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U.S. Military Carries Out Large Scale Strikes on Venezuela and Captures Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and His Wife Cilia Flores; Venezuelan President and Wife being Brought to New York City to Stand Trial for Charges of Narco-Terrorism; President Trump Gives Press Conference on U.S. Operation that Captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and His Wife; President Trump Claims U.S. Will be Running Venezuela after Abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro; Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguez Demands Release of President Nicolas Maduro and His Wife from U.S. Custody; South American Leaders Criticize U.S. Military Operations in Venezuela and Abducting of President Nicolas Maduro. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired January 03, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:02:32]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: And hello and thank you for joining me for our special breaking news coverage. I'm Erin Burnett.

And we are following this breaking news. Lawmakers now are demanding an immediate briefing from the Trump administration after Trump's hourlong press conference, in which he declared that the United States of America is running Venezuela. And he said so multiple times. Also saying that he is very comfortable with U.S. boots on the ground there, as there is growing uncertainty about what comes next from for Venezuela following the overnight capture of President Nicolas Maduro.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, you know, they always say boots on the ground. Oh, it's so -- we're not afraid of boots on the ground if we have to have. We had boots on the ground last night at a very high level, actually. We're not afraid of it. We don't mind saying it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can you explain the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country? Are you going to designate a U.S. official to coordinate?

TRUMP: Yes, it's all being it's all being done right now. We're designating people. We're talking to people. We're designating various people.

It's largely going to be for a period of time the people that are standing right behind me. We're going to be running it. We're going to be bringing it back. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Trump's comments come as he put out this image, the only image we have of Nicolas Maduro in what appears to be some sort of a sweatsuit, handcuffs, water, ostensibly on board the USS Iwo Jima, on his way to New York. CNN is learning that Maduro is expected to stop at Guantanamo Bay, and that it is there where he will be transferred to a plane and flown for the final leg to New York, where he will face drug trafficking charges in the United States, as detailed in a superseding 25 page indictment put out by the U.S. attorney general this morning.

All right, let's go to Kevin Liptak right now. He's at West Palm Beach, Florida. And, Kevin, that hour long press conference, I think we're all still digesting it and trying to understand more about it. Stunning in what was said and what was not said. What more are you able to tell us about the preparations inside the Trump administration leading up to this moment? Because we do understand that the military operation itself was something that, in terms of its intelligence, had been in process for several months, correct?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, really dating back to August is what we're told. That's when the CIA put in sort of a clandestine team inside Caracas to essentially try and track Nicolas Maduro, to learn his movements, to try and sort of ascertain everything that they could about his entire life to make this mission seamless.

[14:05:12]

As Dan Caine, who's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier, they tried to figure out how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets. And so you could see dating back all the way to August how the groundwork was being laid for what the president ultimately ordered up.

Now, the way we understand it is that the president did give the green light for this mission more than a week ago. The weather in Venezuela wasn't cooperating in the days immediately after the president gave that green light. And it wasn't until last evening at 10:46 p.m., again, according to General Caine, that the president gave the final order here.

And so you can see in all of that how the administration, how the military, how the intelligence community were all sort of preparing for what we saw transpire last evening. The whole mission itself, you know, took roughly a three hours, you know, from 1:00 a.m., which is when the forces arrived into Caracas to go to Nicolas Maduro's compound to find him in his room with his wife and to sort of him as he was fleeing into his safe room before leaving Venezuela and being out over the water at around 3:30 a.m. And so sort of after months and months and months of planning, really not a very long mission in the end for the U.S. on the ground there.

Of course, we got so many details about what went into this, about what the operation looked like. What we did not get details on, about what happens now. You know, the president very remarkably said that now we, in his words, were going to be running Venezuela. But he was extraordinarily vague on that front. At one point, he sort of offhandedly pointed to the assemblage of national security officials in the room, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and suggested that they would be involved in running Venezuela, but without any clarity about what precisely that meant and how long the U.S. would be doing that, and I think essentially, whether it involves the U.S. military.

