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Ukraine Agrees To U.S. Proposal For 30-Day Ceasefire; Ex- Philippine President Duterte Put On Plane To The Hague; Greenland Voters Decide Their Own Future as Trump Vies for Ownership; Panama To Grant Temporary Permits To Some U.S. Deportees; Deported Venezuelan Migrant Describes Guantanamo Detention; Government Employee Posts Fashion Influencer Videos From Her Office; New Video Shows U.S. Student Hours Before She Disappeared. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired March 12, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:30]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Polo Sandoval.

Ahead on CNN Newsroom, all eyes are on the Kremlin right now to accept a ceasefire after Ukraine agrees to a 30-day pause in fighting proposed by the U.S. And former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is headed to The Hague's International Criminal Court where he faces accusations of crimes against humanity. And CNN speaks to a Venezuelan migrant who was deported from the U.S. and describes the conditions he endured at Guantanamo Bay.

Russia is facing even more pressure to halt the war in Ukraine now that Kyiv has signed on to the 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States. Ukraine agreed to the plan during marathon negotiations with the American delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Ahead of the talks, the US Secretary of State said that he'd be listening for possible concessions Ukraine would make in a peace deal. However, there's no word on what Ukraine might be willing to give up. Still, a temporary ceasefire would absolutely be a sign of progress, but the onus is on Russia to cooperate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We'll take this offer now to the Russians and we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court. And -- but again, the president's objective here is, number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end. And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard. We hope the Russians will reciprocate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And back in Washington, the U.S. president welcomed the news and said that he would speak to Russia's Vladimir Putin possibly as early as next week or rather as early as this week. Donald Trump also said that he be willing to invite the Ukrainian president back to the White House despite their explosive confrontation. You remember that happened in the Oval Office last month. Volodymyr Zelenskyy had this to say about the proposed ceasefire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Ukraine accepts this proposal. We consider it positive. We are ready to take such a step. And the United States of America must convince Russia to do so. That is, we agree and if the Russians agree, the silence will work at that very moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Then there are the European leaders who say they are also on board. The European Commission president writing, this is a positive development that can be a step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine. The ball is now in Russia's court, echoing the Secretary of State's comments, CNN's Alex Marquardt picking up our story from Jeddah.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: This was a remarkable turnaround for the U.S.-Ukraine relationship that has really been on the rocks for the past week and a half since that disastrous meeting in the Oval Office between Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy. Here in Jeddah, the U.S. delegation praising the Ukrainians not just for their willingness to talk about a peace settlement with Russia and their commitment to achieving one, but also for the concrete proposals the U.S. said that the Ukrainians brought to the table. Ukrainians had been talking about a partial ceasefire with Russia. Instead, the U.S. is now proposing an immediate comprehensive 30-day cease-fire. That's something that the Ukrainians immediately signed on to.

And now the onus is essentially on Russia to accept this. And this is going to be communicated to the Russians by U.S. officials at several different levels in the coming days.

And because of how well the talks went in Jeddah, the U.S. also immediately lifted the American freeze on military assistance and intelligence sharing that is so crucial to the Ukrainian efforts to defend themselves against the Russians. So two very notable outcomes from these talks here in Jeddah. The ball is now very much in Russia's court, as Secretary Rubio said. And it remains to be seen how Moscow is going to respond to this new American pressure.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Jeddah.

SANDOVAL: And there's also a lot of optimism around the world. But inside Ukraine, after more than three years of war, many people simply do not trust Russia or expect the Kremlin to go along with the ceasefire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Russia is not ready for a ceasefire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): You don't trust Russia anymore. Their promises about them being ready for peace, they may be ready, but they don't keep their promises. Their actions don't follow their promises.

[01:05:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think they will. The U.S. will make them agree. If the U.S. acted in the same way in 2022, maybe the war could have ended faster and we kept more territories.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: For more now, I'm joined by former ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer. He's also an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation and a research fellow at Stanford University.

Ambassador, thanks for joining us.

STEVEN PIFER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Happy to be here.

SANDOVAL: So what do you make of this cease-fire agreement proposal with the understanding that Russia still has to respond? How hopeful are you that a peace settlement will eventually materialize?

PIFER: Well, I think there's still some very difficult questions that are going to have to be answered once the sides get at the negotiating table. But the good news is the damage that was done 11 days ago in the Oval Office when the vice president sort of provoked that argument, I think we're past that now. So the United States has resumed intelligence sharing and has resumed arms shipments. And now really the test is now up to the Russians to see how they'll respond.

