTO: But if she doesn't have support of the U.S. President, how does she have a viable path to power?

SMOLANSKY: Well, she has a viable path to power because she got the support of the people. She's got the legitimacy not once but twice, as I said, winning the primary in 2023 and then the July 28th election, 2024. And then she has led a resistance chapter that contributed, I have to say, contributed for where we are right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining us now, Eric Farnsworth, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joining us from McLean, Virginia. Eric, good to have you on tonight. Thanks so much.

ERIC FARNSWORTH, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Thanks for having me. SCIUTTO: So help us understand what happened this weekend. The U.S. sent the Delta Force in to arrest the leader of a country and his wife, fly them back to the U.S. to stand trial. The President says the U.S. is going to run the country now. The President has effectively dismissed the opposition leader as a viable leader, and the President has repeatedly mentioned oil as being a primary focus of U.S. interest there now. What happened?

FARNSWORTH: Well, it does seem to be pretty confusing. I think let's take a quick step back. Let's compliment the U.S. forces who carried out just a magnificent tactical operation to actually get Mr. Maduro and deliver him to New York.

And I think the key now is to make sure that that tactical success becomes a strategic success, and a strategic success is going to be transitioning from the Maduro regime, not just Mr. Maduro himself, but the regime and its leadership, and returning Venezuela to somewhat of a democracy and giving the elected, the President-elect, the opportunity to actually rule, Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Carina Machado.

So you've got a confused situation. And I think what needs to happen -- obviously, Secretary of State Rubio was trying to clarify some of these issues today -- but what needs to happen is some real messaging to the people of Venezuela. Because they're going to start getting fairly anxious pretty quick, because if the idea is that Delcy Rodriguez and regime elements are going to remain in place, I think they're going to start asking questions, well, what was this all about, and what's it all for, and where are we heading? That has to be clarified, and it has to be clarified pretty quickly.

SCIUTTO: No question. Listen, I just had a long conversation with an adviser to Maria Carina Machado, who does not seem they've gotten any assurances at all from the administration as to whether they even have a role. And you and I heard in the weeks and months leading up to this about how important democracy was there. Has the Trump administration shown any commitment to restoring democracy in that country, with these initial moves at least?

FARNSWORTH: Well, I think if you listen to what was said over the weekend, democracy was not the top priority, and I think that's right. You're right to raise that. But I do think Secretary of State Rubio has been very clear as well in some of his comments. The respect that he has for Maria Carina Machado and the democratic process in Venezuela I think remains strong.

I think there's also an element here that we have to take into account. It's the U.S. Congress. You have a very strong bipartisan support for the democratically elected leaders and wanting them to take power, and I think their voices have yet to be heard as well.

But the -- there is a reality here that neither Edmundo nor Maria Carina are actually physically in Venezuela. They're both in Europe. And the question is, how do you come to Venezuela? How do you assert authority? How do you assert power if you're not even in the country? And so I think there's just some practical realities there that really have to be addressed, and again, it has to be done pretty quickly.

[23:25:15]

SCIUTTO: Well, I mean, they were there. I mean, she was there, and she came out to go to the --

FARNSWORTH: Correct.

SCIUTTO: -- Nobel Prize. So presumably there's a way in now. I mean, how about the precedent that this sets for U.S. policy in the region? Because the President Trump -- President Trump is laying out other targets, right, about he said for Colombia, in fact, I'm going to play what the President said here about his potential action regarding the leader of Colombia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he's not going to be doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there will be an operation by the U.S. in --

TRUMP: It sounds good to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: It sounds good to me to have an operation in Colombia. And he's also said he wants Greenland. Is this -- I mean, is this Venezuela operation the first of several decapitation operations or acquisition operations by the U.S. and the U.S. military?

FARNSWORTH: Yes, I don't think we can draw that conclusion, particularly with reference to Colombia. Petro isn't going to be president for much longer. There's an election in Colombia. It's coming up in May, and he can't run again. He's not going to run again.

And so there will be a leadership change in Colombia, and I don't see any military action against longtime strong ally Colombia between now and May. The other thing is, with Venezuela, there has been a process here of literally 10 years or longer on a bipartisan basis with Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden and others really sanctioning the country, sanctioning Mr. Maduro and others.

So this didn't just happen overnight, the operation yesterday. It's been a long time coming. There's been a lot of work and activity that's been put into it. Will that be replicated elsewhere? I just don't think you can draw that line for the moment anyway. And I think we just have to keep watching.

There's one other point, and that is that the preoccupation at this stage on Venezuela is really going to take a lot of attention away from other things. I mean, this has to be a success for the United States, both politically and on a policy front. And if this goes sideways, it's really going to be a real problem for the United States.