And I asked the president point-blank, do you envision a prolonged U.S. military presence on the ground in Venezuela? And he didn't answer. And he turns to talk about the oil in that country. So I think a lot of questions about how this all proceeds in the days and months and years really ahead.

BURNETT: Yes. Kevin, thank you very much. Just incredible, the vague nature of the answer on how the U.S. is going to run Venezuela, for how long, and who exactly will be running it.

Let's go back to Caracas, Venezuela, where this strike happened. And our Mary Mena is there and has been reporting indefatigably, Mary, throughout the day here from Caracas. I just wanted, as you and I start speaking here, to share with everyone an image that we just got in. And this is an image from Caracas, Mary. It is General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, the defense secretary. I understand coming out, they say, of a meeting or coming out of, I should be clear, from the vice president's headquarters.

I ask this question because the vice president, of course, is who Trump has said is nominally running Venezuela right now. But I understand that you haven't seen her. She's only done phone interviews. Stefano Pozzebon, who is in route to where you are, was saying there was even speculation that she may have left the country. So what does this mean, this new image that we have just gotten in, do you think?

MARY MENA, JOURNALIST: Well, as I was mentioning before, the vice president is sending a message. The government is bracing for this. They've been preparing for a scenario like this for many months now. So in case they have the main head of the government of Nicolas Maduro out, they had something prepared in advance. So we figure they are kept in hiding, kept in -- or kept in secret the exact location where the vice president is, for obvious reasons.

About the statements made by Donald Trump about who is running the country or who will be running the country, is, well, it's difficult to say right now, if they are talking, if there's going to be a resolution today, because we keep waiting for them to appear, at least on national television, to say that they have all the control over the country.

They said so in early hours of the morning. But right now, they keep sending messages through the state channel. The state channel is showing, of course, the supporters of Nicolas Maduro, especially in the downtown area in Caracas, where the majority of institutions from the government and the presidential palace is located. [14:10:06]

So far, we are expecting also, what are the guidance that the government will do in case of the implementation of the state of emergency that they announced, especially in the late hours, in the night hours. And for the media reporting, I have witnessed a local state channels showing Christmas movies still, and they are not, you know, addressing the situation, like it's something bigger is happening in the country. They are -- they keep sending the message that everything is under control.

BURNETT: And, Mary, as you're speaking, the video that we're just showing, so viewers understand, that's the video I was just referring to the image of, which is the defense secretary, General Vladimir Padrino Lopez of Venezuela, leaving the vice president's offices. And that was just taken a little bit ago. So that's the video I was just sharing there, Mary.

But in the situation where we have it, where they're sending out messages, and we have an image like this now, right? So we've seen the defense secretary coming out of the vice president's headquarters, but we haven't seen her. She's only done those phone interviews with state television. State television, as you described it earlier, is posting messages of peace and tranquility. But there's a real question mark as to who is in charge of this country right now.

We're just a few hours out of this. You're on a Saturday in the middle of the afternoon, Mary, how much time is there before there's more chaos in in Venezuela, right, a country already rife with armed gangs and all sorts of, you know, instability? How much time is left, how much time do they have before they come out and say, OK, I'm in charge?

MENA: Well, the situation in the streets is that the streets are pretty empty. And generally these groups that are close to the government, they tend to go out in the night hours. So the coming hours are key to know who is really, who has the power inside of the country.

We believe that that there are high ranking officials that remain loyal to the inner circle of Nicolas Maduro. And that is why we witnessed this video that has been spreading across social media of the General Vladimir Padrino and Delcy Rodriguez. Right now, what we are seeing is many supporters approaching to that area. In that area, they have the control definitely, with the members of the military forces surrounding the downtown area.

