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Trump On Venezuela: "We're Going To Run The Country"; Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Arrives In United States; Maduro Arrives At New York Military Base; Interview with Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL). Aired 4-5p ET
Aired January 03, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Sara Sidner in New York.
We begin with major breaking news. An astonishing move by President Donald Trump. Just a short time ago, he announced the United States is now in control of Venezuela. This all happened after a surprise attack on Venezuela, where the country saw elite U.S. forces capture the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife in a brazen, largescale strike overnight. President Trump declaring the U.S. will now run the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: The moment now met by extraordinary uncertainty over how this will be carried out and for how long. The president offering little clarity but saying U.S. troops will be on the ground to secure oil.
As we speak, Maduro is in route to New York, expected to arrive today. President Trump posting this photo of him with glasses on where he cannot see through them, handcuffed, minutes after the U.S. Justice Department laid out the narco terrorism charges he now faces. U.S. forces dragging him and his wife from their bedroom during an overnight raid. Multiple explosions seen rocking the capital city of Caracas.
The new interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, is now demanding Maduro's immediate return after accusing the U.S. of conducting a military assault, saying Venezuelans will never be slaves or a colony of any empire. Her comment appearing to undermine remarks President Trump made earlier. We have a team of experts and reporters standing by on this story,
including CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood. But let's first go to White House reporter Alayna Treene.
This is a stunning move by the president, although there were some clues he gave himself on his Truth Social. What are you learning this hour?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are a number of things that were still monitoring, Sara, and questions that still remain. I do want to start with some of the top lines of what the president said during his press conference. One of the most stunning being that they plan to run the country were the words the president used for the foreseeable future for, you know, until he said there is a judicial -- judicious transition of power.
And that does leave the question open of who is going to run it. The president seemed to argue that some of the men who were standing behind him while speaking, people like the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the list goes on, would be working in coordination with a group of Venezuelans on the ground inside the country. And essentially, what he was arguing was that they do not want this operation, which the president referred to as being a very dangerous operation, to be in vain.
But that raises a lot of questions as well about, does that mean U.S. boots on the ground? Well, the president said that he's not afraid of putting U.S. boots on the ground, and as you mentioned, Sara, he said in at least in one part, they will be there. There will be a military presence to secure, you know, Venezuela's oil industry and try to kind of remake really the energy infrastructure that has been run by the Maduro government for so long.
Some other things, I think, that were just very remarkable is the fact that they did not notify Congress. It appears that the Gang of Eight as well, was not notified before this operation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio took the podium, and he essentially said, he said it's not the kind of mission that you can pre-notify because it endangers the mission. That is something that is not going to fly with a lot of lawmakers, particularly those, you know, at the highest levels of the Intelligence Committees in the House and the Senate.
They expect, according to the Constitution, that they should be notified ahead of a major operation that essentially led to a regime change in Venezuela. So there's going to be a lot of fallout regarding that.
And then another area that I found to be fascinating through all of this is who they're looking again, to try to install in Venezuela. We know that Maria Corina Machado, someone who the Trump administration has been working very closely with, has been in communication with for months now as they've been plotting these operations for Venezuela. The president said this morning that he hadn't spoken with her and that he hadn't been in contact with her.
Instead, he said that Rubio was going to be talking with or that he had spoken with the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez. And so there's a lot of questions there as well, about what Rodriguez's role might have been in this. And also, we did hear, as you mentioned, Rodriguez saying today, really arguing that the U.S. needs to release Maduro. But there's going to be a lot that we see as well in the next coming hours.
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We're going to see Maduro. He's expected to arrive in New York today. He could be in court as early as Monday. But I think the bigger questions, of course, are what are the next steps and how involved is the U.S. really going to be and for how long? We know that the president wants to ensure that they have a heavy level involvement, but it really is a question of do they expect an allied government to run Venezuela for the years to come?
Major questions and major implications, and again, a lot of lawmakers feeling very much out of the loop on this, Sara.
SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Alayna Treene. Let's go now to Kylie Atwood.
