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Venezuela's Maduro held in New York; Trump Says U.S. Troops Would be in Venezuela to Secure Oil; Trump Claims Machado Doesn't Have Respect in Venezuela; China Calls for Maduro's Immediate Release; Rise and Fall of Maduro's Reign. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired January 04, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Isa Soares in London.

All eyes are on Venezuela. And what comes next after the country's leader was captured by U.S. Forces? Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are being held in detention at this hour.

Maduro arrived at the Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn on Saturday night wishing everyone a happy new year. He's set to face drug and weapons charges in New York just in the coming days. In a new indictment, prosecutors accused Maduro of running state-sponsored gangs and facilitating drug trafficking. The top U.S. general says more than a 150 aircraft launched from 20 different bases during the operation to capture Maduro. He says they prepared for months and it took about two and a half hours to carry out the assault.

The White House, meanwhile, released these photos showing President Trump and members of his national security team watching the operation unfold early on Saturday. President Trump says the U.S. will run Venezuela for now. He says top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would work with the team, he says, to help the country transition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. So, we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So, we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, the president also said the U.S. will take control of Venezuela's massive oil reserves and he may put U.S. troops on the ground to help secure the oil. He vowed the money would go toward reimbursing Venezuelans and the United States for damages inflicted under Maduro's regime.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: 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)

SOARES: While Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Corina Machado, is calling for an immediate change of government in Venezuela. For President Trump, he does not believe she has the support or respect, he says, needed to lead the country. Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to assume the duties of acting president after Maduro was captured.

Our Alayna Treene brings us the very latest for you from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arrived in the United States on Saturday night. He was escorted off a plane by dozens of federal agents and he could be inside a U.S. federal court as early as Monday. This, of course, comes after that strike and operation in Caracas earlier Saturday morning, where the U.S. was able to capture Maduro, as well as his wife.

Now, there are a lot of questions about where this heads forward, but I think some of them were answered in the press conference that President Donald Trump held on Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. But there's still a lot of questions that remain unclear at this point in time.

So, just to walk through some of them. One of the biggest news of the day, of course, was what the president said about the United States will be the ones to run Venezuela for the foreseeable future until the transition is properly set up. That is huge news. And we had reported that they had been making plans for this operation since mid-December, and they had been working on these plans for how to fill the power vacuum should Maduro be ousted.

But there's a lot of questions about what he means by the U.S. will run it. He said that some of the people who were standing behind him during that press conference, people like the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, among others, he said they will be the ones leading that, and kind of hinted that there will be a group of Venezuelans that the administration will be working in coordination with. The president said he wants to do that to ensure that the operation was not done in vain.

[04:05:00]

However, of course, the question is, how will that actually work? And normally, with a regime change like this, like we are seeing with the capture of Maduro, you need military boots on the ground in order to carry that out. Of course, a number of other resources as well.

The president kind of dodged questions about whether we should expect a large military presence in Venezuela moving forward. He said he's not afraid of boots on the ground, and he also said the military will be there to support what he said was going to be kind of this takeover, essentially, of the country's oil infrastructure. He said that they want to remake the energy infrastructure inside Venezuela.

Notably, of course, Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Another very notable thing as well is what he said as it relates to Congress and essentially not notifying them ahead of time. We heard from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, say that they notified lawmakers immediately after something, that drew a sharp backlash online from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle citing the Constitution and the need to be alerted and notified ahead of time to an operation of this magnitude.

We heard from the president, he essentially said that he wanted to prevent leaks, and that's part of why they did not go to Congress and specifically the Gang of Eight, the top of intelligence officials in the House and the Senate beforehand.

And lastly, I think the other big thing is what he said about who could potentially replace Maduro and who they will be working with. We know that for months now, the Trump administration has been in close coordination and communication with Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader inside Venezuela.

The president said on Saturday that they had not been in contact with her prior to this operation being carried out. He also tried to argue that perhaps she's not respected enough inside Venezuela to be stood up as their potential leader moving forward, something that's very much at odds because she had largely won that election, the previous election in Venezuela.