On this side of Caracas, where I'm standing, there's silence, empty streets, and the majority of opposition supporters have decided to remain at home. Those are located mostly in the east of the city, and most commercial establishments have remained closed during this Saturday. So how much time do we have to realize who is really running the country is controversial right now. It's hard to state how much time it will take to have a better sense of what is happening inside of the country, because it is for some people worry that Donald Trump said that he is not in contact with members of the opposition, for example. And that Maria Corina Machado doesn't have the support of certain groups, and that he is talking with members of the government of Venezuela. So probably they are talking, they are dealing with this situation, and we will find out in the coming hours.

BURNETT: Yes, obviously crucial, but the descriptions that you're giving of the quiet on the streets, at least now, that, you know, stores are closed, that sort of, you know, in a sense, the way you're describing it, Mary, makes me think of, you know, being in Ukraine when that war began, that bated breath when there was sort of a shock and awe and no one knew what was next. Thank you very much. Mary is in Caracas. We're going to be going back to her, of course, as our coverage continues.

I want to go to John Miller now. He's our chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst. And, John, so as we speak, I don't know exactly where they are, right, but we know that Maduro and his wife are snatched -- I think it's a fair word to use -- according to Trump, as they're about to, you know, opening this big giant metal door to go into this super fortified box, and they snatch him before he can shut the doors is how Trump described it. And they take him and they put him on the USS Iwo Jima, which we understand is headed to Guantanamo Bay. And then he's going to be put on a plane and flown to New York, where you and I are, and that he will most likely go to that Metropolitan Detention Center, which is a place you and I, of course, have been on a windy, windy corner of industrial Brooklyn. So what happens here next?

[14:15:14]

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, next he will end up moving from Gitmo by air to a secure military facility, then likely by chopper to New York City, then being brought to a federal facility where he will be booked. That's the process where we've gone from the military operation to the criminal justice system. That means he and his wife will be fingerprinted, they will be photographed. They will go through that process, and then they will go to, presumably, the Metropolitan Detention Center, the place that was home to Sam Bankman-Fried and P Diddy and other people who are in famous federal cases, where he'll be held over before he is brought to the courthouse in Manhattan, in the Southern District of New York, to be arraigned on a basically a phone book full of charges in this 25-page indictment against the president, his wife, and others in their administration.

Erin, it's quite the case. They are charged with overseeing the transshipment from places like Colombia through Venezuela, over to Mexico, into the United States of hundreds of tons of cocaine, charges that go back to 2005, 2004, 2007, right up through to 2025, as he and his wife were in different positions in the government, but allegedly accepting $100,000 per flight to make sure that those flights were protected as they shipped drugs through Venezuela, that they gave and sold diplomatic passports to traffickers so that they could move drugs under diplomatic cover, that they engaged in kidnappings and beatings of traffickers who did not pay the government their bribe money in time. So quite a case. And ironically, and I don't want to get too far ahead of us, very

similar to the charges brought against Juan Orlando Hernandez, the president of Honduras, who was convicted of similar charges and then pardoned by President Trump. But that's a different global situation.

BURNETT: Well, but important to raise, right, because I think it highlights that we've been given different explanations for what happened here, right, whether it was upholding democracy or getting rid of a narco-terrorist or about drugs and the inconsistencies are worth noting.

MILLER: Or about oil.

BURNETT: Right, or whether it's just pure and simple about dollars and cents, which Trump talked a lot about today. Right. Saying we won't pay for a dollar of this as Americans because we're going to take a lot of wealth out of the ground, and that U.S. oil companies are going in. He didn't mince words.

John, what about the -- just in the nature of the moment of what we're going to see unfold, because right now, the only image we have of Nicolas Maduro, right, is that image that Trump posted. And he's in his sweatpants and his pants are half hanging off, and he certainly doesn't look, you know, he's not in his military garb, right? It's a humiliating picture. He doesn't look powerful. He looks tired and sloppy. Go ahead. Yes, go ahead. Tell me what you see there.