What more are you learning at this hour? There are so many things sort of coming down the pipe as the world woke up to this attack and this arrest.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just remarkable news this morning that was then followed by the press conference with President Trump and his top national security officials that included many details about how this military operation was carried out with more than 150 airplanes relying on more than 20 bases in the region. Just remarkable detail about U.S. special forces going in in the middle of the night to where Nicolas Maduro and his wife were at the time. And now Maduro being on his way to the United States, expected to be in New York later today.
But as Alayna was saying there, President Trump also shockingly said that the United States is going to be running the country. But exactly what that looks like is incredibly unclear at this moment. He said that the people standing behind him, the secretary, including the Secretary of State, including the secretary of Defense, would be running the country with a team.
But as you have been discussing, he also stopped short of actually endorsing the opposition leader. That is Maria Machado. That is someone that has been in touch with the Trump administration over the course of the last year. And even beyond that, actually has a known relationship with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio. And listen to what Trump said specifically about Machado when asked about that earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: 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. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ATWOOD: Now, interestingly, when we had been reporting before this happened that the administration was preparing for day after plans in Venezuela, we were told that the opposition's plans for day after plans were not actually happening in conjunction with the administration. So it's a clear indication right now that the administration was carrying out its own planning. We'll have to watch and see how that planning actually pretends from here on given that the vice president, who had a phone call with Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier today and indicated, according to the president that she'd be willing to work with the United States, just in the last hour or so said that the United States should immediately release Maduro -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right. Thank you to our Kylie Atwood and Alayna Treene for their reporting on this huge breaking news.
Joining me now is Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. He serves on both the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees.
Thank you so much for being here. First, look, I do want to ask you about the president saying that the U.S. will run Venezuela. When you consider that and what that may entail, do you have any serious concerns about what this means? Because he says there will be U.S. boots on the ground.
REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): From my understanding, I mean, that is the -- whatever protection is going to be sent to Venezuela is to protect United States assets, mainly oil assets in Venezuela. And I'm not so sure about the rest of actually running the country or what that means, or maybe you have an interim government that were sure is going to do the things that we want. And I think the things that we want is we want to get to a free and fair elections as quickly as possible so that Venezuela can finally say that they have a democratically elected president and vice president.
SIDNER: By the accounts of those who have escaped the country, and some in the country who are celebrating today that Maduro is out and arrested, that they have said it's been a living hell under the Maduro regime, but it is a sovereign nation. Why is it OK for the U.S. to simply go in, arrest its leader, control its oil, and take over for a time?
GIMENEZ: Well, I mean, it's OK because that leader happened to be under indictment here in the United States, similar to what happened in Noriega. He was under indictment, too. And the same thing that happened to bin Laden. He was under indictment, too. And so we've done these kind of operations for a long time. And so Maduro was under indictment. He has been classified as the leader of a terrorist, narco terrorist organization that has killed Americans and poses a threat to the United States of America and is engaging in illegal activities.
[16:10:02] He is the illegitimate leader of a cartel that poses a threat to the United States. And so there's plenty of precedent for this. And like I just told you, Noriega and bin Laden come to mind right away.
SIDNER: Yes. Noriega in Panama, where President George H.W. Bush sent in troops and took that country for a time. And then you mentioned, you know, we're talking about Afghanistan here ultimately. And in mentioning those two places and you could also include Iraq into this where the U.S. invaded Iraq.
GIMENEZ: Yes.
SIDNER: You know, the president himself has said over and over again, no more wars, that he wants to be the president of peace, that he believes that the United States should not be the world police. And now he's invaded Venezuela and says that Americans will run Venezuela for a while until an interim government can be put in place. How is this America first?
GIMENEZ: It's all -- look, it's America first because Venezuela is not a friend of the United States. Venezuela harbors our greatest geopolitical enemies, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. They've established, you know, a foothold in Venezuela. And he makes it no secret that he's aligned with them. And so, yes, they pose a threat to the United States, Venezuela, in that -- with that government poses a threat to the United States.
But that particular government, number one, is illegitimate. There is a legitimate government waiting to take over power, which he denied them, you know, over a year ago. And so, yes, this is -- this is America first. We need to look out to our own neighborhood, to our own hemisphere, and make sure that democracy and freedom, you know, reigns here in our backyard because that also is good for America's interests and is also protecting America.
