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Venezuela's Maduro Held At Brooklyn Detention Center; Court Declares V.P. Delcy Rodriguez the Acting President; Top Dems Demand Immediate Briefing on Venezuela Operation; Nationwide Protests Over U.S. Military Operation in Venezuela. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired January 04, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:28]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: A very warm welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada, indeed right around the world. I'm Isa Soares coming to you live from London and all eyes are now on Venezuela. What really 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(OFF MIC)

NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT: Good night. Happy New Year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: You heard him there, "Good night. Happy New Year." Maduro arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn Saturday night and as you heard wishing everyone a Happy New Year. He's set to face drug and weapons charges in New York in the coming days in a new indictment.

Prosecutors accused Maduro of running state-sponsored gangs and facilitating drug trafficking atop U.S. generals. There's more than a hundred and fifty 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. Our Evan Perez filed this report from outside the detention center where Maduro is being held.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia, are now in the Metropolitan Detention Center here in Brooklyn, capping an extraordinary 20 hours or so after they were snatched from their bedroom in Caracas. They were transported to a U.S. military ship off the coast of Venezuela, the Iwo Jima, and then to Guantanamo Bay where they were put on a plane to New York.

Now, that began the process while they were under arrest to face four sets of charges from the Justice Department. Those include narco- terrorism and cocaine importation conspiracy. A number of other Venezuelan officials are also named in this indictment that was unsealed by the Justice Department earlier on Saturday.

Now, this begins an extraordinary process for the U.S. government. They have the former Venezuelan leader here now in Brooklyn, and it'll probably be a few months of court battles over the legitimacy of these charges.

Now, earlier today, there were hundreds of people from the Venezuelan community who turned up outside the Metropolitan Detention Center to cheer on the arrest of the former Venezuelan leader. Even late into the evening, there were several dozen that remained outside the facility. Depending on where Maduro is being held, he might actually be able to hear some of those cheers.

Now, we expect that Maduro will next appear in public, in federal court in Manhattan to face these charges as soon as Monday.

Evan Perez, Brooklyn, New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: President Trump says the U.S. is going to run Venezuela indefinitely after the capture of Maduro. According to Trump his administration has been in contact with the acting president that is Delcy Rodriguez. Up until now she has been serving as Maduro's vice president.

One Caracas resident told CNN Rodriguez is a quote, "terrifying figure of the government in charge of the most repressive tactics" their words used against Venezuela's residents. Here's what President Trump had to say about the U.S. role in Venezuela's transition of power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. We are there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So, we are going to stay until such time as we're going to run it essentially until such time as a proper transition can take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well Mr. Trump has ruled out Venezuelan opposition leader and this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado as having a role in the post-Maduro government.

(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 to --

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:05:00]

SOARES: Fred Pleitgen joins me here in the studio. She is a nice woman and she does command a lot of respect was picking up and she did win over 70 percent of the vote. So, she does command a lot of respect but we'll get to Maria Corina Machado.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Among the electorate.

SOARES: Among the electorate in just -- in just a moment. But I thought it was important to just correct that for our viewers. Let's speak to the current power structure. President Trump says he's going to run it. The United States is going to run it. We don't have much in terms of details of how exactly that's going to work but then you have the judiciary, you have the armed forces. How exactly are they going to run it? What are you hearing? What's your sense?

PLEITGEN: Judiciary, the armed forces, the government but then you also of course have the entire oil and gas sector that the natural mineral sector --

SOARES: Yeah.

PLEITGEN: -- as well which, of course, is huge. And it really is unclear how exactly the United States wants to do that. In this press conference, President Trump pointed to the people who were behind him who essentially was Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense but especially Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State who apparently is leading this process and as you said has already been in touch with Delcy Rodriguez, the acting president, the former vice president as well.

And -- and she seems to be quite an important figure in all this for the Trump administration but of course as we've pointed out she is deeply entrenched in the current power structure with the defense minister and with the interior minister. Some of the things that Delcy Rodriguez has also said don't necessarily mesh with what President Trump seems to be saying where he's saying that that she'll do whatever they want, she'll accommodate the United States.

