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#BermasBrigade #TruthOverTreason #BreakingNews #InfoWarrior Show less
This time we're going to be talking about Maduro, the military presence outside of Venezuela, and now what appears to be a drone bombing of a small boat that supposedly contained drugs.
Now, this is yet another lively Mario Noffle panel where you're going to have some people that are very pro U.S. military intervention.
But if you know my point of view, I don't know that we have a leg to stand on.
I like less military intervention.
And it just seems to me, as we continue to be the quote-unquote world's policemen, the drug problem only gets worse in every way, shape, and form.
And none of the reforms that we're a part of, military or otherwise, seem to be working.
Just my opinion, before we get started, I do want to remind everybody, I need your support now more than ever.
$5, $10, $15, it means the world to me.
Big donors, please consider down below with the PayPal if you want to remain more anonymous.
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I depend on you.
So buckle up and get ready to make sense of the madness.
Good afternoon, good evening.
Depending on where you are listening around the world, we decided to do a breaking news live stream to cover the latest announcements from President Trump that mentioned early in a press statement and then now and his truth social shared the video of probably the first U.S. military strike targeting a designated foreign terrorist organization that's actually related to organized crime and cartels.
Per Trump Social's post, the United States conducted a strike in the Caribbean Sea targeting members of Trendi Aragua, which I think a lot of now of our followers might be very aware of, which is historically a Venezuelan prison gang that has gained much more international reach, specifically in the Western Hemisphere.
And this drone strike per President Trump targeted Trendaragua.
And I will go some of the differences and talk about it.
And I know we were talking a little bit in the background about Capital de Solis, Trendaragua, and all that.
But before we do that, I'm going to do something that Jason historically does, but now I have the honor and privilege of doing, which is sharing my screen, because I am going to share the actual footage of the strike.
And if you give me a second, we will go straight to my account and I'll have it ready right here.
So this is the actual footage, and as you can see, it's a speedboat.
It is not a narco submarine, and there it is.
As President Trump claims, 11 members of Trendaragua were killed in this attack, which would probably be probably the most lethal counter-drug operation the United States has done.
And since maybe if we want to go all the way back to the invasion of Panama, even though that was not necessarily a foreign terrorist organization as now recently declared by President Trump.
So this is a very interesting dynamic and development.
It clearly shows that the Trump administration is taking the threat of cartels and narcotics very seriously, and that the deployment of U.S. military forces recently announced by the Trump administration is now more than just strong words, but actual military operations, which has seen any significant increase in the Caribbean Sea since he came into office.
And there has been actually significant increase in drug seizures along that route, not only this year, but even last year, and specifically related to seizures of cocaine.
So before we go to our guest speakers that we have right now, David, I kind of want to go to you.
You know, even just from a little bit on the political sense, I mean, is this showing where now the Trump administration is reprioritizing the Western hemisphere, trying to maybe Israel, Gaza, Russia, Ukraine taking a backseat?
Where do you think this falls within the political spectrum and kind of where the Trump administration is trying to move forward now?
And more importantly, do you think that this is something that fulfills some of that hard talk that the Trump administration said about, you know, cartels and utilizing military force against them?
Or is there a concern that this might be mission creep and violate kind of the no new wars?
Where do you think rely on that?
Wow, I have so many thoughts on this.
I'm going to keep them brief because if you're Trump, 24 hours ago, everyone said Trump was dead.
And now he's here and he's carrying out airstrikes against cartels.
I mean, it's hard to keep track of everything that's going on in foreign affairs.
I mean, clearly we have two different speeds that Biden operated and Trump operated under.
We're just talking about Russia.
We were talking about Gaza.
We were talking about Israel.
I mean, we've been talking about, like you mentioned, everything happening on the other side of the pond.
And then as this news and this chatter is starting to develop about the U.S. saying that, you know, Russia's not really playing fair and he's just, all right, well, let's see where this goes.
Next thing you know, we hear about a military buildup in the southern Caribbean near Venezuela.
And then we see a drone strike against arguably Trendaragua cartel members in a fast boat.
This is exactly what Trump said he was going to do.
I don't think it's necessarily violating any no new war creep because what he said was he was going to use U.S. military to fight against the cartels.
And I think you and I talked about it on Inauguration Day.
It was something you were excited to hear about.
You're like, well, this is something I'm on board for, considering your area of expertise.
And sure enough, I mean, it looked like to be a drone strike.
I'm assuming it could have been an airstrike.
It looked like a drone strike, the way the video was played out.
But either way, it was an airstrike conducted against a fast boat.
We haven't seen this.
I don't know if ever.
At least I can't recall.
I'm sure it's happened before, but I can't remember the last time we had an airstrike in the Southern Caribbean against drug smugglers.