So I see absolutely no, you know, no problem in saying that that's America first. He is protecting Americans. Remember, you know, this regime was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans. And so the number one job of any administration, of any government is the protection of its citizens. And frankly, we have been really, really negligent in protecting American citizens for the past five or six years, as 500,000, 600,000, 700,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses.
And this cartel was involved in that trade. And so -- and this individual was the head of the Cartel De Los Reyes. So, look, I have absolutely no problem with President Trump going in and arresting Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who are both under indictment here in the United States.
SIDNER: And just quickly, are you perfectly OK with the United States running Venezuela when there are a lot of problems that, you know, Americans are complaining about here, including health care and the economy itself? And he says he's going to spend billions of dollars to fix the problems in Venezuela. What about here at home? How long are you OK with, for example, troops being on the ground there? GIMENEZ: Yes. But there's also, you know, Venezuela has billions of
dollars in resources, one of them being oil. They have the largest oil reserves on the planet. And so, you know, we have American companies that are involved in Venezuela that have access, will now have access to those resources. And so that's a pretty good investment as far as I'm concerned, as far as running the country.
I think we need to stabilize the country and give democracy a chance. And so you don't want chaos in Venezuela. And so I think we need to take the steps necessary, hopefully with the least amount of intervention possible. But to give democracy a chance and let a democratically elected government take over Venezuela. You know, Venezuela was a democracy for a long time until, you know, Maduro took over.
Even Chavez was elected democratically, but he used democracy against democracy in order to remain in power. That's not really the intent of democracy. We need to get a democratic government installed back in Venezuela. And I'm sure that that government is going to be a heck of a lot friendlier to the United States than the Chavez-Maduro regime has been.
SIDNER: All right. We will see. There are a lot of unanswered questions at this hour.
Congressman Jimenez, I do thank you for your time there. Live for us from Miami, which has a large number of Venezuelan foreign nationals who have left that country to escape to Miami. I know you're hearing from them at this time. Do appreciate it.
Our coverage of this breaking news continues --
GIMENEZ: Thank you. And --
SIDNER: -- in just minutes. President Maduro is on his way to the United States as we speak to face a number of criminal charges. The legal case federal prosecutors are making against him, that's ahead.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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SIDNER: The U.S. has arrested Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and taken him from his country in route to the U.S. to face drug and weapons charges. If convicted, the charges could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. The DOJ unsealing an indictment charging Maduro, his wife and others with federal conspiracy tied to narco terrorism and cocaine trafficking, along with other alleged crimes related to possessing machine guns and other weapons.
President Trump says Maduro and the other defendants will feel the full weight of the American justice system.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Maduro and his wife will soon face the full might of American justice and stand trial on American soil. Right now, they're on a ship. They'll be heading to ultimately New York, and then a decision will be made, I assume, between New York and Miami or Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: CNN national security and legal analyst Carrie Cordero joins us at this hour.
Thank you for being here.
[16:20:00]
Let's talk about this indictment and have you sort of walk us through it. There are names in it, of course Maduro, his wife and son, among others, who are named. It alleges that Maduro and his allies ran state sponsored gangs.
Can you just give us a sense of the vastness of these allegations and what they are?
CARRIE CORDERO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND LEGAL ANALYST: Sure. So, as you mentioned, Sara, this indictment charges him, his wife, family and as well as some other politicians in Venezuela. And what it really does, is it updates what has been a long standing investigation by the U.S. government, by the Justice Department and law enforcement of his alleged drug trafficking related activities and corruption.
So the Justice Department had originally indicted him back in March of 2020. And at that time, the indictment connected him to a particular terrorist organization, the FARC, which was a Colombian revolutionary organization. So this new indictment, which was unsealed today, updates both in terms of filling in the most recent six years of activity of him and the other co-defendants, but it also expands the nature of activities that they're charged with, and the terrorist and drug trafficking organizations with which they are affiliated.
And so extends beyond the FARC to the Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan group, as well as other international drug trafficking organizations based in Mexico.
SIDNER: And we should just mention, in March of 2020 that President Trump was the president at the time, and that was, you know, a good five years ago, as we now are seeing this come to fruition, this indictment.