Instead, the president said they'd be talking with and that Rubio had actually been in conversation with the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, someone who was very much in line and part of Maduro's government. So, a lot of questions there about how we move forward. It's going to be a major story with major implications, not only for Venezuela and the United States, but the broader region and the globe at large.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Let's get more on all of this. Our Fred Pleitgen joins me now with more. And, Fred, I mean, let me just pick up with what we were just hearing. The promises that were given by President Trump were very little detail, very few details, of course. This first idea that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela until a safe, proper, judicious transition. This is what he asserted. Of course, not much in terms of details.

What does that actually mean? Because we saw -- I think we had the video just playing there, Delcy Rodriguez flanked by the interior minister and the defense minister basically saying, we're not going to be a colony again. We want Maduro back. What do you make of it?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Very much the old power center still in power. And I think we're seeing that on the streets of Caracas as well, where we still have, you know, those troops in plainclothes with machine guns going around the city and checking people. So, it certainly seems as though, at least for now, any sort of transition of power really hasn't started yet, even as the president had said that the U.S. is going to run the place.

I thought it was quite interesting in that press conference where he was asked, what exactly does that mean? And he said, well, it's essentially going to get run by the people behind me, which was Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense --

SOARES: I think it was surprise to many of them.

PLEITGEN: Maybe, yes. Marco Rubio, who has allegedly already been in touch with Delcy Rodriguez, the now acting president of Venezuela. And it's going to be interesting to see what exactly that means, because at the same time, you're absolutely right. He has basically turned the cold shoulder to Maria Machado. And we're going to see how this transition takes place.

One of the words that, of course, we were missing in when he said judicious transfer of power is democratic. So, it's unclear whether the United States is leaning towards elections happening, whether they're leaning towards dismantling the current apparatus of power, not just the government, of course, but then also the military. And there are, of course, some on the ground in Venezuela who say, look, for the president of the United States, it seems to be about oil. We do have some people interviewed in Caracas. I want to listen into what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSCAR PINO, CARACAS RESIDENT (through translator): The U.S. is not interested in freedom or democracy. It's interested in our oil and our natural resources.

JOSE HERNANDEZ, CARACAS RESIDENT (through translator): The other countries of the world really need to be very clear about the attitude and the completely criminal way in which the United States is acting. It's all about extracting resources or rather stealing resources from the countries that have energy and minerals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:10:00]

PLEITGEN: So, there's just a couple of people on the ground there in Venezuela. Of course, one of the things we always have to caveat this with is people there are, of course, still afraid of the current forces that are still in power. And it's unclear how openly they would speak about how they really feel about Nicolas Maduro being ousted from power.

But one thing that we did pick up on, I think, in President Trump's press conference and in general, the messaging from the United States is that they are very interested in Venezuela's oil. One of the things that he said is that obviously the U.S. would rebuild the oil industry. But he also kept talking about how he believes the U.S. was robbed when the oil industry was nationalized, how the U.S. would be reimbursed.

So, obviously it seems as though they are going to bring in the U.S. oil majors or at least some of them. And those oil majors are set to benefit a great deal.

SOARES: Yes, but as I've reported on this for a long, long time, the whole industry on the oil front has been completely mismanaged, not just during Maduro but Chavez years. So, thinking that it's going to oil -- that oil is going to suddenly pop up overnight and they're going to be very rich, that is a dream of this administration. There's a lot of work.

PLEITGEN: A lot of investment, a lot of work.

SOARES: Absolutely.

PLEITGEN: And then also, of course, all of that requires a secure environment because you're not going to do that if there's instability. And President Trump did say that he was willing to put troops on the ground, that the U.S. is not afraid to put troops on the ground, which I think is really interesting messaging because, of course, he was the one who criticized U.S. troops on the ground, for instance, in Syria, in Iraq for a very long time. But in Venezuela, it seems as though the U.S. is quite comfortable with possibly sending more troops. He also talked about another possible big wave of attacks that could happen if those who are in power in Venezuela right now don't play ball.

But at the same time, it seems as though the United States believes that it does have a lot to gain from the oil industry in Venezuela coming back to life quickly and then obviously reaping the benefits.