She came out and she said that first of all they're demanding that Nicolas Maduro be released, that he be brought back, that there's proof of life which I guess they now have. But of course, we have to keep in mind that she's also the finance minister and also the oil minister of that country. And she said Venezuela is going to protect its natural resources. What does that mean? Is there going to be a confrontation over that because oil seems to be really, if you look at President Trump's press conference, the centerpiece of what he's trying to achieve there. SOARES: Yeah. I mean certainly more said about oil than democracy like you mentioned the previous hours the word democracy didn't even appear in that in the entire press conference. You know, I was speaking to a Venezuelan diplomat who I've known for many, many years and she was saying, look, this is a cosmetic structure, this is a new look for Venezuela but the heart of it,

Delcy Rodriguez, you know, they've been -- she's been painting as a pragmatist. She's not. She's not pragmatic. She's not moderate. She's absolutely ruthless. And she is a bit of a pickle right now, Fred, because she won't bend the knee to -- she won't be seen as bending the knee to President Trump.

At the same time she's been flanked as we saw there in that footage by the Interior Minister and Defense Minister both who are who are known for being the henchmen of Nicolas Maduro who control the armed forces. How sweet is that balancing act?

PLEITGEN: Well, first of all I think a bit of a pickle is probably an understatement. She's probably the biggest pickle that you could -- you could ever imagine and I think you're absolutely right I mean she's certainly someone who is not known as -- as a moderate.

SOARES: Yeah.

PLEITGEN: I mean to a certain degree she might be a pragmatist in this situation but if you look at her sort of rise among the ranks and she's held various government positions and has expanded her portfolio a great deal especially over the past couple of years. Oil Minister she only became in 2024 so she kept getting new tasks by Nicolas Maduro clearly one of the people who's most loyal to him.

And the other thing that you mentioned is absolutely correct she's also deeply entrenched apparently in that power structure which still controls the streets of the Venezuelan capital and no doubt most parts of the country. We have seen some of those plainclothes groups on the ground with rifles controlling traffic setting up checkpoints checking vehicles.

So, clearly the people on the ground in Venezuela don't necessarily trust that there's going to be a major transition going forward. And at the same time, of course, the question is, does the Trump administration want a fast transition? President Trump has said or how deep does it want that transition to be?

President Trump has said he wants it to go quickly he doesn't want the U.S. to have to commit that many resources to it but he also says he's not afraid to put troops on the ground.

SOARES: I mean, I was speaking to several Venezuelans throughout the day yesterday, Fred, and to your point they are incredibly nervous and worried about what the coming days means. I think it's fair to say the majority of Venezuelans want Maduro out but they are worried about what this current structure what that actually mean and so worried to speak out publicly. And you're right, seeing people on the streets motorized gangs and on the streets patrolling the streets. One thing you said that struck me which is in terms of what she does

next, how does she, Delcy Rodriguez that is, how does she operate? Because I suppose it depends how much of a stomach does the United States have in sticking with Venezuela seeing it through no mention of democratization but the U.S. doesn't really have a great history in Latin America speak to that because China is involved or in many places around the world speak to the concerns for China as well and Russia China speaking out in the last three hours.

PLEITGEN: They do have some allies of course in Latin America and in South America but they do especially among the populations of a lot of countries. I mean, the U.S. is deeply unpopular because of some of the heavy-handed approaches that have happened in the past, and I think that that's something, obviously, people there are also very well aware of. One of the things that keeps popping up, though, is President Trump talking about the oil and gas sector.

[05:10:19]

SOARES: Yes.

PLEITGEN: And talking about how much money the United States is going to invest in that, and talking about all the money that the U.S. is going to get out of that to be reimbursed, as he put it, for money that was stolen in the past.

And it really seems as though, when you look at the press conference yesterday, it was about an hour long, it kept going back to that. That seemed to be the part of it where the plans seemed to be the most detailed, where he was talking about rebuilding that, pumping more oil and gas out of the, or more oil out of the ground, or out of the sea, and letting the Venezuelan people benefit from that, the U.S. benefit from that, but then also talking about some of the foreign clients.