I do want you to explain to us, as we look at pictures from Caracas, Venezuela, want you to sort of give us some sense of what this process will look like in court because we know that as we speak, you know, President Maduro is headed to the United States, and we expect him to be in court, potentially sometime, you know, Monday.
CORDERO: Yes. On one hand, Sara, I think we can say that the U.S. government has prosecuted very, very high profile cases that can be analyzed to this particular circumstance. So, for example, if we go back to the late 1980s and the arrest and capture and bringing to the United States of Manuel Noriega from Panama, that sort of a somewhat similar circumstance.
Similarly, in the terrorism context, Southern District of New York has experienced prosecuting, individuals affiliated with international terrorism organizations like al Qaeda. In other words, so there's a security protocol that will take place. And so there is experience with bringing these high profile type individuals into the criminal justice system in New York. At the same time, conducting a military operation and extracting a head of state into the United States, obviously is unusual.
So I think there's the normal criminal justice system, which we will see in terms of he will at some point be brought into United States territory, brought into Manhattan, into federal court, be arraigned, and then he will be in the, quote-unquote, "normal process" that federal criminal defendants would be in. But, of course, there is an additional layer of security and novelty that will exist in sort of the mechanics of how this transpires over the next two or three days.
SIDNER: Sure. I just want to talk through this just really quickly. Separately, the Trump administration officials are reportedly internally kind of pointing to the 1989 legal opinion and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Panama to justify the operation to take Maduro into custody without U.S. congressional authorization. What do you make of this legal justification?
CORDERO: Yes. So, Sara, there's really sort of two angles to this that I'm thinking about. So one is the justification for conducting the military operation that was in support of the law enforcement arrest of him and his wife. And so that is where the 1989 Department of Justice memo and precedent comes into play. And if they follow sort of that legal analysis, then there is an articulation that would fall to, we are executing a search warrant pursuant to a lawful indictment.
The U.S. Military was there to support that operation. And so it is a criminal justice matter. But they are following that precedent.
[16:25:04]
The whole separate angle to this, which then draws in more constitutional law, separation of powers between the executive branch and Congress and international law, has to do with, A, the military strikes that have been taking place over a period of months, and B, the continued U.S. presence and potential future military activity and governance of Venezuela.
And so I think that criminal justice piece and the justification is different than the constitutional and international law analysis that will be discussed and debated robustly in the coming days as it relates to continued military involvement in Venezuela.
SIDNER: We will discuss it right here on this show as you might imagine.
Carrie Cordero, it is a pleasure. Thank you so much. Appreciate your analysis.
Coming up, more on our breaking news. President Trump says the United States will now be running the country of Venezuela for a time. How? And perhaps more importantly, for how long?
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, back to our top story. President Trump says the United States will run Venezuela for the foreseeable future after special forces swooped in last night, arresting President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's president, and his wife. Joining us now to discuss the next steps, CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto, Beth Sanner, a CNN national security analyst, and former deputy director of national intelligence and former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro. Thank you all for being here.
Jim, first to you. President Trump declaring that the U.S. will run Venezuela for the foreseeable future. The definition of a proper transition is what he said. Until that can happen, what are you hearing from your sources about this?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Listen, I know a lot of folks are making comparisons to Panama, both from a legal perspective but also a strategic perspective in terms of a relative success. The U.S. swooped in, took out Manuel Noriega, tried him, and the country stayed relatively stable in the aftermath of that.
There are major differences between Venezuela and Panama, one of which is just simply size. Size of the population, but also the U.S. military footprint. At the time of the Panama operation in the late 80s, the U.S. already had thousands of forces on the ground, of course, in part because of its interest in the Panama Canal.
It's a very open question as to how the U.S. runs the country, as the president said, without a significant presence, not just military but also political, law enforcement, policing, economic, et cetera. It's a far different challenge than really anything. I'm trying to think of what the comparison is.
I mean, suppose one could make a comparison to the Iraq invasion, although that was an invasion over many months and years with an enormous U.S. military footprint. And of course -- of course, an insurgent group that fought back. It was deadly and largely failed over time. So, I think you could argue this is one without precedent. And the president has not articulated, really, even the basics of how the U.S. would, again, his words, run the country in the wake of what was, I think you could say, a successful military operation. The next chapter very much has yet to be written.