SOARES: Now, that you mentioned oil, can I just get your perspective? If we can, you know, macro extend this conversation just slightly. You cover Russia for a long time. You cover Ukraine. China, of course, has in the last few moments, while (INAUDIBLE) a bit commented saying that the calling on the U.S. immediately released Maduro, saying also that the issue needs to be resolved through dialogue and negotiation. Do not effort -- they need to cease the efforts to subvert, they say, the Venezuelan regime. This is going to be incredibly painful for China in many ways.

PLEITGEN: Yes.

SOARES: How much is this part of the strategy? Not just China, by the way, but also Russia. China has invested hugely in Venezuela. Ninety percent of Venezuela's exports go to China. Speak to the bigger picture here. PLEITGEN: I think for the Chinese, they're extremely concerned about their supply of energy and specifically about oil from Venezuela. One of the things that we know is that the Chinese hunger right now for the economic development for energy, for oil, for gas is certainly something that fuels large parts of their foreign policy. We see that with the Russians also building pipelines between Russia and China, but then also, of course, Venezuelan oil as well. So, they no doubt are extremely concerned about what's happening right now.

One of the interesting things we picked up on in President Trump's press conference is he did say that the Chinese were going to continue to get oil. But of course, that would then be under conditions essentially set by the United States.

SOARES: Yes.

PLEITGEN: I think both Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and President Trump said that one of the things that they faulted Maduro for, one of the many things, obviously, was that he invited American adversaries into the U.S.'s hemisphere, as he put it. And so, the U.S. is essentially telling the Chinese all this is going to happen the way that we see it fit to happen.

And I think one of the things also that the U.S., you know, was seeing with a lot of skepticism, a lot of anger over the past years was the Russians also investing heavily in Venezuela, also in the Venezuelan armed forces. Quite frankly, President Trump saying --

SOARES: More on the --

PLEITGEN: -- in his press conference, saying that some of the weapons that were given to the Venezuelans came from foreign powers. The Russians a couple of years ago flew their most capable long range strategic bombers to land in Venezuela with a clear sign to the United States that the Russia was also -- that Russia was also projecting power in that hemisphere and had allies there. And essentially, the U.S. is now saying that is going to stop.

SOARES: Yes. And for and for China, I mean, they've got about 90 million or plus dollars in loans in Venezuela. We're interested to see what that means for them. Fred, appreciate it. Thank you very much indeed.

Well, U.S. lawmakers are accusing the Trump administration of lying to Congress and the American people about the nation's aims in Venezuela. Some Democrats are now asking for a media briefing on the long-term strategy following Maduro's capture. The Venezuelan, excuse me, president is indicted on several major charges, including narco- terrorism and drug conspiracy. Give me a second. Our Katelyn Polantz has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Another time in the Trump administration where we're asking, can he do that as president? This time it's about the Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, being abducted by U.S. troops from his palace in Venezuela and taken out of the country to face criminal charges. There is an indictment on the books. It's been there for several years against Maduro.

[04:15:00]

And now, that the U.S. has gone into Venezuela and abducted him, he will be brought to federal court, very likely in Manhattan in the coming days, to face those charges for narco-terrorism, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and then also weapons possession. This all dates back to the legality in 1989, where the Justice Department said back then the FBI, they could go into a foreign country, apprehend and abduct someone who was a fugitive, who was found to be in violation of U.S. law and take them, even if it was against international law and treaties.

At that time, it was about the leader of Panama. But now with Maduro, this is something that U.S. is clearly employing again. Now, there's another legal question out there, though. Can Trump do this without more congressional input or approval? At a press conference on Saturday, he essentially said they didn't tell Congress much at all because they were afraid of leaks coming from Capitol Hill in Washington.

We'll have to see how Congress responds to that going forward, because there's a lot more at stake here than just the indictment of Nicolas Maduro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Our thanks to Katelyn Polantz. Well, our breaking news coverage continues on the other side of the break, including what this means for the future of Venezuela.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: If you're just joining me, I'm bringing you a quick update on our breaking news story. China is calling on the U.S. to immediately release Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.