And of course, that's where China really comes in. And China buying about 90 percent of Venezuelan oil, really having replaced the United States for, since a long time, as the largest customer. So, they're viewing all of this with a lot of anxiety, one would have to say, because of course, large parts of their economic growth depend on having cheap, available energy.

So, that's certainly something no doubt is going to play in. President Trump saying the Chinese are going to be able to buy Venezuelan oil in the future. But clearly, the U.S. thinks that all that is going to happen on America's terms.

SOARES: And you know, when you say buy Venezuelan oil, I think -- I think the Chinese haven't been buying. I mean, what they've given is to Venezuela's billions of dollars in loans and getting cheap oil absolutely repaid.

PLEITGEN: And that's very important, yeah.

SOARES: And so, I think that -- that relationship certainly is going to change. Fred, as always, thank you very much indeed. Well, former Trump ally, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor

Greene, aired her criticism of the administration's actions on social media. And she said this in part, "regime change, funding foreign wars and Americans' tax dollars being consistently funneled to foreign causes, foreigners both home and abroad and foreign governments, while Americans are consistently facing increasing costs of living, housing, health care, and learn about scams and fraud of their tax dollars is what has most Americans enraged."

And, "This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end. Boy, were we wrong," she tweets.

While meanwhile, U.S. congressional Democrats are demanding an immediate briefing on the American operation that seized Venezuelan President Maduro.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): When we had briefings on Venezuela, we asked, are you going to invade the country? We were told no. Do you plan to put troops on the ground in Venezuela? We were told no. Do you intend regime change in Venezuela? We were told no. So, in a sense, we have been briefed. We've just been completely lied to.

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Blood for oil. I've been saying it for weeks. This is blood for oil. It's got nothing to do with narco trafficking. This president is making good on his campaign promise to the U.S. oil majors when he told them that if they gave him a billion dollars, he would hook them up. Well, he's hooking them up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham came to President Trump's defense against the international reaction to the U.S.'s operation in Venezuela. Graham took to social media and said in part, "To our European allies who are concerned about this operation against Maduro, get a grip."

Well, reaction among world leaders to President Trump's military action in Venezuela has been swift as well as varied. Meanwhile, some Venezuelans living abroad have celebrated Saturday's operation as our Polo Sandoval now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): World leaders are swiftly reacting to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer making it clear the U.K. had no part in it.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I can be absolutely clear that we were not involved in that. And as you know, I always say and believe we should all uphold international law.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): But there is outrage among many Latin American leaders. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the U.S. attack, quote, "crossed an unacceptable line." And it was a "serious affront to Venezuela's sovereignty."

Condemnation also coming from the leaders of Colombia, Chile, Cuba, and Mexico. But Argentina's president, a Trump ally, appearing to welcome the capture of the Venezuelan leader, posting on social media that "freedom advances."

The developments are being closely tracked around the world.

DONALD TUSK, POLISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In today's times, such massive events as today's attacks by American forces have an impact on the entire world. So, we shall be responding and preparing ourselves for this new situation.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Russia, a close ally of Venezuela, called the U.S. strikes an act of armed aggression.

And China, whose envoy had met with Maduro just hours before his capture says the U.S. violated international law.

(CHANT)

But apart from this sharp diplomatic fallout, reaction in many places where Venezuelans are living abroad has been jubilant.

[05:15:04]

(CHANT)

In Madrid, which is one of the largest populations of Venezuelan expats outside of Latin America and the U.S., many people waved Venezuelan flags and cheered Maduro's downfall.

And in Florida, some people expressing relief that Maduro was in U.S. custody, saying it may make it possible for them to return home one day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My reaction is that I'm so, so happy because now Venezuela is free, free.

SANDOVAL: Paulo Sandoval, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And still ahead right here on the show, much more reaction to the stunning capture of President Maduro. And what comes next for Venezuela?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: A look here at the people in Caracas protesting the U.S. capture of their leader, Nicolas Maduro. Some of them are to say that at least the least leery of President Trump's statement that the U.S. will be running Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What does he mean by that? Well, I don't know what he means. What kind of control will he have? How will he have control? Where are the people who are going to control that? I think we're all in the same position, waiting to find out what the truth is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Honestly, no. Honestly, no. I don't know what power he has to take control of Venezuela, of Venezuelans, but we're waiting to see what's going to happen regarding that. But I don't agree with another president, someone from outside of Venezuela, taking control of us Venezuelans.