SIDNER: Jim, thank you for that. Stick with -- stick with us. I do want to go to this information that we got from the president. He did not rule out the possibility of more U.S. military involvement in Venezuela. Here's what he said when asked about the possibility of putting U.S. boots on the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I always say boots on the ground. 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're -- we don't mind saying it. But we're going to make sure that that country is run properly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: He talks about the country being run properly. Ambassador Shapiro, how difficult is this going to be? Because the president is clear that he will spend billions, he said, to put things right on the ground there and to await an interim government.
CHARLES SHAPIRO, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA: The short answer is very complicated. Jim is right. This is going to be super difficult to do. Looking online, Delcy Rodriguez says she's the acting president. Not the president of Venezuela. And Maduro is still the president. She did this in a press conference with two of the other key members, key Chavistas, members of their party. So, how do you get from now to six months from now to a year from now? It's going to be super difficult.
SIDNER: Beth, now to you. U.S. adversaries are Venezuela's allies. We're talking about China, Russia, Iran. What message does this send to those countries? Does it send a warning, or does it give them an opening, an example of something that they can do to some of their less worrisome targets?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the administration does think that this is a warning to all adversaries. Marco Rubio was very frank about that. And he said, you know, this should give everybody pause, who would challenge this administration.
But I think in the long run, this is -- you know, this is why these sorts of actions people concerned -- are concerned about precedent. And, you know, it sounds very academic and kind of out there. But the idea is that, you know, if we do it, what makes it different?
And certainly, there are some details that make it different, right? Maduro was an illegitimately -- an illegitimate leader. He did not win the last election. But, you know, our adversaries don't really care about those kinds of semantics. So, you know, it could definitely serve as a precedent down the road.
[16:35:22]
SIDNER: Jim, I'm curious on the same vein, how you see this as you've covered so many of these regions for such a long time.
SCIUTTO: Listen, you -- look at the reactions from China and Russia. Of course, China and Russia -- China is deeply shocked by strongly condemns the U.S. blatant use of force. Russia -- it says the United States committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela.
Now, neither of those countries has a leg to stand on, right? I mean, they have quite willingly and without hesitation exercised power to take over. Russia attempting to swallow up all of Ukraine. Still to this day, four years -- nearly four years after the full-scale invasion. And China in other instances, if you look at, for instance, their land grab in the South China Sea, but also the current threat to Taiwan.
So, they don't have a principled leg to stand on by any means. They will certainly use this from a propaganda standpoint to say, hey, look what the U.S. did there. How is that any different from what we're trying to do here? And they might even borrow some of the language, right?
You know, China says, well, you know, we want a judiciously change the government in Taiwan. Or you remember Russia's argument about they were going to de-Nazify Ukraine. I mean, it doesn't have to be true for them to make that argument.
The other point I would make is this, though, that how do they read this. Right? On the one hand, they could read it as, wow, the U.S. President is willing to exercise military power in ways that we didn't know. I mean, the strikes on Iran and now this.
How might he use that against us? Or they can calculate that the U.S. is so focused on its own -- its own hemisphere that perhaps President Trump is willing to give us some leeway in Asia as relates to Taiwan or in Eastern Europe, as relates to Russia. You know, there are multiple ways, and they could get it wrong, but there are multiple ways that Beijing and Russia can read this.
SIDNER: Yes. We know that the president has had some very strong words against Iran, saying the U.S. has locked and loaded. So, there are a lot of questions left to be asked. But this was the major breaking news that really stunned quite a few people and nations. Beth Sanner and Ambassador Charles Shapiro, thank you. To you, Jim, I know you're going to stay with me. We will be talking to you in just a bit here.
Up next, though, drag from their bedroom in the middle of the night. A look at the planning behind the operation to nab Venezuela's president and his wife. Stay with me.
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[16:41:53]
SIDNER: Back now to our special breaking news coverage. I want to talk now about how the U.S. carried out these coordinated strikes in Venezuela. To do that, I'm joined by CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. It is good to see you once again.