MILLER: I mean, what I see is he is handcuffed. You know, he's wearing blackout goggles. This is so he can't see where he is, where he's moving from point a to point b. He's got an inflatable life vest on, the kind you would wear on an aircraft or on a small boat. He's got the headphones on --

BURNETT: Is that the thing around his neck, John? Where is the inflatable vest? Sorry. Just --

MILLER: Yes, that's that. You see a couple of chem strips that glow in the dark. That's the kind of thing that they give to people on board various aircraft to make sure if it goes down or they go in the water, they could be inflated by pulling the tabs, and those things glow in the dark. He's wearing blackout glasses. He's wearing earphones that are meant to obstruct his hearing so he can't hear the conversations around him. But notable in this picture is, if you look in the background, you see the back of a DEA agent's raid jacket. You can see where it says DEA. That means he is under arrest by U.S. federal law enforcement authorities from the New York office of the DEA and being brought to that arraignment. So it's where you kind of see the transition from the military to law enforcement.

BURNETT: John, what's the significance of that? When you look at the -- yes, when we look at the indictment itself, right, and the multiple charges, and we talk about this confusion about what this was all about, what the goals are, all of these extremely amorphous, to say the least, issues.

But when you see that the DEA actually was there in charge, what does that say to you? I mean, that's a that's a very explicit and specific thing, right, legally?

MILLER: Well, it is, and I mean, the primary example that was referred to earlier today was, you know, the invasion of Panama, the arrest of Noriega, his being brought to the United States to face charges in Miami.

[14:20:02]

This is an updated version of that. And essentially, he is being brought there to court to face these charges as the head of a criminal enterprise that was assisting other criminal enterprises, including the Mexican cartels and the Colombian cartels.

BURNETT: John, one more thing I have to ask you, and that is about -- as I said, that's the only image we have of him, but we're going to see images of him, maybe Monday, when he's on video coming into a New York court. Right? I mean, that's going to be an historic moment, and he's going to be there with his wife. My understanding is she's incredibly politically important herself. She has her own political capital. She's known as Celita, first lady. They've been together more than 30 years. What do you think -- and I don't know how much of this you're able to speculate on in an informed basis or how much you actually would know. But, I mean, are they being held together right now? And obviously, you've got -- she's a different gender, so in terms of where she's going to be held, I mean, how does all this play out? Because when you think about someone like El Chapo, right, there wasn't El Chapo's wife, although that that happened later. What -- how does all this going to actually play out with her as part of it? She's on that USS Iwo Jima right now too.

MILLER: Well, that's right. And I don't think they're going to get the Metropolitan Detention Center honeymoon suite. The procedures are that male prisoners and female prisoners are kept separated. But she is a codefendant who, as the charges are laid out, Erin, is not just along for the ride. You know, when she was, in effect, the speaker of the house down there, it is alleged in these charges that she arranged specifically a meeting between the head of one of the cartels and the head of the national drug enforcement group in Venezuela to make sure that they hooked up and that he would be protected and not charged, arrested, or investigated by that force. So, it is that she is not just charged as his wife, but as a real player here over the years.

BURNETT: All right, John, thank you very much. And as John was finishing there, I'm just jotting down, Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president of Venezuela just speaking out, finally speaking out. You see her on camera. This is the first time we've seen her. She says, "We demand the immediate release of President Maduro and his wife." This after Trump said that she told Rubio she'd do everything the U.S. wants. We'll be right back with this breaking news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:45]

BURNETT: OK, well, we are just awaiting here. We're going to be airing this for you in just a moment. It seems to be temporary ruler of Venezuela, the vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, who was Maduro's vice president, has finally just appeared on camera and spoken out. And her words were that she demands the immediate release of Nicolas Maduro and his wife from U.S. custody.

This after President Trump said that Rubio had been speaking with her, Secretary of State Rubio, and that she had said she would do everything the United States wanted done. So now she's striking this defiant post. So we're going to were going to be turning that audio for you in just a second as soon as we get it. But obviously this is the significant development at this moment.