SANDOVAL: So this, if I'm hearing you right, Ambassador, so you think this is a sign that relationship between the United States and Ukraine has improved since that pretty disastrous encounter that you referenced from the Oval Office?

PIFER: Yes, I think it's improved. And if you look at the last month, the last month has really seen kind of Ukraine in the crosshairs. So, back in mid-February, you had the president and you had the secretary of Defense saying, well, Ukraine can't get all of its territory back. It can't hope to join NATO, which was an odd thing to be saying if you're going to try to broker an arrangement when the negotiations haven't even begun. And then you had the unfortunate meeting at the Oval Office 11 days ago, and it's been a month where Moscow's really enjoyed a free ride.

Well, now there's some ideas on the table. There's been a good discussion between Secretary Rubio and his Ukrainian counterparts. And now the question is going to be, is Moscow prepared to negotiate? Based on what they were saying last week, they were not prepared to make concessions. So it'll be interesting to see what answer comes out of Moscow in the next day or two.

SANDOVAL: Right. And we also heard on Tuesday the secretary of State, Marco Rubio, after that meeting tell reporters that if Russia says no, then we will all know what the impediment to peace is. So let me ask you, Ambassador, what if Russia says no? Again, we're still waiting to hear from the Kremlin and to see what their next move will be. But what could we see as the next potential step to prevent a seemingly never ending dialogue and actually promote peace?

PIFER: Yes. Well, I think the next step would be, or at least my recommendation would be, is then that the administration has a lot of leverage it could use on Russia if it chose to do so, so it could tighten sanctions. It could ask Congress for more military assistance funding for Ukraine. It could work with other members of the G7 to begin moving to seize the $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets. Those steps would begin to make it clear, I think, to the Kremlin that if you don't get serious about a negotiation, this war is only going to be more Russian casualties, more pressure on the Russian economy.

And so you want to create a situation where the Kremlin sees real costs to not negotiating seriously that would increase, I think the chances that the Kremlin would begin to look for a more accommodating position.

SANDOVAL: And I'm glad you mentioned earlier too what we heard from President Putin recently about him essentially digging his heels in terms of any sort of compromise, any sort of concession. But also, do you think that the Russian president will have to be real here in terms of at least considering any sort of concession if he wants to agree to this deal? So in exchange, do you think that he may expect any guarantees from the Ukrainians?

PIFER: Well, I mean, the ones who I think actually need the guarantees for their security are really the Ukrainians who are quite concerned that if you do a deal now, but Ukraine does not have adequate security commitments, that the Russians could try a round two of the war maybe three or four years down the road after they'd rebuilt their military. So I think really the object here is to persuade Putin that his economic, military and political costs are only going to rise if he doesn't begin to look for common ground. I think Zelenskyy on the Ukrainian side has already indicated he's prepared to show some flexibility. You've got to push both sides there. But at the end of the day, if Putin's saying I'm going to make no concessions, no compromises, the negotiation is not going to succeed.

If Putin doesn't move, at the end of the day, you know, the Ukrainians may say we didn't get enough. And Ukraine also has the option of saying this is not a good enough agreement. You know, we're prepared to keep on fighting.

[01:10:08]

And I just had an exchange with a Ukrainian friend today who basically was saying, yes, if at the end of the day, we're given a deal that doesn't, you know, address some of our concerns, we're prepared to keep fighting and defending our land.

SANDOVAL: Yes, that conversation you had there, Ambassador, is fascinating and really quite sobering, too, that there's still a lot at stake here as we wait to hear from the Kremlin. Ambassador, thank you so much for this insight. That big question, will Russia agree? And if we do see a ceasefire, will they honor it? That is all yet to be seen. So, Ambassador, thank you very much for sharing your expertise, your experience, and certainly your time.

PIFER: You're very welcome. Have a good evening.