Let's talk about how this operation went down. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine says 150 aircraft launched from 20 different bases on land and sea. What does the scale of this operation tell you?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Sara, it's definitely a large operation. So, this isn't something that you put together on the back of an envelope or within an hour. It's something that requires a lot of planning, a lot of preparation, a lot of synchronization.
And what it shows is that there are a lot of lessons that have been learned from the war on terror, a lot of lessons that have been learned from other conflicts that the U.S. has either been in or observed over the years. And what is really noteworthy about this particular operation is the fact that it was not only a joint operation of several different services together, but it incorporated the air wings of the Air Force and the Navy, plus special operations forces.
And those forces, the synchronization of all of that was really based on very precise intelligence. Both from a targeting perspective when it comes to air power, but also from the actual operational use of intelligence when it came to actually getting Maduro and his wife and whisking them out of the country.
SIDNER: Do you look at this timeline? I mean, to you, this had to be a long-planned scenario that took time because of all the different parts that they had to -- had to contact and coordinate with. What do you think is the most significant piece of the -- of the timeline that was laid out by general Caine?
LEIGHTON: Well, I think one of the things that General Caine mentioned was the fact that it really was a very short time by the time they got to the area where Maduro was. And they were able to not only grab him and extricate him, but also prevented him from getting into that safe house. So, that is the kind of thing that requires a lot of real, deep tactical knowledge of his environment.
And what stood out to me, Sara, was the fact that they basically did a pattern of life analysis on Maduro and presumably his wife. And that very fact, of course, is a very significant aspect to this. And that allowed them to conduct this operation in this way.
SIDNER: All right. I'm going to keep you there for just a second, because we have some breaking news. Right now, we're looking at the plane that we believe President Maduro of Venezuela is on. This is Fort Stewart.
This is a stunning image of the president who has been captured by the United States. And has now landed on U.S. soil after being captured in the overnight hours at his residence with his wife. We saw these stunning images sent out by the Trump administration showing him wearing those darkened glasses, where you can't really see anything out of them. And wearing what appeared to be some sort of sweats or pajamas.
Let us go now to Jim Sciutto, who has been standing by for all of this. This is a stunning, seminal moment right now where we are seeing the United States bringing the president of Venezuela here, landing on U.S. soil. What are you learning at this hour, Jim?
[16:45:31]
SCIUTTO: Sara, the U.S. government -- the U.S. military plucked the leader of a foreign country. Not a good man, but the leader of a foreign country out of his bedroom with his wife. And extradited him all the way to New York using its most elite military force. The kind of force it uses, for instance, to kill Osama Bin Laden, right? The leader of al-Qaeda.
And he's now going to face trial in New York with an uncertain future for Venezuela. The U.S. promising to run the country. Not quite clear how. But also with enormous legal implications and precedent implications going forward.
And, you know, it's interesting, Sara, over recent days and weeks, I've been speaking to Republican lawmakers and other supporters of the president about what exactly his intention was in Venezuela. And you got multiple answers, right? That regime change was one of them, but also enforcing democracy.
But the president has already in his comments today, effectively dismissed the idea of putting in power the person who -- it is widely believed, actually won the election, right? The Nobel Prize winner, Machado saying she just doesn't have the support in the country. So, it's the extradition of a bad guy to be replaced with whom? Chosen by whom? Under what circumstances? Apparently, perhaps a U.S.-run election.
I mean, there are so many -- there are so many open questions here, Sara, but also legal questions and precedent being set for U.S. policy that I think folks watching right now have to be very, very conscious of. I think it was Seth Moulton who said on our air earlier today, you know, let's step back for a moment and acknowledge how crazy this is.
SIDNER: I mean, there is just so much to unpack here. And we are joined by CNN chief law enforcement analyst and intelligence analyst John Miller, who has been with us throughout the many hours after all of this happened. We're looking at this picture of a remarkable moment in both U.S. and Venezuelan history. The leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has landed -- touched down here in the United States. This is the plane that they have now -- they have put him on, that has now landed in the U.S.