I want to go to Rafael Romo. Rafael, you spent an incredible amount of time reporting on and from Venezuela. So this information that were just getting in, that Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president, is finally just appearing on camera, flanked by the flags, saying we demand the immediate release of Nicolas Maduro, what do you see here in this -- there she is -- in this pomp and circumstance and the fact that they're just putting it out now?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Well, for starters, Erin, let me tell you, earlier today, there were all kinds of rumors circulating that she wasn't even in the country, that she had traveled to Russia, which, of course, now we know was not the case. And it's not only important, the fact that she has appeared publicly, it's also important the fact that she is surrounded by the people you see there.

And some of the people who are with her are Jorge Rodriguez, the president of the national assembly, who, by the way, Erin, is her brother, also Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister. These are very powerful figures in the Venezuelan government. Among the things that she has said is that she's asking for calm and unity to defend the country. She said the country will never be a colony of any nation.

The other thing that caught my attention is one of the things that she said, in a way, to explain what happened in the last 24 hours. She said, we had already warned that an aggression was underway under false excuses, under false pretexts, and that the mask had fallen, and that it only had one objective, which was the change of regime in Venezuela, and that this change, she said, would also allow the capture of our energy, mineral, and natural resources.

Now, she's been a loyalist to the Maduro regime. She's been in different positions in the government before she was the foreign minister. As a matter of fact, we did an investigation in 2017 revealing that Venezuela was selling passports illegally to people in the Middle East, in Iraq, to people who wanted to travel to this part of the world, which is one of the reasons why Venezuela, beyond being what President Trump has claimed, that it ships drugs to the United States, it was so dangerous for the United States because, essentially, it opened the door wide open for people in this part of the country for historical enemies, enemies of the United States -- China, Russia, and Iran, Erin.

[14:30:00] BURNETT: Yes. All of which have such a significant presence in Venezuela, and China by far the biggest buyer of the heavy sour crude that Venezuela produces.

All right, Rafael, please stay with me, because obviously, you know so much about this and able to identify who's in the room.

I want to go to Caracas now as well. Mary Mena has been there with us throughout our coverage today. Mary, did this broadcast from the vice president, did it broadcast on state media? I mean, exactly how has this been put out there and disseminated? Are you able to have any sense of how people are responding to it?

MENA: Yes, this is -- this was a mandatory message broadcast on all over the radio and TV stations, local TV stations in Venezuela. So this is significant because they wanted to show that the government is reunited, that they are in union. And these are the main heads of the Chavismo and the Madurismo after Nicolas Maduro. As we were saying, Delcy Rodriguez is the main head of Venezuela right now as vice president. But she also runs the state oil company, PDVSA. She's the minister of oil in the country, so she knows broadly about the economy, about how to handle the country.

She says especially that there's just one and only legitimate president of Venezuela. She reiterated that for them, this is a kidnaping. And the international community should respond to that. And also, she said that they will be implementing the state of emergency. She showed that to the cameras and said that she will send this decree to the Supreme Court of Venezuela.

We need to remember that most powers in Venezuela are government controlled. They were appointed, most judges were appointed by Nicolas Maduro, so they follow all the directions coming from the government. This is really key and important. Also, the parliament, who is run by Delcy Rodriguez's brother, Jorge Rodriguez, the parliament should be -- the new parliament should be appointed on Monday, according to the Venezuelan law, every January 5th. And of course, we don't know yet what is going to happen in the coming hours, what will be this implementation of the new parliament that is set to be opened on January 2026.

BURNETT: All right, Mary, we're going to be coming back to you in just a few moments. But obviously stunning developments. And also, just to state the very obvious to anyone watching around the world, Venezuela or elsewhere, a deep sense of confusion with the vice president of Venezuela saying that she's in charge. This is a kidnaping, demanding the release of Maduro and his wife, when Trump said yes, Rubio had talked to her. She'll do everything we want. But then he also said, in response to who is running Venezuela, the answer was essentially me. It was a group of people, including those behind me, which are his top leadership team, including Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio. So incredible confusion right now, I think, to say the very least.