SANDOVAL: We are a little over an hour into a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. It went into effect at midnight imposed by the Trump administration. And this comes just hours after the U.S. president backed off his threat to double that to 50 percent for Canada in an escalation of a trade war between the two countries. And that reversal from Donald Trump came after Ontario agreed to suspend a 25 percent surcharge on electricity for U.S. customers in three states. Ontario's premier, here he is, he now says that he will be meeting with the U.S. Commerce Secretary and Canada's finance minister to renegotiate a free trade deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG FORD, ONTARIO PREMIER: They understand how serious we are about the electricity and the tariffs. And rather than going back and forth and having threats to each other, we have both agreed, let cooler heads prevail. We need to sit down and move this forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Yes, cooler heads for now. But then look at these numbers. There's still plenty of uncertainty surrounding tariffs and fears of a recession on both sides of the border that have rattled, particularly in the U.S. markets with all three major indices closing another day in the red.

America's northern neighbors are expressing their concern over Mr. Trump's tariff threats and trade measures, saying that they worry about the impact that U.S. actions will have on their own economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were just very deceived, disappointed, because we thought the Americans were our friends.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a Canadian, I worry about our relationships and how it's going to affect the economy and the young people who are trying to make a life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am a young person starting out. I'm concerned about our economy, about being able to buy a house one day and just being aware of where my stuff's coming from because I don't want to get caught up in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: As far as the state of the U.S. economy, Mr. Trump says that he does not see a recession at all this year, just days after refusing to rule out that as a possibility. His comments, though, doing little to calm the markets. As we mentioned, CNN's Jeff Zeleny is following developments from the White House.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump trying to strike an upbeat message on Tuesday about the economy, saying in no uncertain terms he is not concerned about a looming recession. Of course, that is at odds on what he said just a couple days ago when he left unanswered that question, which really has roiled financial markets for the rest of the week. Now the president is simply trying to embrace the market uncertainty, the market chaos, he said stocks go up, stocks go down. The economy, he said, is strong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had the greatest economy in history. This economy, in my opinion, is going to blow it away.

I think this country is going to boom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: But even as the president was speaking in the final hours of trading on Tuesday, it was clear the stock roller coaster continued with more uncertainty about the trade wars. The president threatened a 50 percent tariff on some goods coming from Canada in retaliation for Canada threatening a 25 percent tariffs on electricity for Minnesota, for Michigan and New York. Once Canada backed off on that, Trump said he too would back off on his tariff, at least in part, but going ahead with more on Wednesday for steel and aluminum.

The bottom line to all of this, it's created a market uncertainty across the board even as stocks continue to fall. Now, the president said he does believe the -- you know, there is going to be some short term pain, acknowledged that will happen. The question how short term and how much pain there actually will be.

But the president made clear there was one stock in particular on his mind on Tuesday when he made the extraordinary step of walking out to the White House south lawn to stroll down the driveway with Elon Musk looking at his cars, his Tesla cars. Of course, the president has talked against electric vehicles. He said there should not be mandates. He's even taking down some charging stations. But he bought a Tesla, he said, at full price with his own money to send the signal that that was a good stock.

[01:15:11]

So certainly a very curious split screen message. As the stocks were going down, Trump was talking up one stock in particular, Elon Musk's Tesla.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House, the White House.

SANDOVAL: The Philippines former president in custody right now headed to The Hague to face charges. Well, he's shortly live with a renowned journalist and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa about the case against Rodrigo Duterte. My conversation with Maria after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:09]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been put on a plane to The Hague after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity. The fiery populist, you remember him, he was a leader who has been investigated by the ICC over his deadly crackdown on drugs spanning many years. His daughter Sara, who is the Philippines vice president, told the Philippine Star newspaper that this amounts to what she described as oppression and persecution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA DUTERTE, PHILIPPINES VICE PRESIDENT: There is no legal basis at all to turn over or to endorse the president, the former president to ICC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: As she defends her father, critics, they've been holding demonstrations and a vigil to show their support for this arrest and also to honor the lives of those killed in his war on drugs.

Our next guest has been a vocal critic of Duterte and has been arrested during his time in power on charges that many deemed politically motivated. Charges that we should say were later dismissed.

Really happy to have Maria Ressa joining us. She is the CEO of the Philippine news outlet Rappler. She was a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize four years ago and her efforts to safeguard the freedom of expression.

Maria, it is a pleasure to have you with us tonight. Thank you so much.

MARIA RESSA, CEO, RAPPLER: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: Let's dive straight in. I'm wondering if you could speak to the global significance of his arrest. What does the prosecution of his -- of this ex leader really tell us about the International Criminal Court's ability to prosecute those accused of extrajudicial killings?