(CHANT)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:20:08]

SOARES: Elsewhere, there were celebrations over President Maduro's capture, like those you're seeing here in Madrid, in Spain. While Venezuelan Supreme Court is ordering Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to become the country's acting president, the court has decided that Nicolas Maduro cannot exercise his functions as leader after the U.S. captured him. Here's the moment the announcement was made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It is ordered that citizen Delcy Eloina Rodriguez Gomez, Executive Vice President of the Republic, assume and exercise as acting president all the powers, duties, and responsibilities inherent to the office of President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, joining me now is Carlos Solar, Senior Research Fellow, International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute. Carlos, welcome to the show.

Let me just pick up with what we've heard in the last 24 hours or so from President Trump, saying that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela. But it seems the old guard, the old structure, with not just Delcy Rodriguez, but also the henchmen of Nicolas Maduro, Vladimir Padrino, Diosdado Cabello, the Defense and Interior Minister, are still very much holding on and running the show. What will running it from a U.S. perspective potentially mean in this reconfigured dictatorship?

CARLOS SOLAR, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, LATIN AMERICA SECURITY, ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE: You're absolutely right. The Maduristas were left behind. Delcy Rodriguez, the VP, Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, Ministry of Defense, General Vladimir Padrino.

The regime's still there. We saw the capture and extraction of Nicolas Maduro. But pretty much the status structure that Chavez and then Maduro built around Venezuela, around its armed forces, the justice system, the whole executives, is still there. So, it's very difficult to read what the U.S. meant in the second half of that conference from Mar-a-Lago when they said that the U.S. was going to run the country.

SOARES: So, yeah, and -- and --

SOLAR: The oil industry --

SOARES: Yeah, go ahead. Speak about the oil industry. Because we heard at length, right, about -- about this.

SOLAR: Yes. What we could mean is that Delcy Rodriguez might have a pact with the U.S. in terms of a transition, a political transition towards elections in the near future. But otherwise it's very hard to suppose that the U.S. will run Venezuela and that the regime will allow it.

SOARES: But Carlos, to say that she has a pact would suggest she had to give something to them. Are you hinting potentially that she may have sold out Maduro?

SOLAR: There are a few things that she could give out, Delcy Rodriguez could give out. One of them is amnesty. So, they already saw what the U.S. can do in Venezuela. They can go very quick, in a matter of minutes, and take any leader they want. So, I'm sure that they are quite afraid that that could happen to them. They also have a reward. They've been -- they're being -- the DOJ is after them.

So, the only way that they could have a pact is they -- is if they offer an amnesty to say, we're going to respect democracy, we're going to allow for new elections to happen.

This is something that Maduro already did. Remember, for the elections that got elected President Edmundo Gonzalez, he also promised, and he promised Biden, and he promised during the first Trump administration, that there was going to be a transition. So, I'm not absolutely sure that Donald Trump has the same leaning towards Delcy Rodriguez this time.

SOARES: Well, he definitely made it clear to Delcy Rodriguez about what would happen, of course, if she didn't follow through. But she is being painted, in many ways, as slightly pragmatic and more moderate. We know she is entirely ruthless.

Those of us who reported on Venezuela. And yesterday, and I want to get your thoughts on this, Carlos, yesterday, as she was being sworn in and flanked by the Interior and Defense Minister, she said she wouldn't -- you know, Venezuela would never be a colony, calling for Maduro to be released. I wonder whether this is her paying lip service, trying to appease some of the Chavistas, and speak to the, kind of the power play that you have now to balance going forward.

SOLAR: Yes, you're right. She could be speaking to the Chavistas and to the people in the streets in Caracas. It's very, very difficult for a regime that has been two decades, from one day to the next, to be absolutely servant of the U.S. She needs to put up a fight, at least in the rhetoric, at least in the optics, that she is putting a fight towards what Donald Trump announced yesterday.