What happens from here? And give us some sense of who might be alongside him, because in the -- in the pictures that we were shown from the administration, there was clearly a DEA agent inside of the aircraft with him in those first pictures that were released. What are you expecting to see here?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, what's going on right now is this is a DOJ airplane. It is run by the FBI out of the Critical Incident Response Group or CIRG. This is their largest plane. And you've got the arrest team on board. So, that's DEA agents. You've got the FBI team that was part of that arrest which is the FBI's hostage rescue team, which embedded with special forces Delta Force on the ground to make the arrest in Venezuela.
But what you're going to have here is this interesting transition occurring over the next few minutes, which is Customs and Border Protection will parole President Maduro and his wife into the United States as federal arrestees, federal prisoners, which is the process that brings them there. So, on this plane, they'll bring in the electronic equipment. They'll take the biometrics. Fingerprints electronically. Photograph electronically, and enter it into that CBP customs and border protection system.
There will be the medical check. So, they will have a medical person do a quick assessment to make sure their vital signs are all OK. And then they will leave this plane and go for the second part of their journey, which is going to be from this air base to a law enforcement facility where they will be booked, again, fingerprints, photographs. But this is all standard procedure because they are under federal indictment, in a 25-page indictment charging them with working with narcotics cartels and taking in millions of dollars in illicit money to allow narcotics to flow through Venezuela to the United States. So, that is what we're looking at right now, Sara.
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SIDNER: I mean, it is a remarkable moment. The picture now, just getting clear there as we wait now, just getting clear there as we wait to see the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, come out of that plane, surely flanked by federal authorities as they move him along now, the U.S. justice process. I do want to go to -- back to our Cedric Leighton to ask you about what you are seeing here and how this would be coordinated and happen. We, you know, have learned that there was an elite FBI unit assisting with the capture of Maduro.
Obviously, all of this has to be coordinated with the military. Give us some sense of how difficult this would have been. And what you see, just from the standpoint of an operation, whether this has been extremely successful, the president certainly saying it has been.
LEIGHTON: Yes, it sure appears to be, at least on the surface, extremely successful. And the goal being to capture Maduro and bring him back to the United States without killing him. That goal has absolutely been achieved, no question about it.
Now, in this case, you know, when we see the plane with Maduro and the FBI agents and possibly other agents from DEA and other entities going on board there, they are taking care of that law enforcement function that John was talking about. Now, when you look at the actual capture, that's where you had the special forces go in there.
Delta Force is the unit -- the organization that was tasked with conducting this mission. And in reality, although, you know, the way they've described it, is that it was a law enforcement operation assisted by the Department of Defense, that part of it really was a Department of Defense operation, whether that's -- legally, the way they were describing it or not is immaterial. Operationally, it was absolutely a DOD operation. But now that he's on U.S. soil and in the custody of these law enforcement agents, it really reminds me of the situation in Panama in 1989 that Jim was mentioning. And that was a case where they captured Manuel Noriega, who was the de facto leader of Panama at that particular moment in time, charged with similar offenses in some ways to what we see here with Maduro. And they also had a picture of him on board an airplane, on board a C-130, I believe it was in that particular case. And they brought him in. I believe it was to Miami at that time to stand trial in Florida.
In this case, we're going to New York for that trial. And it is very interesting to see the great coordination between the law enforcement entities and the military entities. But that particular coordination is something that has been honed over the years. And particularly since 9/11, that coordination has gotten even more refined than it was back in the late 1980s, when we were dealing with Panama.
SIDNER: Yes. Back to you, Jim. I know that you are constantly on the phone with your sources. I do want to just stop for a moment and have you talk about the -- just this remarkable moment that we are in right now as we watch this unfold. The president of a sovereign nation, Venezuela, being captured by the United States and being charged with a myriad of charges, everything from narco-terrorism to weapons possession, like machine guns and other weapons, to alleged crimes involving cocaine.
But, you know, as you mentioned, this was the president of a sovereign nation. Just give us some sense historically of Maduro, of the United States as relations with Venezuela, and what this moment means.