RESSA: Actually, I mean the best part about all of this is that during a time that's been called the era of impunity, little Philippines, the Philippines actually shows that impunity ends at a certain point that some kind of justice, hopefully the beginning of a sense of justice for the victims of the brutal drug war that President Duterte carried out in his six years in power that that will happen. So it's historic for the Philippines. It's the first time a Philippine president has been arrested for crimes against humanity. That an Interpol led arrest actually ended this impunity under President Duterte that now has him going to The Hague. Reminds me of, you know, when I'm still with CNN, the Milosevic, he was picked up, brought to The Hague and then was jailed for five years before again there was a sense of closure and justice.

SANDOVAL: He had stepped or he had retired in the summer of 2022, as you know. Maria, can you give us a sense of what the people in the Philippines had felt after that and before they received that news today that he was finally in custody. Was there a sense of frustration, hopelessness, that they perhaps lose hope that this moment wouldn't come?

RESSA: I think for the victims, it's been almost a decade, nine years, right? So President Duterte took office in May of 2016. Within hours of him taking the oath office, the first killing in this brutal drug war happened, you know, and the first casualty in our country's battle for facts. And this has been replicated in many countries around the world where tech, big tech, social media plays a role in the public information ecosystem. In our battle for facts, the first casualty was the number of people killed.

He's still extremely popular. The first who was elected through social media. For six years in a row, the Filipinos spent most time globally on social media and on the Internet. That ended in 2021. But leading up to this, look, our President Marcos ran along with the daughter of President Duterte, Sara Duterte, as his vice president.

They were called the UniTeam, powerful families from the north and the south of the Philippines, putting their political machinery together and using social media effectively to do that. We've seen this tattered over the last few years. Sara Duterte herself has been impeached, possible corruption charges that she will have to defend as soon as the new legislature takes office after the May elections this year. So, there's definitely a political angle to it. But simultaneously, look, the victims, and they're out today holding up photos of their sons, their daughters, victims as young as three years old, five years old, families caught in the crossfire, now they feel a sense of justice.

[01:25:07]

SANDOVAL: Yes, you answered what was my next question, which was more about the political dynamics and also really to punctuate the families that have been at the center of this all. And I also have to ask, Maria, your reporting on Duterte's bloody war on drugs, it made you the target of his crackdowns, as we mentioned earlier in the crackdown on the press. So I wonder how were you able to carry out your research, your reporting in the face of threats from your government at the time.

RESSA: With great difficulty. And I think in some ways, you know, America is going through a version of what we lived through. And I am both Filipino and American and to see this happen in my two countries is heartbreaking.

Look, in 2017, the social media attacks began to target me with hashtag ArrestMariaRessa. I'd come from almost two decades running the Manila bureau and then the Jakarta bureau for CNN, and then hashtag ArrestMariaRessa was like fertilizer. I was arrested two years later in 2019, and then 10 arrest warrants, 10 criminal cases filed against me and Rappler. We fought that. It's been almost a decade.

And after President Duterte left office, we began to win the cases. You know, just a reminder, within six months of taking office, Duterte became the most powerful leader the Philippines had ever known. Our constitution is set up -- patterned after the United States, three co- equal branches of government, a bill of rights enshrining freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and yet that chilling effect, you know, when someone targets you with legal cases, so it was social media attacks followed by lawfare, it's not just a chilling effect. The threatened, the shutdown of Rappler, we should have died in 2018, but in many cases, what we did is we never gave up our rights. You have to hold the line on the rights guaranteed by the constitution.

And for that I was threatened with, you know, cumulatively, almost actually 103 years in prison. We've come out of that period. We continue doing our jobs. We did it with great difficulty. But the point is, do not voluntarily give up your rights.

And at some point, you know that Martin Luther King quote, some sense of justice comes. It could take a while, almost a decade, but -- and I still have two cases that are live. I could still face seven years in prison. It's at the Supreme Court. I have to ask the Supreme Court for approval to travel.

But, you know, you continue fighting for your rights.

SANDOVAL: Work that, as you say, carried out with extreme difficulty, but I would also add with extreme bravery and work that has earned you that Nobel Peace Prize. Maria, thank you so much. Would be remiss to also acknowledge former CNN's Manila bureau chief as well.

Maria, a pleasure having you on air tonight. Thank you for what you do and continue to do.