[04:20:00]

In a statement issued just a few hours ago, Beijing condemned what it called a blatant use of force against a sovereign state. Mr. Maduro is now at a detention center in Brooklyn after U.S. forces captured him in Venezuela on Saturday. He's set to face drugs and weapon charges next week. Former diplomats and military leaders are telling CNN that President Donald Trump's claim that the U.S. will run Venezuela would be a tall order.

Let's get more from Christopher Sabatini, a senior fellow for Latin America with Chatham House. Chris, great to see you. Very good morning. You and I have spoken on numerous occasions over the pressure that has been applied on Nicolas Maduro, this gunboat diplomacy for months. That clearly didn't work, but did you see this turning out the way it did, Chris? CHRISTOPHER SABATINI, SENIOR FELLOW FOR LATIN AMERICA, CHATHAM HOUSE: Quite frankly, I didn't see that Donald Trump would give a nod to Delcy Rodriguez, the vice president, to run the country and depend on her for a transition. Let's be honest. What we're seeing right now is simply a cosmetic change.

The remnants of the Nicolas Maduro government and all the apparatus that Trump has been denouncing now for well over six months of narcotics corruption and illicit activities and the like, that remains in place. What they did effectively was just remove the leader and his wife, the former first lady, Cilia Flores. The regime is still there. This is not a democratic transition.

And much to the surprise of everyone who was watching the press conference yesterday at Mar-a-Lago, the truth is everyone was surprised, first of all, that he sidelined Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whom you and I have spoken about before, Isa, and said, well, she doesn't have the support, the popularity. That's patently false.

Her candidate, and basically because of her backing, won almost 70 percent of the vote last year. But Donald Trump is trying to do this quick and easy with as minimal amount of interference and turmoil as possible. So, he simply turned to the vice president. This isn't the regime change that many Venezuelans and actually many Democrats, small-D Democrats, were hoping for.

SOARES: Look, I've been speaking, Chris, to many people inside Venezuela who are incredibly worried, incredibly worried about what this means. Because they just assumed that with Maduro out of the picture, that those who voted for Maria Corina Machado, that she would be the one to then go back to the country to see democracy transition to a more democratic state.

But even the question of the word democracy wasn't mentioned in President Trump's press briefing yesterday. And then we saw only hours later, being sworn in and called for Maduro to be released, saying the country would never be in colony. I wonder whether you think that she was just paying lip service, you think, to try and appease some of the chavistas within her ranks and armed forces?

SABATINI: I think that's absolutely right. She was clearly trying to at least demonstrate a certain amount of loyalty to the president, opposition to the violation of international law, which was what occurred when the U.S., whatever legitimate reasons the U.S. may have had, basically entering a sovereign country and seizing its president is a violation of international law. So, she's clearly trying to echo the sentiments there, but she's trying to set the record straight and trying to carve a much more pragmatic course.

Truth is, Delcy Rodriguez has always been a pragmatist. She's not much of an ideologue. She's negotiated with international financial backers and oil companies and the like. She may be a more pragmatic voice, but the truth is, this is really, again, just a removal of a president. And it's funny because Donald Trump, if you track his statements over the course of the last six months of this buildup that you and I have discussed many times, Isa, he's never actually talked about democratic change. He's actually talked about Nicolas Maduro being under indictment, the need for him to go, but we never actually heard him talk about a democratic transition.

And indeed, true to form, so far at least, this is not about a democratic transition. This is about removing a president that has been a thorn in the side of President Donald Trump since 2019 when he tried to unseat him by supporting a fictional parallel government under the then head of the National Assembly, Juan Guaido. So, for Donald Trump, this is a grudge match against Nicolas Maduro. It looks like he won, but it's not a democratic transition.

SOARES: On that front, I mean, you mentioned Delcy, just picking up on what you said there. You mentioned Delcy is seen as more of a pragmatist, but, you know, she is ruthless, as we well know, and speaking to Venezuelan diplomats, those who know in the region, she's incredibly ruthless, and she has been, worth reminding viewers, sanctioned by the U.S. and the E.U. for undermining democracy and human rights.