[05:25:00]

Venezuela has had a tough relationship with the White House in terms of communications. So, I'm not sure what's happening between either Donald Trump or Secretary Marco Rubio in terms of communicating these ideas, communicating a plan on what the U.S. has in mind, and how Venezuela will respond.

Obviously that -- we won't know too much because Delcy Rodriguez won't give too much. If she gives too much as a V.P., she might be replaced easily. Remember that there's no opposition. There's no democracy to actually have any accountability on these leaders.

So, it's literally one after the next. And we saw it earlier. We saw it when Hugo Chavez was dying of his cancer. How he -- with a finger, appointed Nicolas Maduro, and then he survived through elections, and then through the elections of 2024, and so on.

SOARES: Yeah. I mean, there is -- I'm sorry to interrupt you. There is an opposition, right? Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and, of course, Maria Corina Machado, they won more than 70 percent of the vote. She was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. And yet what we heard from the United States, from the U.S. president, was very much him throwing her under the bus. So, you know, she's the woman who dedicated a prize to him. She has huge support, overwhelming support in the country. What should she be thinking right now, Carlos?

SOLAR: You are right. There is an opposition. But in the game that they're playing in Venezuela, the opposition doesn't have a part, right?

So, there's no opposition that actually can challenge Delcy or can challenge whatever ruling comes from the Minister of the Interior. They cannot challenge the militarization of the country.

So, I think that's what Donald Trump has in mind. Now that he needs to really, really enforce and push Delcy to the corner in order for her to take action to what the White House wants. I'm afraid that Maria Corina and Edmundo being outside of Venezuela, they cannot play a harder role on this unless there is a new negotiation in which Trump brings the opposition, such as Maria Corina and Edmundo Gonzalez, into these talks with Delcy Rodriguez.

But we haven't heard. We just heard a very, very generic idea that the U.S. was going to rule the country, that they were going to rebump the oil industry. But there isn't any fine detail. And there's -- at the moment, there is very little space on where to fit Maria Corina and Edmundo Gonzalez, I'm afraid.

SOARES: Yeah, a very generic idea, that is for sure. Maybe they're playing slightly the long game. We'll wait to see. Many people inside Venezuela, as I've been told, are incredibly worried about all this uncertainty.

Carlos Solar, thank you very much indeed. And still to come right here on the show, with President Nicolas

Maduro now in the custody of the United States, one of the important questions is, what happens next in Venezuela? What President Trump had to say next.

Plus, experts say President Maduro could have some legal leverage when his case goes to court. Some are already predicting what cases defense attorneys can make. We'll bring you those after that, after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:28]

SOARES: Welcome back. I'm Isa Soares. Let's get a check of some of today's top stories for you.

Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife are now in U.S. custody. They were captured during a large-scale U.S. military operation early Saturday and are facing drug trafficking charges. U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. will run Venezuela and take control of its massive oil reserves.

President Trump announced Saturday that the U.S. is going to run Venezuela indefinitely after the capture of its longtime President Nicolas Maduro. According to Trump, his administration has been in contact with the interim president, Delcy Rodriguez. Rodriguez served as Venezuela's vice president until Maduro's capture.

In the wake of Saturday's U.S. military operation, congressional leaders are calling for an immediate briefing. A House Armed Services Committee aide tells CNN the panel is in the process of planning a briefing next week.

Meanwhile, some senators are accusing the Trump administration of lying to Congress after officials claim regime change wasn't the goal.

Our Kevin Liptak has more for you from West Palm Beach in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump's order for U.S. forces to capture Nicolas Maduro was the culmination of a months-long pressure campaign on Venezuela and is really one of the most consequential moments of either of his two presidencies.

Now, when we were over at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday for the president's press conference, it was striking how much detail was revealed about what went into the planning for this operation, you know, months and months of CIA work on the ground in Caracas to track Maduro's locations, to track his rhythms, to ensure that this raid went off seamlessly, sort of a minute by minute counting of the raid as it was happening on the ground there in Venezuela, and then a description of how the forces found Maduro in his home and captured him as he was fleeing to his safe room, so a lot of details there. What we did not hear much from the president on is what he envisions happening next when he says that the U.S. will, quote, "run Venezuela going forward." The president offering not a lot of detail about what precisely he has in mind for what amounts to a temporary protectorate in a country of 30 million people that's one and a half this times the size of Texas and where the U.S. has no official presence. The U.S. hasn't had an open embassy in Venezuela since 2019.