So look, I'm all for it.
Drugs have ravished the United States, Central America, South America, human trafficking, drug trafficking.
I mean, at some point, we have to address this.
And it's not necessarily coming from Mexico.
We're talking it's coming from South America through Central America into the United States.
It's causing problems all along the way.
We have countless Americans dying from fentanyl and other drugs.
This is exactly what the American people honestly deserve is a president that's willing to use the full power of the U.S. military to stop drug smuggling and to deter human traffickers, humans and drug smugglers, human smugglers from doing this anymore.
I mean, look, we've spent so much money, so much time, so much gray area operations bombing terrorists in the Middle East when we've ignored what's happening in our own hemisphere.
So I'm actually okay with Trump turning the attention towards our side of the world and starting building some of these relationships on our side of the world.
And I think at the end of the day, South America and Central America is going to be better off for it because the people fleeing these violent confrontations with cartels, they deserve to feel safe in their own countries as well.
So I'm on board with it.
I'm all for it.
I know we'll have a lot to talk about with the legalities of it and all those things.
But man, you can't not appreciate a president that's willing to just be decisive and do we haven't seen a U.S. president this bold in a very, very long time.
Love him or hate him.
It's certainly an exciting time to watch the White House.
So, Arnold, I'm going to ask you this question, but just for our listeners, I think to have a kind of a common understanding.
One of the apps, you know, obviously one of the kind of interesting aspects with the Trump administration is really kind of the foreign terrorist organization designation and let's say criminally profited organizations, cartels, right?
Because let's be real, you have the FARC as an FTO, the ELN is an FTO.
For all intents and purposes, they're now modern-day drug trafficking organizations.
They just could historically be tied to Marxism, Leninism, communism type of insurgency and terrorist attacks affecting specifically Colombia.
But, you know, even though nowadays they're drug trafficking organizations, they still have the aura or kind of the facade of a political motivation that was an easier way to make this foreign terrorist organization designation.
The Trump administration has very much expanded on that within the kind of the criminal spheres.
We have expansion and terrorist organization designations in Venezuela, so specifically Trendaragua, which is historically a Venezuelan prison grain.
Recently was the Cartel de los Soles, which is the Sun cartel, which for all intents and purposes, the Venezuelan military, because they are involved in drug trafficking organizations.
And then in Mexico, you have the La Nua Familiar Michargana, you know, the United cartels, the Sinaloa cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, and even now some Haitian gangs have fit that definition.
And now we're seeing something that historically been relegated to the roles of law enforcement, even in the Caribbean coast, with the United States Coast Guard, or even some military application, but more of a law enforcement mole.
We're seeing the utilization of military force.
So my question to you, Arnold, is twofold.
One, when the story first broke, they first said it was a sun cartel, and now President Trump said it was Trendaragua.
Do you think there might be some sort of miscommunication within the Trump administration on who it is?
And then, two, you know, this was a drug trafficking route.
Historically, they've been detained all the time.
Do you think the application of military force is really going to increase the deterrence or have a domestic impact in the drug trade into the United States?
Oh, Arnold, I'm sorry, you're muted.
You're muted.
You just have to mute.
This okay?
Yeah, before going into that, I think I'd like to deal with what David raised.
I think it's important that attention has been focused on other hot issues, such as Ukraine, such as Palestine, etc.
And I think that is important because, in my view, the real goal of Trump and the United States is not the issue of drugs, it's rather the issue of overthrowing the Maduro regime, not only for oil.
Oil, of course, is very important, we all know.
But I would say, in addition to that, that Maduro government is known for its support of the Palestinian people.
He also fully supports the Russian right to defend itself against NATO and Ukraine in that area, etc.
I think that this is, amongst other things, aside from oil, what is really behind all of these talk about drugs.
And that is what the United States wants to do: overthrow the Maduro regime, the Maduro government, for this reason.
Now, you know, you asked me the question, these two cartels, I mean, it doesn't make sense.
Like just yesterday, we're reading that it's all about the cartel al-Sol.
Okay.
But now today, it's no longer that.
It's something else.
Now, how can they know from the drone up in the air that there are drugs on that ship?
Impossible to know.
I think that they just fabricated this thing as a pretext to carry out further military aggression intervention in Venezuela.
There's no way anyone could see through that drone that there are drugs on that ship.
I mean, where's the proof?
Just as, you know, the whole thing, you know, this Cartel al Sol, okay?
That one, even by United Nations Drug Administration in their latest report a year ago, doesn't even mention that.
Not only that, in the last five or six annual reports by the United Nations Drug official, they never mentioned that.
But then all of a sudden it came up yesterday.
Now they dropped it.
And now it's the agua del tren.
It doesn't make sense.
It all adds up to what I'm saying.