So, you know, she's not the good one out of the whole bunch. There are huge concerns there. So, the question then goes, Chris, how does the U.S. have the stomach for this, for a sustained U.S. engagement in Venezuela, a country of 30 million people facing economic collapse with the presence of non-state armed groups such as the ELN and the Colectivos? Speak to the challenges here.

[04:25:00]

SABATINI: There are multiple, and you're absolutely right. I think Donald Trump did take a safe path here, because the truth is, is that basically completely uprooting the Maduro government with all of its ties to illicit activity, with all of its ties to criminal groups, even with its connections with the ELN, the Colombian guerrilla group, would have been a mess.

And so, in many ways, this avoids a lot of the problems that many people predicted should this regime collapse, because, quite frankly, the security apparatus, and it's not coincidental that when Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in and gave her speech that you mentioned, Isa, standing behind her was the defense minister and the interior minister, Padrino Lopez, the defense minister, interior minister Diosdado Cabello.

That's the apparatus that she needs to maintain to stay in power. If you were to sort of disarticulate that apparatus and remove those heads, a lot of the criminal activities that the security forces have been engaged with and a lot of the criminal activities that have been occurring, whether it's illegal gold mining or the transshipment of drugs, would have been sort of out in the open, and they would have sort of started to fend for themselves.

And what you have here is a political economy of illicit commerce, and they would have remained there and continued to basically bother and harass the United States if -- and Donald Trump has said this, although we don't know what this means, if the U.S., in fact, actually runs the country, they would have been a real thorn in the side of the United States, even possibly leading to some sort of forms of armed conflict.

So, we're seeing a sort of middling compromise right now, not the worst possible scenario, but certainly not what most Venezuelans had hoped for.

SOARES: And what we don't have is some sort of clarity of a strategy. In fact, we've never really heard of what the strategy was from this administration. So, if you're Maria Corina Machado, who's won 70 percent of the vote in the last election, you think what?

SABATINI: You think, hopefully this will change. You hope -- and Maria Corina Machado has a very good line of communication with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I think she's probably, and understandably so, trying to work the sort of corridors of power through surrogates to convince Marco Rubio and others not to accept Delcy Rodriguez as a legitimate vice president and try to plan for a democratic transition.

Again, as I mentioned, that democratic transition is fraught with a number of potential pitfalls and danger even for the United States. But quite frankly, she demonstrated both last year and in her winning in a very courageous exit from Venezuela to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, that she's courageous and willing to take this on, and she enjoys the support of the majority of Venezuelan people, or at least voters. I think she's trying to work this so that she comes out on top, and this doesn't just become a cosmetic change of swapping one Madurista for another.

SOARES: Chris, as always, great to see you. Thank you, Christopher Sabatini, there for us.

SABATINI: Thanks, Isa.

SOARES: We'll have more breaking news coverage still ahead. Coming up, a closer look at what fueled Maduro's rise to power in Venezuela, and the events that ultimately ended his rule. You are watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SOARES: Welcome back to all of you watching in the United States or right around the world. I'm Isa Soares in London.

President Donald Trump says the U.S. will run Venezuela. Now, that Nicolas Maduro is in U.S. custody. He also says U.S. troops will be on the ground to secure Venezuela's vast reserves of oil. The Venezuelan president and his wife were captured during a large-scale U.S. military operation early Saturday. Military leaders describe how they pulled off the controversial attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAN CAINE, U.S. CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: It involved more than 150 aircraft launching across the Western Hemisphere in close coordination, all coming together in time and place to layer effects for a single purpose, to get an interdiction force into downtown Caracas after months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets. In early December, our force was set pending a series of aligned events.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, Maduro is now in a detention facility in Manhattan facing drugs and weapons charges. And a new indictment accuses Maduro of running state-sponsored gangs and facilitating drug trafficking in the country. Mr. Trump says he did not notify members of Congress until after the strike. Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers about why the White House did not seek prior authorization.