So there's going to have to be a lot of dedicated attention and time and effort paid to making -- you know, to getting this right. That's just going to take an effort.

SCIUTTO: You know the words of Colin Powell about Iraq, right? You break it, you buy it. And, you know, the lessons there were quite serious ones.

Eric Farnsworth, thanks so much for joining.

FARNSWORTH: Great to join you again. Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, a closer look at the timeline of the U.S. operation in Venezuela and the U.S. military's potential future plans for the region.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:31:37]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. The ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is scheduled to make his first court appearance in New York City on Monday. Top Trump administration officials are expected to brief a select group of bipartisan lawmakers on the situation in Venezuela as well on Monday. The U.S. operation will also be the focus of a U.N. Security Council meeting in the hours ahead.

CNN's Paula Newton has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new day in Caracas and with it mounting questions about what's next for Venezuela. Its ousted leader Nicolas Maduro is in U.S. custody awaiting his first appearance in a Manhattan federal court on drugs and weapons charges. And details of the U.S. role in Venezuela are still evolving after a stunning claim by U.S. President Donald Trump made soon after Maduro's capture.

TRUMP: We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transitions.

NEWTON (voice-over): On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to explain one of the ways that would be done, saying the U.S. would be, quote, "running policy."

RUBIO: What's going to happen here is that we have a quarantine on their oil. That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interest of the Venezuelan people are met. And that's what we intend to do. So that leverage remains. That leverage is ongoing. And we expect that it's going to lead to results here.

NEWTON (voice-over): But Venezuela has taken its own steps to fill its power void. Saturday, the country's Supreme Court ordered Maduro's Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, to assume the role of acting President of the country. And Rodriguez, a Maduro loyalist, has said the U.S. actions violated the country's sovereignty.

But Trump says there has been communication between the U.S. and Rodriguez. She is willing to work with Washington. There was little sign of detente on Sunday from Venezuela's defense minister, who demanded Maduro's return.

PADRINO LOPEZ (through translation): It was an act of cowardice, but it also represents a threat to the world order.

NEWTON (voice-over): There have been crowds of government supporters in Caracas also calling for Maduro's release. But, for the most part, the streets of Caracas are quiet, as Venezuelans hunker down, uncertain about the path ahead and who will really be running their country.

Paula Newton, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Sources tell CNN the CIA had secretly been tracking Nicolas Maduro's every move since August, helping U.S. forces pinpoint exactly where he would be when they swooped in and captured him on Saturday. Earlier, CNN's Natasha Bertrand laid out a detailed timeline of how the assault unfolded.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It really all began at 10:46 p.m. on Friday night. That is when Trump gave the order to move ahead with this operation, which is called Operation Absolute Resolve. At that point, aircraft launched from about 20 different bases on land and at sea.

There were over 150 aircraft that then made their way towards Venezuela. That included helicopters, that included that extraction force of those Delta Force operators who were going to go towards that target, to that compound where Maduro was hiding. And those helicopters were flying into Venezuela above Caracas, you see there on the image there, just at about 100 feet above land, above sea. And that is remarkably low.

[23:35:02]

They were flying extremely low. And above them, they had air cover as well, according to General Caine. They were protected by aircraft from the Marines, the Navy, the Air Force, the Air National Guard, and that included F-22s, F-35s, B-1 bombers. So a really massive package here to make sure that those helicopters carrying those operators were safely able to go into Caracas and reach that target.

We should also note that, according to Caine, the joint force began dismantling and disabling air defense systems across Venezuela in order to kind of make that path for the helicopters to safely reach their target.

SCIUTTO: Joining us now to discuss the potential plans for the U.S. military in and around Venezuela, as well as this operation itself, Retired U.S. Army Major General James Spiderman. It's good to have you on. Thanks so much for joining.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So first, a question for you, given you've commanded forces yourself. There's been a lot of talk in recent months about lawful orders, first in conjunction with the deadly boat strikes around Venezuela. Now you have a Delta Force operation to remove the leader of a country, which has happened before in other somewhat similar circumstances. But do you consider this, from a military standpoint, a lawful operation?

MARKS: Of course I do. Yes, absolutely, Jim. And I would imagine that there was a legal finding that just wrapped around all of this before execution. Look, the men and women that are executing this operation understand what their commitment is to the Constitution and the legal orders that are presented to them. And it's their obligation to peel those back and make sure everything's squared away.