We're going to be following this breaking news. We're going to get that tape in for you. We'll be back in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:50]

BURNETT: We are back with our breaking coverage, and developments are moving very quickly at this moment out of Venezuela. The vice president there just speaking out and taking control, thumbing the nose at President Trump after he announced the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. military forces overnight, posting this image of Maduro on the USS Iwo Jima. The Venezuelan leader and his wife are now on their way back to New York to face drug and weapons charges in a U.S. court, apparently in the Southern District of New York.

Now, Trump in his press conference, it was an hour long. We really didn't get any details on who will lead the country other than that, he said it was the group behind him, which was his inner circle, including Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, that a U.S. team would be running it.

But now, as I said, the big development this moment is that the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, has just appeared on camera for the first time and said she's in charge, flanked by military officials and other power brokers in Venezuela, calling Maduro's capture a kidnaping, demanding his immediate release, and saying that Venezuela will not be a colony of the United States, a defiant move given that Trump has said his team is running the country and that she's doing everything they want, and given the situation under which the United States took Nicolas Maduro. The thumbing of the nose pretty stunning at this moment, if that's what it appears to be.

So let's talk about it. I'm joined by Josh Rogin, lead global security analyst for "The Washington Post Intelligence," and Eric Farnsworth, senior associate at CSIS, the Center for Strategic and International Affairs. OK, I'm really grateful to both of you.

We live in a moment of unprecedented times where I think so many of us, so many days, say, I can't believe we're living through this. And yet here we are in another one of those moments where it's easy to feel lost and confused and scared, as many probably do. So let me just ask you, Josh, when you look at this where we are, and it's moving so quickly, and now you have Delcy Rodriguez speaking out, where are we in this process?

JOSH ROGIN, LEAD GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST, "WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE": I would say, Erin, were at the very beginning, because what the Trump administration has done is it started something that it cannot predictably tell us where it's going or how it will finish.

[14:40:00]

And what we saw from the Venezuelan vice president right now is that she is not toeing the Trump administrations line. President Trump said two hours ago that she was on board, that she will, quote, "do whatever we want." And she's reminding us that, no, actually, she's the head of a regime that is pro-Maduro. She's actually one of his henchmen, and she is going to stand up for her interests, her regime's interests, and what she perceives as the Venezuelans' interests.

Now, on the one hand, what else is she going to say? Right. She's not going to say, oh, it's great that the U.S. attacked. But on the other hand, it seems like this is the very beginning, not only of what's going to be surely a messy period in Venezuelan politics and society, but also a very complicated negotiation going forward. The Trump administration is threatening more military action. The Venezuelan vice president, acting president, whatever you want to call her, can't ignore that. At the same time, she's in control of a massive security state that seeks to maintain control over the Venezuelan economy. And so we don't know where this is going to go, but it's just the start and it's going to get messier as time goes on. That seems certain.

BURNETT: And when you say we don't know where it's going to go, and then you, you know, you think about the significant Russian presence there and the Chinese presence and the Chinese being the buyer of the vast majority of Venezuela's oil at this point. And Eric, Trump says the United States is going to, quote, I just quote the words here, as Josh was referring to, "run the country until a proper transition takes place". And then within two hours you have the vice president come out and speak the way she's speaking now in total defiance. So then what does that, what does that mean for the Trump administration?

ERIC FARNSWORTH, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, CENTER FOR STRATEGIST AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Hey, Erin. Well, I guess what you could say is that Delcy Rodriguez is off message in terms of what the White House would like her to be saying.

But before I get there, let me just give a shout out to the U.S. military and the U.S. tactical effort, which really seemed to be carried off really expertly and in an amazing way. So congratulations are in order, I think, for that.