Well, as a successor to Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Maduro tightened his grip on the country for more than a decade, surviving international sanctions, political unrest and multiple challenges to his rule. Stefano Pozzebon looks back at Maduro's rise to power and the moments that led to his downfall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): In the end, it was clashes with the U.S. which set Venezuelan president Maduro's political rule in flames. Sources tell CNN he was drugged from his bedroom by U.S. forces after a barrage of strikes on Saturday, his vice president quickly sounding the alarm regarding his safety.

DELCY RODRIGUEZ, VENEZUELAN VICE PRESIDENT (through translator): We do not know the whereabouts of President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. We demand immediate proof of life from the government of President Donald Trump, proof of life for President Maduro and the First Lady.

POZZEBON (voice-over): While the scale of the strikes may have come as a surprise, tensions between Venezuela's leader and the United States had been ratcheting up for months.

Less than four weeks ago, the U.S. treasury slapped in sanctions three members of Maduro's family, two of whom were dubbed the narco nephews from previous drug trafficking convictions. Maduro and his lawyer wife, Cilia Flores, both cut their teeth during the rule of Hugo Chavez, a socialist revolutionary who served as Venezuela's president from 1999 to 2013.

While Flores served as the country's attorney general, it was in Chavez's government that Maduro got his big break as foreign minister, spearheading anti-American policies and bolstering ties to China, Russia and Iran from 2006 to 2013.

[04:35:00] After Chavez's death from cancer in 2014 it wasn't long before Maduro stepped into the top job, narrowly beating opposition leader Enrique Capriles in a spring election, the first of many to raise questions of fairness. A loyal disciple of Chavez's socialist ideals, in 2014, Maduro shared his commitment to keeping his legacy alive with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I know I've been loyal, and I'm fulfilling the legacy of this marvelous giant figure who is President Chavez, and it gives me peace of mind.

POZZEBON (voice-over): These ideals didn't help him much in steering Venezuela's economy through challenges like plunging oil prices, however. In fact, his failure to manage the country's oil wealth triggered an unprecedented economic collapse. Intense food shortages soon spawned the term a reference to the involuntary weight loss and malnutrition endured by regular Venezuelans.

By the time the public took the ballot boxes in 2024, the anger could be felt from all sides. Despite both Maduro and the opposition party claiming victory, the president managed to salsa his way through the political storm and remain in office. But in September, the U.S. began striking alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean Sea as President Trump doubled down on his crackdown on narcotics smuggling.

And while Maduro told CNN in December, he was focused on a message of peace --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What is your message to the people of the United States, President?

MADURO (through translator): To unite for the peace of the continent. No more endless wars. No more unjust wars.

-- that call has fallen on deaf ears.

Stefano Pozzebon, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well, U.S. congressional Democrats are demanding an immediate briefing on the American operation that seized Venezuelan President Maduro. Republicans have largely praised it, but Democrats criticized the lack of congressional authorization. A House Armed Services Committee aide tells CNN the panel is arranging a briefing next week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the administration's secretive approach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We called members of Congress immediately after. This was not the kind of mission that you can do congressional notification on. It was a trigger-based mission in which conditions had to be met night after night. We watched and monitored that for a number of days. So, it's just simply not the kind of mission you can call people and say, hey, we may do this at some point in the next 15 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Meanwhile, former Trump ally, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene aired her criticism of the Trump administration's actions right there, as you can see on social media. She said, in part, quote, "If U.S. military action and regime change in Venezuela was really about saving American lives from deadly drugs, then why hasn't the Trump administration taken action against Mexican cartels," she asks. Greene announced in November she would resign from office on January 5th, which is, of course, tomorrow.

And still to come right here on the show, while many in the U.S. and abroad denounce the Trump administration's military action in Venezuela, many members of the Venezuelan diaspora are cheering it. We'll bring you their reaction after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:40:00]

SOARES: Let's get you up to speed with the very latest on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He is being held at a detention center in Brooklyn, where he arrived, as you can see there, on Saturday night. He's set to face drugs and weapons charges next week after U.S. troops captured him in Venezuela in the early hours of Saturday.

I want to bring in chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, Stephen Erlanger, who joins me now from Berlin. Stephen, welcome to the show.