All right, moving on now, for the second time, Israeli police launching a raid on a famous bookstore in Jerusalem and detained one of its Palestinian owners. On Tuesday, CNN saw Israeli police inspecting books in a well-known bookshop. According to the store owners, police did not show any search warrants, but confiscated several books, including some by Noam Chomsky and historian Rashid Khalidi. Last month, Israeli police raided the same bookstore and its Arabic language branch and also detained two of the owners for allegedly selling books, quote, "Containing incitement and support for terrorism." At least that's what authorities claimed.

Here's how one of them described the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAHMOUD MUNA, OWNER, EDUCATION BOOKSHOP: Any book that had the word Palestine, had a flag, had colors, had any expression of a national or political identity of the Palestinians became possibly a suspect book.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: Many Israelis fear that this is a further escalation of the government's crackdown on free speech since the October 7 Hamas attacks.

The American dream is now and really just something else here. That's according to one Venezuelan migrant who was deported from the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay. His harrowing account is just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:34:47]

SANDOVAL: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York City.

Let's check back on today's big stories.

After hours of negotiations, Ukraine has agreed to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. And now they've been saying there that the ball is now in Russia's court. It's up to them to decide whether it will comply.

The temporary truce would halt fighting by land, air and sea, and the U.S. has vowed to immediately resume intelligence sharing and security assistance to Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump's 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports from Canada is now in effect. The move marks the first time in Mr. Trump's second term that a tariff has been applied to all countries. It comes as he looks to reignite manufacturing in the U.S. and also correct what he says are trade imbalances.

Iran's president says that he has no interest in speaking with U.S. President Donald Trump about resolving issues between the two countries. Masoud Pezeshkian citing Mr. Trump's treatment of Ukraine's leader at the White House last month, calling the confrontation "shameful".

The U.S. President is pushing for a new nuclear deal that he -- that he withdrew from the U.S. from the previous agreement during his first term.

Greenland's pro-business opposition party has won Tuesday's general election, unseating the ruling coalition in parliament. The vote is in the international spotlight because U.S. President Donald Trump actually put it there. He's promising that the U.S. will one day own that Danish territory but what Greenland really wants is its own independence.

Here's CNN's Fred Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A high stakes vote in the high north. People lining up in Greenland's polling stations for an election they feel is decisive and could determine whether they will seek independence from Denmark soon as President Trump wants.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't want to be a part of the U.S.A. for obvious reasons like health care and Trump.

PLEITGEN: But President Trump does very much want Greenland to become part of the U.S.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We need Greenland for national security and even international security and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it.

PLEITGEN: Fewer than 60,000 people live in Greenland, a semi- autonomous region of Denmark. But underneath the vast Arctic ice shield lie vast quantities of oil, gas, and rare earths. And global warming is causing that ice to melt fast.

Greenland also hosts a radar for America's missile defense shield. President Trump saying its strategic location between America and Europe means the U.S. must have it.

Trump even deploying his son, Don Jr., on something of a fact-finding mission in January, with a documentary filmer showing him speaking to some local folks, most of them wearing MAGA hats.

DONALD TRUMP JR., DONALD TRUMP'S SON: So, you like the U.S.?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like the U.S.

PLEITGEN: Even putting his dad on speakerphone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're right.

TRUMP: I just want to thank everybody.

TRUMP JR.: You guys like that, right?

PLEITGEN: But most here don't actually seem to like it that much. None of the major political parties favor joining the U.S.

And threats from the Trump administration against Denmark, an important U.S. ally, including a reportedly fiery phone call between the president and Denmark's prime minister caused a stern rebuke from Copenhagen.

METTE FREDERIKSEN, DANISH PRIME MINISTER: Greenland is today a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it's a part of our territory, and it's not for sale.

The chairman, the leader of Greenland has been very clear that they are not for sale.

PLEITGEN: Both the Danes and the Greenlanders making clear Greenland's future will be decided at the ballot box and not in the White House.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Panama says that it will issue temporary permits for some migrants recently deported from the United States.

On Tuesday, dozens of U.S. deportees in the process of repatriation were transferred to a Panama City shelter, according to a local nonprofit.

The migrants, who were initially housed in a shelter within the infamous Darien Gap jungle, sought this assistance after being unable to pay for the hotel where they were sent.

Other deportees, many of them from Cameroon and Afghanistan, were not as fortunate.