So in my mind, absolutely. And I know there will be tons of discussion about this, primarily because of the non-notification to the Gang of Eight. But in my mind, short answer, yes, and I'm not a lawyer, but I've always had, Jim, in every one of my operations, tons of operations around the globe, the most important person in the room was we're about to execute was the Judge Advocate General. He or she sat right there to give the final thumbs up and say, yes, we're good to go here.

SCIUTTO: From a strategic perspective, you and I have talked about a lot of different regions through the years, from the Mideast to Ukraine, to Asia, and now Latin America. Is using the U.S. military to remove a foreign leader smart strategy, right? Not a good man, by any means, a bad foreign leader. But as you know, there have been a lot. Is this smart from a strategic perspective, from a national security perspective?

MARKS: That's the key question, Jim. I'm not saying when I know and nor has it been stated what the strategic objective of this operation was. What we do know and what we've witnessed is the tactical brilliance of our military. We are not surprised by that at all.

These men and women are outstanding in all measurements. Incredible. What we don't know is how this ties to a strategic end state. It's not been stated. Now, look, you know, I could posit a recommendation, which is if the strategic desire of this operation was to re-energize the oil flow and the efficacy of the oil distribution of Venezuela's 300 billion oil reserves, largest in the world, and get that back up and running in our hemisphere, which aligns, by the way, with the national security strategy, which was just announced in November of 2025, I would say what we're doing is that makes sense to me.

And it also goes directly toward what's going on in Ukraine, Russia's ability to sustain its operations there, China's ability to continue to draw on Iran's shipment of 3 million barrels a day through the Straits of Hormuz. And if we can start to cut down on that, that sends a very clear message. I haven't heard that, though. So it's presumptuous of me to say that. But I can see how this could be connected.

If you were in the military right now, particularly in Southern Command, would you be rightfully expecting that you might get a phone call in the coming weeks or months to carry out a similar operation in Colombia? President Trump said he'd be open to such an operation or a military operation to claim Greenland for the U.S.

The President has now said repeatedly that the U.S. needs Greenland. I mean, is this the way forward in this administration, particularly in this hemisphere?

MARKS: Yes, I certainly hope not. But there has to be both policy and strategy alignment with these tactical opportunities and capabilities that the United States works so hard on.

[23:40:06]

So I know to answer your question, I don't think I'd anticipate a call that this would happen. But I think in the terms of the possibilities that would take place in LATAM, Latin America, I think there are probably some plans on the books and the level of maturity in terms of that planning, rehearsing wargaming that surrounds all of that, which you're intimate with as well.

I'm not sure that that would be surprising. Greenland's a -- I mean, that's a flyer to me. No, that's -- I don't think that's going to happen.

SCIUTTO: We'll have to watch closely.

Major General James Spider Marks, we appreciate having you on.

MARKS: Thank you, Jim, as always.

SCIUTTO: Well, after the U.S. operation in Venezuela, President Trump is now, as we were saying, saying the U.S. needs Greenland. Ahead, we're going to look at what Denmark is saying about President Trump's desire to take over part of its sovereign territory.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Denmark's prime minister is publicly rejecting President Donald Trump's claim that the U.S. needs Greenland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We need Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security. And Denmark is not going to be able to do it. I can tell you. The European Union needs us to have it, and they know that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:45:15] SCIUTTO: Denmark is a NATO ally, we should note, of the United States. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says the U.S. has, quote, "no right to take over Greenland" and added, "I will therefore strongly urge that the USA stops the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale," end quote.

After the U.S. operation in Venezuela, the wife of Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller posted this to social media, an image of Greenland with an American flag overlaying it and the word "soon." Talk of the U.S. annexing Greenland has existed, though, throughout Trump's second presidency. In fact, it goes back to the first.

Let's get more now from Rachel Rizzo in New Delhi, India. She's the senior fellow for Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation.

Good to have you on here. I think, can you just explain to our audience the significance of the U.S. President repeatedly now saying that the U.S. has the intention of taking Greenland, which is a sovereign territory of a sovereign country, Denmark, which happens to be a U.S. ally, a NATO ally? What's the significance of that?

RACHEL RIZZO, SENIOR FELLOW, OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION: Well, it's hugely significant. And as you said, this idea, Trump's idea that the United States must have Greenland, it's not new. He first floated this idea back in 2019, viewing Greenland, which is a part of Denmark, by the way, an autonomous territory of Denmark, viewing it as strategically significant.

It's a place that has critical minerals. We have U.S. troops there. There are U.S. ballistic missiles there. And as Trump has said many times, he looks at it as strategically significant because of (technical difficulty) Russia and China in that area as well. But what I will say is that the threats he is using towards Greenland, a NATO ally, is absolutely unprecedented.