Can I just start, first of all, by the comments we have seen just in the last, what, two hours or so from China calling on the U.S. to immediately release Maduro, saying that, you know, they need to cease its efforts to subvert the Venezuelan regime. I mean, certainly not surprised coming from China, given its commercial interests and its millions of dollars in loans and oil exports. But your sense of the reaction so far from China and Russia, who, of course, have huge interests in Venezuela?

STEPHEN ERLANGER, NEW YORK TIMES CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, the interesting thing is Russia and China are both united in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which everyone recognizes is contradictory to international law and to the U.N. Charter. So, Ukraine, a sovereign country, Russia promised to protect it and keep its borders and violated those promises. China says it's made uncomfortable by that, but is still supporting Russia's actions.

And so, you naturally get this slightly hypocritical reaction, which is solely without irony, complaining about the United States doing in its hemisphere what Russia has certainly done in Ukraine and China threatens to do for Taiwan.

SOARES: What then do you think is the message, I wonder, for -- and we'll talk in a moment about the rest of the Europe and South America, what that means. But if you're if you're Putin or Xi Jinping, you're looking at this, you're thinking what exactly?

ERLANGER: Well, if I'm Xi Jinping, I'm thinking I'm getting old, Trump is, as Putin thinks, probably more allied with me than others might be. And if Trump decides to exercise great power, gunboat diplomacy in his hemisphere, then it may be OK for me to do it on Taiwan, which, after all, we say there's only one China. And the big question is, would President Trump come to the aid of Taiwan? It's an open question. It's always meant to be an open question. But given Trump's desire to rule in the Western Hemisphere, which he said very clearly and was part of his national security strategy, if I'm Xi, I would be encouraged with the idea that perhaps Washington would let China do what it wants on Taiwan.

SOARES: You were talking about ruling the Western Hemisphere. He mentioned yesterday the Monroe Doctrine. Doctrine. I wonder then what the reaction has been from some of the more left leaning voices in in Latin America. I'm thinking here of President Lula of Brazil, President Petro of Colombia, even, of course, Boric of Chile. Give us a sense of what they are, what they are saying and really the risks for them, because I was speaking to the minister of defense of Colombia yesterday, who told me on the phone they are moving troops to the border for fears of ELN, for fears of migration concerns, humanitarian reasons.

[04:45:00]

Speak to the wider risks here. If the U.S. is not fully committed in the long-term to Venezuela.

ERLANGER: Yes. I think their concerns are real. I don't think the United States is about to invade Colombia or anything, but it could create a lot of instability in in Venezuela and cause migration. Certainly, those on the left, you know, given the history of American intervention in Latin America and here they're in Chile and Panama, many other places, they see it happening again and they are angry about it and they say it violates international law, it violates the U.N. Charter.

The excuse of drug trafficking is simply an excuse. Trump himself was very clear in his wandering press conference that America wanted the oil and America obviously also wants Cuban influence, Russian influence, Chinese influence out of Venezuela. Trump didn't talk all that much about the drug problem. He talked about migration, he talked about getting back our oil, even though it's Venezuela's oil.

So, the people in Latin America, not just on the left, are seeing again the United States acting as it used to do. They thought those days were over and it makes them very, very nervous and unhappy. And Lula, of course, has been struggling with Trump. I mean, they have issues over tariffs and trade, don't forget, true of Mexico also. So, this adds to their sense that Trump is throwing power around in ways that could damage them.

And there's some hypocrisy, too. I mean, Lula, who is very outspoken against what's happened, has also in the past said that Crimea, which belongs to Ukraine, should be handed over to Russia. So, what we see is great powers acting like great powers and everyone else complaining about it.

SOARES: And you're talking about this wandering press conference, Stephen, in that wandering press conference, there was no mention of the word democracy. And it reminded me of the interview I did with Gustavo Petro in November of last year where he said this is -- you know, President Trump is not interested in democratization of Venezuela. He's not interested in drug trafficking. He's interested in oil, which we had time and time again from the U.S. president about oil.