And also, there's plenty of confusion as they seek refuge without even the most basic necessities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have any money because I never had a plan of coming to Panama. They just dropped me in Panama and Panama government took me and also left me in one petrol station on a park -- car park. I don't know. I don't have anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are just forcing us, like you're just dumping us to do something somewhere else in a country that does not even respect your rights, and they are telling us they cannot give us asylum.

[01:39:51]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have more money. I cannot go anywhere. I'm here and I don't have any plan for now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And the journey home, if they can or even want to return, is not straightforward -- it's not a straightforward one for many migrants deported from the U.S.

CNN sat down with a Venezuelan migrant who says that he was nearly driven to suicide during his detention at Guantanamo Bay.

In his first-on-camera interview, he has a warning for others who, like him, are chasing what he says is the improbable American dream.

CNN's Gustavo Valdes shares his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A family reunion eight years in the making.

And Juan Jose Daniel Simancas Rodriguez thought would never happen. JUAN JOSE DANIEL SIMANCAS RODRIGUEZ, VENEZUELAN DEPORTEE (through

translator): I had completely given up. I thought I would never see my mother or children again.

VALDES: Simancas is one of the millions of Venezuelans who left their country looking for a better future. After six years in Ecuador, the 30-year-old decided to go to the United States in 2022 embarking on a long and dangerous journey.

SIMANCAS: I spent six days without food. I saw dead people along the way.

VALDES: He surrendered to immigration authorities after entering the U.S. illegally in 2024. He requested asylum. It was then that these tattoos got him in trouble.

SIMANCAS: They said the stars meant I was a member of Tren de Aragua. I told them I didn't know that.

VALDES: Tren de Aragua is a criminal organization of Venezuelan origin that gained attention in the U.S. after a series of high-profile events. The Trump administration designated it an international terrorist organization.

Simancas was also accused of reentering the United States illegally even though he says he never crossed before.

After nine months in detention he was told they were going to Miami. He says it didn't take him long to figure out they were in Guantanamo Bay once they landed and were rushed to the detention facility.

SIMANCAS: You feel fear from the moment you step on the bus, because it's as if they blindfold you. They might as well have placed a bag over our head because all the windows in the bus were blacked out, and you don't know where you're going.

They take you to a room, and I only got a pillow and a bed sheet, no mattress. I spent at least ten days with no mattress.

VALDES: He was not allowed to talk to other detainees, but he says they found a way to communicate.

SIMANCAS: We started to scream. We laid on the floor and screamed through the gap between the door and the floor, because it was the only way to be heard. We couldn't see each other. We could only shout.

VALDES: Harsh conditions, he says, made him contemplate taking his own life.

SIMANCAS: That is the torture, the confinement. You are not alive. You are there and not alive, where you don't know if its day or night. You don't really know the time.

VALDES: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities declined to comment on these allegations citing pending litigation. Jose Daniel Simancas Rodriguez was among the more than 170 Venezuelans

deported to their country in February 20. The emotional return to his five children is the start of a healing process, he says hasn't been easy because he says that he and the other deportees suffer from insomnia and fear of leaving their homes.

SIMANCAS: If their intention was to keep us from returning to the U.S., they've succeeded. If they wanted to traumatize us, they've succeeded.

VALDES: Now he warns others seeking the American dream that it's a dream that doesn't exist.

Gustavo Valdes, CNN -- Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: An important snapshot of life after deportation.

We're going to be right back with much more news. You're watching CNN.

[01:44:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANDOVAL: A Trump appointee and government worker is under scrutiny for defending massive cuts to federal employees while using her office to film and post fashion videos on social media.

CNN's Kyung Lah investigates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It looks just like any other influencer video. A young woman posing in front of a camera over and over and over again, showing off her trendy but timeless professional fashion.

But she's no ordinary influencer, and that's no ordinary office. Her name is McLaurine Pinover, and she's the Trump administration's new director of communications for the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, which manages federal employees.

All of these videos were shot in her government office right here at OPM headquarters in Washington, D.C., ground zero for Trump's plan to cut thousands of workers from the federal government in the name of efficiency.

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LAH: Inside her office, Pinover captures video at her desk, putting on makeup, modeling new outfits to her 800 followers.