The president was pressed again and again by reporters about what exactly he was envisioning happening on the grounds there. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, you know, they 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 don't mind saying it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you explain the exact mechanism by which you're going to run the country? Are you going to designate a U.S. official coordinator?

TRUMP: Yes. 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)

LIPTAK: Now, I also pressed the president about what he thinks about a prolonged American military presence on the ground in Venezuela, and he didn't answer that explicitly. He said he wasn't afraid of boots on the ground. But when I asked whether that meant sort of a prolonged presence for U.S. forces, he pivoted almost immediately to discussing Venezuela's oil. You know, that has been a preoccupation of the president's for quite some time, Venezuela, of course, sitting on the world's largest proven oil reserves.

[05:35:27]

And so I think taken all together, certainly a dramatic day, a successful raid militarily by the U.S., but one that raises a whole host of questions that the president didn't necessarily have answers for, at least on Saturday.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well, Nicolas Maduro may not have much trouble finding attorneys willing to defend him. A CNN Legal Analyst says top U.S. lawyers are already angling for a role in such a high-profile case. That's partly because it would likely involve novel constitutional arguments and international law.

The Trump administration may even be giving them plenty of legal ammunition to work with. The administration officially privately told lawmakers in November they didn't have a legal justification for land strikes in Venezuela. But the legal arguments have been shifting.

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is already making a prediction. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I promise you that Maduro's defense lawyers will argue that this arrest violated international law, therefore should be void. Therefore, he cannot be prosecuted in U.S. civilian criminal court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Let's get more on this. For more analysis, we're joined by Joseph Moreno, a former U.S. DOJ and national security prosecutor speaking from Alexandria in Virginia.

Joseph, thank you for coming on the show. Maduro was just saying being held at a detention center in Brooklyn. He said to face drug and weapons charges. Just give us a sense of what stands out to you about, first of all, the administration's plan to prosecute Maduro and his wife.

JOSEPH MORENO, FORMER DOJ PROSECUTOR: Good morning, Isa. Good to be with you. Well, I think Elie is spot on in terms of what he just said. I think you're going to see a lot of challenge from probably some very high-profile attorneys on the defense side to this entire operation.

You see, the targeting and the extraction of Maduro and his wife was illegal. There's no legal basis between the U.S. military and international law as to why he's in the United States. We heard these same exact arguments from Manuel Noriega when he was extracted from Panama in 1989.

Now, they didn't go so well for Noriega. He basically tried all of this, and the courts were not impressed. The courts are --what they'll basically say is, we don't consider ourselves involved in matters of foreign policy. We're non-U.S. citizens that are overseas. We only get interested once they get in the United States.

So, I think you'll see a flurry of all kinds of motions to have this prosecution dismissed on those types of grounds. I don't think courts are going to go for it. I think, ultimately, this is going to be a traditional prosecution of narcotics trafficking and weapons charges.

So, I think you'll see all this activity up front. But at some point, Maduro and his wife will be like any other defendant facing serious narcotics charges in the Southern District of New York, which is a very known to be a very aggressive prosecution office.

SOARES: And, Joseph, I mean, you mentioned then Noriega. We know the Trump administration officials have been internally pointing to a 1989 legal opinion, right, and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Panama as kind of a precedent to justify the operation that we have seen that was carried out in Venezuela, an opinion that was authored by William Barr. But you had mentioned the situation in Panama.

I mean, Panama had declared, right, had declared war on the U.S. prior to the American intervention. So, as a matter of domestic law, is it slightly more persuasive in your view?

MORENO: I think it's persuasive in the fact, like you point out, the courts really weren't too impressed with Noriega's arguments. And then, of course, you had the Justice Department's position.

I would say courts certainly can take a fresh look at it. They can say, all right, Panama, the situation there was that we already had 10,000 troops on the ground in Panama. And just a decade prior, we had turned over the Panama Canal. So, you could say we had a real presence there, that the country had basically had permitted us to be there.