I then wonder what the reaction, what you've made of what we're hearing from European leaders who have been from -- you know, you're in Berlin, I'm in London in a sense I get and they've been incredibly cautious to not only criticize Trump, but to talk even of the transition. Maria Corina Machado has been almost forgotten about by so many of those leaders.

ERLANGER: Yes. And also, Trump went out of his way to insult her last night. I mean, I think the Americans just quickly have decided the opposition represented by her and the man who actually won the election that Maduro stole are not powerful enough to take over the country. So, I think the Americans are working with the remnants.

SOARES: Do you buy that, Stephen?

ERLANGER: Yes.

SOARES: Do you buy that?

ERLANGER: So, I think the American -- hello?

SOARES: Yes, I've got you. I was just saying whether you buy that.

ERLANGER: Well, do I buy that? I do kind of buy that. I mean, I think the Americans are working with the remnants of the Maduro regime. Ideally, there'll be some kind of transitional process and maybe even a new election. But for the moment, I think the Americans have decided the strength is still with the remnants of the Maduro regime. And they're hoping to push them around.

Now, the Europeans, as you say, have been incredibly circumspect and careful, partly because they're interested in Ukraine. They're obsessed with the threat Russia poses to European security and they need American help. They talk about the principle of international law. They talk about the U.N. Charter. And that's, I think, quite sincere. But they're also reluctant to overly criticize Trump, particularly in the context of drug trafficking, because they need American help to keep Ukraine alive and fighting Russia.

So, it's a very awkward place for the Europeans, where their principles are coming up hard against the reality of the need to keep Donald Trump on their side.

[04:50:00]

SOARES: Such important analysis as always, Stephen. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us this morning, Stephen Erlanger there. We're going to take a short break. Be back after this.

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SOARES: Many Venezuelans who fled during Nicolas Maduro's presidency are now celebrating his captures. You can see the joyful crowds gathering in Madrid, Colombia, as well as Miami on Saturday. Many are hoping that the Trump administration's actions will spark the change in Venezuela that they have been waiting for over decades.

Our David Culver is in South Florida with the largest population of Venezuelans in the United States. He brings us more of their reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Massive crowds building up throughout the morning and into the day in what folks affectionately refer to as Doral Suela. Doral, outside of Miami. This is a place where you have a lot of Venezuelans and gathering in this spot. You can certainly see that just by all the flags that folks are carrying, wearing around them. They have hats on. They have U.S. and Venezuelan flags. They were chanting just a short time ago, libertad, liberty.

And it's not just Venezuelans who are out here. We've seen Cubans, Nicaraguans, others hoping that perhaps what has happened today in Venezuela could happen in other countries. But you have a flood of emotion. Let me take you through the crowd here. Carlos, we can try to work through and get a sense of just how many folks have gathered and how many more are still coming.

I mean, they have blocked off several different streets in this area. And folks are just making their way in. You can see Maria Corina.

[04:55:00]

And obviously, folks are all smiles, all celebration. Horns are honking. There's a lot of noise, a lot of joyfulness and cheers. You can hear it. You can hear them.

CROWD: Libertad, Libertad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Libertad. Libertad. Libertad.

CULVER: She said this is the moment that the whole world has been waiting for and all of Venezuelans have been waiting for. And so, clearly a lot of joy. And in this moment, what do you think is next? What's going to happen after this?

She says they have to have patience in this moment. They're waiting for official word from, as she sees it, the rightful rulers, Maria Corina and then Edmundo Gonzalez as well, who would be the president.

OK. So, you have there somebody who's a coordinator for Maria Corina, who's the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who's part of the group, along with Edmundo Gonzalez, who folks believe should be the rulers of Venezuela. And then you have crowds of all different ages who are gathering here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Our thanks to David Culver. Well, more protests are planned in the U.S. today after Saturday's demonstrations against President Donald Trump's military operation in Venezuela. Crowds of people march, chanted and waved Venezuelan flags in major cities like Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. Well, some Venezuelans in the U.S. celebrated, but many people in the crowds protested the phrases like no war on Venezuela and U.S. hands off Latin America.

That does it for me for this hour. I will be back, though, more of our breaking news coverage. Do you stay right here, taking a short break, but I will see you on the other side.

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