But Josh is exactly right. This could go in a sideways direction. There is actually an elected president. It's Edmundo Gonzalez. He won an election on July 28th, 2024. He has been the president elect since that time. Delcy Rodriguez has as much legitimacy as the vice president of Venezuela as Nicolas Maduro has as the president. She's the de facto vice president, perhaps, but she doesn't have the legitimacy, and she doesn't have the political support of the Venezuelan people. And I think this is one of the things that's going to be frustrating to the Venezuelan people more than anything, is not just the uncertainty. It's the fact that the acting vice president could be next in line, and that's somebody that they have resoundingly rejected. So I think that's something that we're going to have to watch very carefully in the future.

BURNETT: I mean, Josh, it just raises the question, given the moment that were in, you know, again, Trump going back to that moment of saying, you know, that they snatched Maduro as he was opening the big giant steal and forced door to get into his safe quarters, that he says they could have blown up anyway if they needed to, but that it got to that moment. But, I mean, it's sort of saying, OK, well, now Delcy Rodriguez is standing up to you, does this happen again? Right? I mean, what -- is it a complete set of unknowns? ROGIN: Right, and it seems clear that whatever President Trump

thought was going to happen, that's not the way it's going to happen. And that doesn't mean it's all bad or it's all good. It just means that it's unpredictable, and that the Venezuelan regime that's still intact without Maduro, as we're seeing today, will have a say in it.

Now, Trump is insistent that he's going to have a say, too, but it seems clear that he's not interested in bringing the democratic opposition to a position where they could compete in free and fair elections. That's what the Venezuelan constitution says. It says when there's a leadership vacuum, there should be new elections. If they had new elections, the opposition, Gonzalez and Machado, they would very likely win if those elections were free and fair.

That's not what Trump wants. He wants a pliable, new kind of regime, and he's going to pressure the vice president to do that. And she doesn't seem like she wants to do that. So that leaves us in a great state of uncertainty. It leaves Venezuela in a state of chaos.

And, you know, I go by the Colin Powell pottery barn rule -- once you break it, you bought it. You know, we -- the United States of America just arrested the leader of Venezuela. And so now Trump has a responsibility and the United States has a responsibility to follow through. And it doesn't seem like we have a clear plan to do that. And that's a big question mark, and I think a big challenge.

BURNETT: No, and, you know, even when he said something like boots on the ground, there's no problem with that. You know, if it failed before it was because it was another president. It's fine under me. But that's one thing to say. It's another thing to actually even do it. You know, as Admiral Stavridis was talking about, 200,000 troops at the peak, right, in Iraq. I mean, when you talk about what that means.

Eric, to this point of the military, who is in charge? OK. Delcy Rodriguez in that statement, it appeared there were military leaders in the room with her. And we do have the video of the defense minister leaving the vice presidents quarters just a little bit ago, right, in his in his full military gear.

[14:45:01]

But obviously a crucial question, and we're going to show that video now here, Eric, is what happens with the military? And does the military stay behind the, the Maduro regime now led by Delcy Rodriguez? At this very, very, preliminary moment, it appears that they are, which means in opposition to the Trump regime and the massive force that was just brought to bear last night, which is a pretty stunning thing in and of itself.

FARNSWORTH: This is the key point you're raising, Erin, and I think appropriately so. Padrino Lopez is the leader of the military. He remains in power right now. Diosdado Cabello is the chief enforcer of the regime. He remains in power. The Chavista leadership, it remains in power in Venezuela right now. That's not to say they have the legitimacy, but they remain in power, even though Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores have left. So I think that's the key question.

There is a real hope, and undoubtedly it's more than hope, but we'll have to see how this plays out, among Trump administration officials and others that elements of the military will actually turn and move against the regime. This is something that has been talked about for a long time. The Venezuelan military actually has a history and a culture of professionalism and being responsible to the constitution, and not the particular leader of the country or a political party. And so there's a lot of hope, and there's been a lot of work behind the scenes to try to see if there would be elements of the military that would do that.

Now, that's not going to say all of them will, or all of them will at the same time. I think right now what's happening is there's going to be a period of wait and see, see how this transpires. Nobody is going to want to put their neck out. And that's why we're in such a period of uncertainty here and potential disruption, because we don't know where the security forces are going to go.