Very different from Venezuela, where we have neither a military nor a diplomatic presence. So, I think they'll point to that big difference and say it's one thing when the U.S. was in Panama, and the argument was that they removed an illegitimate military strongman in the form of Noriega. Different here, where the U.S. went in, extracted a foreign leader, whether we think he's illegitimate or not. And basically what they did was an extradition by force using the military.

[05:40:05]

SOARES: Then how long does -- does a case like this, you think, last? And what sort of arguments, Joseph, more importantly, are we likely to hear from Maduro's defense?

MORENO: So, I think what you'll hear is that the concept of narco- terrorism, while it sounds great on television and you see it in the indictment, really has no legal meaning. You'll see that the FARC and the other groups that are mentioned in the indictment they'll say are not true terrorist organizations, like you think of in terms of like Al-Qaeda or Hamas or Hezbollah. They'll say that this is a circular definition, that you cannot consider drug traffickers terrorists, because it kind of goes around and says, well, the terrorist group is there to sell drugs.

So, it kind of goes in circles there. So, I think you'll hear a lot of that in terms of why this prosecution has no basis in terms of terrorism. I think in terms of the drug charges, I think what they'll do is they'll attack the evidence in terms of how it was gathered.

As mentioned earlier on the program, that a lot of this had to do with intelligence sources. So, they're going to say, all right, we want to hear all about what those intelligence sources did to gather this evidence. And that's where prosecutors get uncomfortable.

We don't like showing our cards in terms of what the CIA and other intelligence agencies may have gotten and where they got it. So, I think you're going to see if Maduro fights these charges, it's going to be a long, drawn-out battle. And probably the best thing the prosecutors can hope for is a plea agreement.

SOARES: And you're talking about, you know, given then the charges against Maduro, I wonder what the discovery and indeed, Joseph, the process would look like.

MORENO: It's going to be complicated. Anytime you have classified information, which is most likely going to be present here, there's an entire separate process in terms of how the prosecution shows the defense that evidence. They have to get security clearances. They have to be done in secure facilities. It takes time. It is litigated.

And so, again, if Maduro wants to fight these charges and really get to the heart of the evidence here as to why the U.S. basically cannot argue that he's a narcotics trafficker, he can really draw this out. He can make this a long and unpleasant process where the U.S. is really going to have to figure out what exactly evidence that they want to produce. And basically, are they willing to show their cards in terms of where this evidence came from?

SOARES: Well, it's going to be certainly enlightening several months. Joseph Moreno, thank you very much indeed for your insight and very good morning. Thank you for staying with us at this early hour.

We're going to take a short break. We're back after this.

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[05:45:54]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Honestly, not just happy, really happy. A happiness I can't properly express. I mean, it's something inexplicable. From one day to the next, it's like a happiness that comes from seeing that what once felt very dark is starting to clear. Seeing the storm, then seeing the sun, seeing happiness. It's something indescribable, truly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: That's what a Venezuelan in Colombia had to say after hearing that the U.S. captured Nicolas Maduro. And this comes as some of Maduro's supporters turned out in Venezuela's capital to support their ousted leader.

Meanwhile, protests erupted across the United States against the U.S. military action in Venezuela.

Earlier, I spoke with an American citizen who was by Maduro -- who was held by Maduro for five years. Jorge Toledo was a member of the so- called Citgo 6, petroleum executives whom the U.S. considered wrongfully detained. Here's what he told me about his experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JORGE TOLEDO, FORMER AMERICAN HOSTAGE OF MADURO FOR FIVE YEARS: I went through a physical and psychological torture in -- not only at Helicoide, but also in ADGCIM, which is the maximum-security military prison that I spent 50 percent of my time. I -- honestly, I -- I never thought that that kind of evil exists in -- in humankind.

Something that I noticed also was the influence of Cubans, Iranians and their methodologies of torture. This is something that was openly discussed within the prison, not only within the prisoners, also the guards mentioned this.

So, it's -- I am very concerned, by the way, for the whereabouts of the political prisoners, people that I met in prison, that are still in prison in Venezuela because of the risk of retaliation. And so, their life is in jeopardy.