We've never seen anything like this in terms of the U.S. saying these things and using this language when referring to a European ally (technical difficulty). The likelihood that the United States will make a move on Greenland in the way that they perhaps did in Venezuela using the same strategic calculus, I think that's unlikely.

Again, impossible is not a word I use when talking about what this administration is likely to do. So we never know what's going to happen.

SCIUTTO: You sure don't want to rule it out. Is there a hole in the President's logic here? Because he says strategically important, Denmark is not protecting that strategic asset in effect. General Wesley Clark made the point a short time ago that there is a security agreement under which the U.S. could send more military resources.

It has many there already to further secure it. So the idea that the U.S. needs to acquire it -- we might have lost Rachel Rizzo there. We'll try to get that fixed. Meanwhile, stay with us. We'll be right back.

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[23:52:18]

SCIUTTO: Many leaders across Latin America are expressing concern over the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by the U.S. This comes as some Maduro loyalists rallied in Caracas in support of the captured President. CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Foreign Language)

JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anger from a group on the streets of Colombia's capital city.

CROWD (through translation): Yankee, hitman, out of my neighborhood!

LOPEZ (voice-over): Solidarity after the U.S. captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro from his compound in Caracas, it's an attack many in Latin America feel is far too close to home. Trump has accused Maduro's government of flooding the U.S. with drugs, an accusation that has long been leveled at other countries in Latin America too.

Colombia, Venezuela's next door neighbor, is also the largest recipient of that country's refugees with over 2.8 million in a 2024 count. The possibility of a new surge worries the government so much that more than 30,000 Colombian troops are now positioned along its border with Venezuela.

MARTHA ELENA HUERTAS, PROTESTER (through translation): As a Latin American woman, we want to tell the world that we are absolutely and unequivocally rejecting this criminal, murderous, colonialist invasion, an invading, plundering act by the decadent U.S. empire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Well, I feel that this was something many people were expecting, especially the Venezuelan people. However, we have to see to what extent international law is respected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Many people from Venezuela are going through great hardship because of that regime and the kind of dictatorship that existed. I'm happy, and I support the United States in this attack.

LOPEZ (voice-over): In Rome, people gathered Sunday to listen as Pope Leo expressed deep concern for Venezuela. The U.S.-born pope, with extensive ties to Latin America, called for Venezuela's independence to be protected. Among bystanders and passersby, reactions were mixed.

CLARA PERES SOLANO, MEXICAN TOURIST (through translation): As a Mexican, I must first acknowledge Trump's great achievement. However, I'm a little scared by his desire to dominate everything he's talking about regarding oil. CIELO CELESTE, PERUVIAN TOURIST (through translation): But finally, the dictatorship is gone, thank God. As they say, Trump took a firm hand and dragged him away.

LOPEZ (voice-over): For Venezuela and its neighbors, who have taken in refugees by the thousands and witnessed their struggles firsthand, there is hope for relief.

SANDRA, CHILEAN RESIDENT (through translation): I'm happy for them because they're going to get to go back to their country. Well, they won't leave immediately because I'm not going to let them go so quickly.

LOPEZ (voice-over): In Latin America, many are still holding their breath. Maduro is gone, but for now, those close to him remain in power. Before the region's millions of displaced Venezuelans, a return home still isn't on the cards.

Juan Carlos Lopez, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[23:55:10]

SCIUTTO: U.S. airlines that are scrambling to add flights to the Caribbean after Saturday's military operation in Venezuela greatly disrupted travel. The FAA temporarily closed airspace in the region, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations from popular tourist spots such as Aruba and Puerto Rico. Those restrictions have now been lifted, but airlines are playing catch-up during what is, of course, one of the busiest travel times of the year.

Delta, United, Southwest, American and JetBlue all say they're working to add more flights to get travelers where they need to go.

The U.S. operation in Venezuela has not had a big impact yet on global oil prices. They fell only slightly on Sunday. The reason is traders don't believe there will be a significant impact yet on supply. Venezuela does have the world's largest oil reserves, but only produces 1 million barrels a day, and it exports just over half of that. That's less than 1 percent of the world's overall production.

Earlier, oil expert Bob McNally explained why oil traders were unmoved by the U.S. action in Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MCNALLY, PRESIDENT, RAPIDAN GROUP: What it says is, is that while Venezuela is a whale when it comes to reserves of oil in the ground, it is a minnow when it comes to producing and exporting oil in the global oil market that determines the price of gasoline you and I pay at the pump.

So Venezuela is just simply too small. There hasn't been a meaningful disruption. Really, not much has changed. And so the oil markets are sort of yawning tonight. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, thanks so much for your company tonight as we cover all the breaking news. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. Please do stay with CNN.

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