SCIUTTO: Momentarily, we're going to see the now former leader of a sovereign nation and quite a significant one in terms of its population, but also economic might due to its oil, walk off that plane in handcuffs hours after he was taken from his bedroom in handcuffs by the most elite U.S. military forces, the Delta Force. It's a truly remarkable moment and exercise of U.S. power. I have to say, Sara, as I've been watching this, the words of Colin Powell regarding the Iraq invasion are ringing in my ears that that famous line, you break it, you buy it, right, which was something a warning that he repeated internally in the Bush administration as it was debating the Iraq invasion.
And again, this is not an Iraq-scale invasion of Venezuela, but it is certainly a regime change operation, it seems. The U.S. now, to some degree, owns the aftermath, right? Especially given that the president has not shied away from saying that the U.S. will run the country, set aside the legal questions. Under what authority will the U.S. run that country? But practical questions: how does it manage a country with enormous internal differences?
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He's already, it seems, eliminated, or at least downplayed, dismissed the possibility of restoring the power the woman who it's widely believed actually won the most recent election there, saying she doesn't have the support. So, who does? The U.S. is going to run an election. The president says he doesn't shy away from putting further forces on the ground there.
How many to run a peaceful, fair, judicious election, as he called it, in that country? For how long? What risk will those soldiers be at? Will members of the Maduro regime who aren't happy with this outcome take up arms to challenge that outcome?
These are open questions. And again, to Powell's words, you break it, you buy it. And the lessons for the U.S. were quite painful ones, following the Iraq invasion in 2003. Again, this is not an invasion, but it is a decapitation. And that's significant.
SIDNER: Yes, it is. Just -- to you, Cedric. You heard Jim mention there, and we've heard the president mention that more boots possibly on the ground that there would need to be a second wave, as he put it. I mean, how difficult is this going to be with the United States -- the President of the United States saying, hey, look, we've got him. We've got the president, we've got his wife, we're going to charge them, and we're also going to run the country for a time. What position does that put, for example, the military in for all of this?
LEIGHTON: Well, yes, Sara. That's -- it could be a potentially very difficult position. And it really depends on exactly how things are organized.
You know, when you take a look at how we occupied Germany after World War II or Japan after World War II, those were military governments. The military actually ran the government with the help of civilian advisers from the state department and other organizations. But of course, they did things like the Marshall plan and basically brought out the economic aspects of bringing Europe back on its feet at that particular moment in history.
But then you have other models like Iraq, where we started out with a coalition provisional authority, as it was called. And that effort, nominally, had a civilian head. But it was basically a military occupation of that country. And that certainly didn't have the same kind of results that you saw in Europe after World War II. It was a completely different environment, a much more hostile environment.
And the risk with Venezuela is that it could be a hostile environment as well. And that could put U.S. forces in great danger. I -- there are plans from the Venezuelans that they've had for years, that indicate that they're going to go with guerrilla warfare, that they're going to do the kinds of things that you would expect an insurgency to do. They melt back into the hills. They would use the slums as places to fire at troops from -- at U.S. troops from.
So, these are the kinds of things that we definitely would have to be prepared for. And it could very well become a force protection nightmare if it's not handled carefully. And if the governance isn't put in place to really, in essence, make it possible for that to happen.
SIDNER: Thank you, Colonel. I just wanted to quickly, before we start the next hour, wrap up what we are seeing here and keep you all around. John Miller, we are -- we are seeing a large number of people kind of at the door here of the aircraft -- this large plane that brought over Venezuelan President Maduro after he was captured by U.S. forces. And what we've seen walking into that plane over the last few seconds is, you know, agents that have DEA jackets on. We saw the DEA beside him in the first images where we saw him. Can you give us some sense of what you think is going on inside that plane right now?
MILLER: Yes, I think they are getting through there process of admitting him into the United States officially which they're doing with the digital equipment on board the plane, wrapping up that medical check. But you've got FBI and DEA. This is a DEA investigation that's gone back years from an indictment. You know, that was formulated in 2020, a superseding indictment under this administration with additional charges and additional allegations.
And they are going to eventually bring the president and his wife off this plane. They're going to be put into helicopters where they are going to make that trip to New York, where they are going to be brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where they're going to be lodged. It's interesting because, you know, they will not be the first president to be lodged there.
The president of Honduras was a guest of the Metropolitan Detention Center until his conviction and sentencing. But he was recently pardoned on very similar charges by President Trump.