SOARES: Yes. The huge concern and so many questions right now about what this current structure that is in place in -- in Venezuela, because while Maduro, Jorge, is out, those who operate in the shadows, and you know them well, Diosdado Cabella, Vladimir Padrino, the interior and defense minister, they're still in power. Do you believe that this is the end of chavismo, because President Trump says they're going to run the country? This -- do you believe that Delcy Rodriguez, her brother and the others have handed over the controls, you think, to President Trump?

TOLEDO: Well, I think that the -- if they want to implement democracy in the country, they need to, you know, remove not only Maduro, also his entourage. So, because -- we are not talking about a government or ideology, we are talking about a bunch of criminals adopting an entire country.

So, it's -- Maduro is the head, but there's an architecture that was built during the past more than 26 or 30 years ago. So, it's complex.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: My thanks to Jorge Toledo.

And still to come, some of the protesters in Los Angeles say greed motivated the Trump administration's military strikes on Venezuela. More on their reactions just ahead for you.

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[05:52:56]

SOARES: Long lines of shoppers waiting to check out this supermarket. You can see they're in Caracas. Venezuelans are getting to grips with a new and uncertain reality with their leader captured by the United States and President Trump promising, of course, to run their country. Some businesses, including pharmacies, grocery stores, and gas stations decided to remain closed.

While many Venezuelans around the world are happy that Nicolas Maduro has been removed from office, as our Rafael Romo now shows us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Chants, joy and tears at the heart of Madrid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is excitement, happiness, and hope.

ROMO: Singing, dancing, and holding up their flag in South America.

Venezuelans around the world have been celebrating President Nicolas Maduro's capture crowds gather at Doral in Florida, home to one of the largest Venezuelan communities in the U.S. Closer to home in Cucuta, which straddles the border, this man says we are going to be free.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm happy. I don't know about the other people. My mom and my dad are happy too.

ROMO: Nearly 7.9 million Venezuelans have fled Maduro's regime, according to U.N. figures. More than 6 million sought refuge in Latin America, Colombia's home to 2.8 million migrants while Peru has welcomed more than 1.6 million.

In Lima, many of them were up all night trying to reach their relatives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I heard around 2:00 A.M. My son and my mother called me. They were crying and confused about what was happening. And all we did was to pray so they will be OK.

ROMO: Hope and joy after years of being abroad, it is a day they won't forget.

Rafael Romo, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: In the United States, protests are expected today after Saturday's demonstrations against President Donald Trump's military operation in Venezuela. Crowds of people marched, chanted, as you can see, and waved Venezuelan flags in major cities like Atlanta, Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago, as well as Los Angeles.

Some Venezuelans in the U.S. did celebrate, but many people in the crowds protested with phrases like, "no war in Venezuela" and "U.S. hands off Latin America."

While protesters braved heavy rains in Los Angeles, denouncing the White House's military action as an act of explicit greed, they say the Trump administration only cares about enriching itself with Venezuelan oil at the expense of Venezuelans themselves. Marybel Gonzalez brings us their perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're here in Los Angeles where over 100 people have shown up to Pershing Square here in the downtown area to protest the U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the subsequent capture of its president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife.

As you can see behind me, there are people holding signs that say, "stop bombing Venezuela now," "no blood for oil."

Now, the people here are defying the elements. It's been raining all morning long, but they say the weather will not stop them from sending their message to the president of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Trump administration has illegally bombed Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and has kidnapped the president of Venezuela, President Maduro. So, we view that as a huge flagrant violation of all international law. That should not be allowed to any country, even if it's the United States doing it.

GONZALEZ: Now, organizers say they heard about the news of the U.S. strikes in the middle of the night and then quickly mobilized, calling on their partner organizations across the country to go out to the streets and protest this U.S. involvement in Venezuela.

As you can see, there are people still showing up here in the downtown area, and we know similar protests have already taken place in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

Morning in downtown Los Angeles, Marybel Gonzalez, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And this wraps up this hour of "CNN Newsroom." I'm Isa Soares in London. "CNN This Morning" is next.

Have a wonderful day. I shall see you tomorrow.

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