Pinover markets clothes on her account using what's called affiliate links. She could get a portion of any item sold through her Instagram page like this $475 skirt or $300 dress. But it's unclear whether she's made any money. On February 13th, the day 20 people on her communications team lost their jobs, she posted "A moment for mixed patterns". And the week when her agency demanded all federal employees list five things they did that week, she posted "The business woman special".

As OPM spokeswoman, she defended the memo at the time as a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.

DONALD SHERMAN, CHIEF COUNSEL, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: I would be very curious if she included her efforts to promote her brand as part of the five things that she accomplished that week.

LAH: Donald Sherman, the chief counsel for an ethics watchdog group, says more than anything, this behavior is insulting to the thousands of federal employees being fired.

SHERMAN: This Trump administration appointee is violating the public trust at the same time as she seems to be instrumental in the administration's attack on civil servants.

LAH: It does look like some of this happened on the clock. We were actually looking at her account this morning, and she posted a couple of Instagram stories during normal work hours. You can also see the time on her watch in at least one of the videos she filmed, clearly during work hours.

Now, about 15 minutes after CNN reached out to her requesting comment, her Instagram account was deleted. She declined officially to comment to CNN.

We did get comment though, from former OPM workers who told us, quote, "Are you kidding me? That's my office." Another called it "absurd and ridiculous" to post fashion videos as people are being laid off.

Kyung Lah, CNN -- Los Angeles.

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SANDOVAL: Still to come here on the CNN NEWSROOM, police in the Dominican Republic examining new surveillance video of a missing U.S. college student. The latest on that investigation is next.

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SANDOVAL: New surveillance video showing a U.S. college student just hours before she disappeared during a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic. Authorities say the 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki was seen heading to the beach with seven other people last Thursday.

A source close to the investigation now telling CNN the young man, who is believed to have been the last person with her, is not considered a suspect.

CNN's Danny Freeman, with the latest on the investigation.

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DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is some of the last known footage of 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki before she disappeared in the Dominican Republic. The new surveillance video shows Konanki and her group of friends walking away from their hotel in Punta Cana early Thursday morning. You can see Konanki and a young man embracing each other on the hotel path.

This video, part of an evolving investigation into what happened to the young University of Pittsburgh student.

For days, the Dominican national police has been using drones and K-9s to comb the Punta Cana beaches and coast for signs of Konanki.

FREEMAN: Police telling CNN Tuesday more than 300 men and women are now helping with the search, including members of the Dominican Army, Navy and Air Force.

[01:54:52]

FREEMAN: Law enforcement officials are expanding their search area and re-interviewing witnesses to try and figure out if this was a tragic accident, or if there was foul play involved.

On Tuesday, police updated the timeline of events. At around 4:15 on Thursday, March 6th, after drinking with her friends in the hotel's lobby, Konanki and her group were seen on camera heading to the beach with two men.

Initially, police said the group returned to the hotel about two hours later, but that changed after a closer examination of the recovered surveillance video.

Now, police say the group came back from the beach just 40 minutes after they left at 4:55 a.m., but this time without Konanki and one of the men.

That man who has not been publicly identified, then left the beach alone at around 8:55 a.m. This young man told authorities he and Konanki both went into the ocean, but he got sick, came out of the water and fell asleep on a lounge chair. He said Konanki may have been swept away by a wave.

While the man is not considered a suspect at this time, a law enforcement source told CNN Tuesday he's being kept in a hotel room under police watch as the investigation continues.

Konanki's family, now on the ground in the Dominican Republic, told ABC News they met the young man.

UNBIDENTIFIED MALE: We walked to the beach along with the boy, and the boy helped us and -- and he was demoing us kind of like what really happened.

FREEMAN: Back stateside, officials from Konanki's home of Loudoun County, Virginia are helping in the search and holding out hope. SHERIFF MIKE CHAPMAN, LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA: We are going on the presumption that she's still alive. We want to make sure that we're exhausting every possible lead that we can.

FREEMAN: Late Tuesday, a law enforcement official told CNN that the young man, believed to have been the last person seen with Konanki before she disappeared, is not in police custody, is still not considered a suspect, and that there were no significant inconsistencies in the recounting of what happened the night that Konanki disappeared.

Authorities meanwhile continue to search for Konanki primarily in the water. This specific source telling CNN that they will only know more answers when they're able to find Konanki herself.

Danny Freeman, CNN -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Thank you, Danny Freeman.

And thank you for watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.

CNN NEWSROOM continues with Rosemary Church right after the break.

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