And let me also add that it's not just the, quote-unquote, military. There are what we would say informally, goon squads who run around enforcing street justice. There are guerrillas in the country, the FARC, the ELN from Colombia, there are drug traffickers, there are others. So there's a whole lot of uncertainty outside of Caracas and elsewhere that would also have to be dealt with and brought under control.

BURNETT: Yes, there's many layers to the onion being barely scratching the surface of the analogy that would capture the complexity of this moment. And I'm grateful to both of you for being with us as this story quickly develops here with the de facto leader of Venezuela speaking up.

This is now live pictures out of Venezuela this afternoon, a reaction across the region as Venezuela's leader now says that they will not be a colony of the United States. We're going to go to Rio de Janeiro after this.

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[14:51:42]

BURNETT: And we are back with our breaking news coverage of the U.S. military attack in Venezuela and seizing of the president.

Joining me from Rio de Janeiro is CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones on the ground there. And Julia, just a stunning moment across the world and in South America, where President Trump has said he wants to reassert the Monroe Doctrine, which he now calls the "Donroe Doctrine". How are governments in the region reacting right now to what has just happened in Venezuela?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, this is extremely surprising, Erin, but the reaction has not been so. It's been very much just split among political lines. What we're seeing here is governments across the region who have rightwing leaders siding with the U.S. operations. We're talking about Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and then in Argentina, more than any of them, where President Javier Milei, a close ally of President Trump, said that we are, quote, "witnessing the fall of a narco-terrorist dictator who had been tampering with elections." And then he hailed President Trump as a defender of freedom in the region.

But then we go to the other side here in Brazil, as well as in Colombia and Mexico. These are governments who do not agree. They are condemning these operations. Gustavo Petro of Colombia, we heard from him earlier today in a statement. He said that his government will reject any kind of unilateral military action -- and I'm reading a quote here -- "that could aggravate the situation or put the civilian situation at risk." Of course, that is a grave concern for the president that shares a large border with Colombia.

And then here in Brazil, also shares a border with Venezuela. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying that America's actions crossed the line. He said they are in flagrant violation of international law, and then calling on the international community, Erin, via the United Nations to act on this. He said, though, that Brazil remains very promptly available to negotiate any kind of dialogue in this situation.

But I will add, none of these statements from Mexico, Colombia, or Brazil are coming to Maduro's defense necessarily, but rather they're pointing to international law and to the principle of sovereignty of countries for their repudiation of the actions of the United States. Although that dialogue that Brazil seems to be calling for, Erin, it seems like the possibility of that is far gone. We heard from President Trump in very clear words in that presser earlier today, when he was answering a question from a reporter, who said, how is, how is running a country in South America, America first? And the president said, well, I think it's because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors. We want to surround ourselves with stability. And then he added, Erin, we want to surround ourselves with energy.

Now, the way that that is being perceived here in the region is that basically the United States believes that this is its zone of influence and that it will act if it deems necessary to intervene in governments who are, in theory, sovereign. So it is very much being perceived as the Monroe Doctrine 2.0. That's what we're seeing.

[14:55:00]

We're already seeing memes appear on the Internet with Uncle Sam. And it is for sure a cause for all of these governments to be concerned here. In Brazil, we know that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was meeting with his ministers earlier and having a second meeting. So we're expecting an update to that situation later today still, Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so very much, on the ground there in Rio, as, of course, President Trump's comment had been, we are going to pull a lot of wealth out of the ground, which he said would go to the Venezuelan people and also to the U.S. oil companies. All right, we're going to take a brief break. Our special coverage

continues here.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BURNETT: Good afternoon. I'm Erin Burnett. Thank you for joining us for our breaking news coverage, which we are following right now, moving moment by moment out of Venezuela. The de facto leader there has now, for the first time, appeared on camera, demanding the immediate release of Nicolas --