I know David doesn't like what I'm saying, but anyways, that's what I have to say.
It all adding up to a false flag that the Trump administration is trying to float in order to intervene militarily in Venezuela to overthrow the government there because they do not like Maduro's international policy.
And they also, of course, have an eye on the oil there.
So let me say real quick, if I may, it's not that I don't like what you have.
Venezuela's Drug Trafficking Allegations00:15:18
I appreciate what you have to say.
It's a different perspective and it's an interesting conversation.
If it was just my perspective, it wouldn't be a very interesting conversation.
So whether I agree or disagree with you has nothing to do with whether I like what you have to say.
I appreciate your take.
Go ahead, Stefano.
No, I just wanted to say that, you know, we are going to continue to cover this in this live stream, but just for our listeners, we are preparing.
And Jason, I alluded to this just a second ago.
The Oversight Committee did release the Epstein records.
A total of 33,295 pages were uploaded.
We'll see if there's anything actually valuable.
We've seen them upload a lot of things, and in the end, it becomes nothing burger.
So just for our listeners, we are preparing a space for that.
We are getting it ready.
Our team, Mario's team is in the background, is reviewing it.
We are going to focus kind of on this as well.
So we have two breaking news kind of concurrent.
So Jason, let me go to you.
One, kind of this interesting.
Again, you know, we're having a situation where the U.S. military is now doing operations that historically has fallen within the roles of law enforcement.
Can I go back to what you first said with Panama?
Because, dude, that just hit.
Go for it.
Get the videos ready.
Get the screens ready.
We got screens ready, but for another reason.
First of all, that's the first time I actually saw the strike.
You know, I got the DM from you guys.
I looked into the details.
They were very scarce.
Trump said, a lot of drugs on that boat.
Very small boat from what I saw to have a lot of drugs on it.
Let's just start with that.
But you said Panama.
And one of the vivid memories that I have as a child of the 80s was sitting in my father's apartment.
Parents were divorced.
It was on a weekend.
And they were talking about surrounding Noriega at the time.
And I heard my father go, good, let's get that son of a bitch.
My father was a low-level cocaine dealer that was in and out of jail and eventually served federal prison time.
Now, obviously, as that happens, I have mixed feelings coming from the DARE generation.
The fact I find this out about my dad, who the bad guys are, who the good guys are.
As I grow up, I also find out that Noriega was on the CIA payroll.
Well, that's pretty interesting, huh?
And then that whole Iran-Contra scandal, obviously don't delve into that until my late teens, early 20s.
And really, the internet's kind of new.
So it's all paper research.
But Stefano, even recently, I don't know if you guys remember this, but just in, what was it, 2019, They seized a cargo ship owned by JP Morgan with 1.3 billion in cocaine, which the street value today with inflation, that's an easy two bulldog.
And yes, eight people pled guilty, et cetera.
But there was no real connection to not only the bank, who was never prosecuted and claimed ignorance, but the prominent family that they were also connected to.
So color me skeptical when we choose a nation like Venezuela, as he was saying, that is oil-rich.
Now, now, I do want to say this.
I know you do a lot of work with cartels who are extremely corrupt.
I think the other intrinsic problem that you know is that these cartels are basically the governments of South America and beyond.
I mean, they have the type of influence, if not more, that we in the United States attest to the lobbying system, whether that be nation states, big tech, big pharma, et cetera.
I mean, they're a part of that system.
And in a way, you know, our executive within our executive, the quote-unquote deep state, if you will, has acknowledged this through policy time and time again.
And unless we're going to change that policy, I don't know that we're not still involved in some type of drug running, either here or internationally.
We've never had any accountability for what I just discussed 30 plus years ago.
So actually, I would like to get your perspective on that.
Because if, first of all, if you do this with military force, right?
I don't like terrorist labels.
You want to call them cartels?
Fine.
Once you go into that terrorist aspect, you and I both know it's zero rights.
And let's be honest, the guys on that boat who were just droned into oblivion had zero rights.
And they were probably on that trip maybe for the 2000th time.
If those were teenagers and in their 30s by the time, they've done that so many times on small levels.
They weren't expecting that.
Now, does that act as a deterrent?
I don't know.
You know, the cartels aren't going anywhere.
Maybe politically it moves Venezuela into a more aggressive position.
You know, Arnold talking about a false flag.
You don't necessarily need a false flag if you can like Brzezinski style on the border, Afghanistan, Russia, to goad them in with smaller level attacks.
So, I mean, what do you think, Stefano?
Is this a positive thing or is this just so open source that it could lead to disaster?
And it is aimed at Venezuela for the reasons he talked about.
I mean, it's not just Maduro.
We both know that Chavez was a huge enemy of the United States, openly, talked about, you know, Bush smelling like sulfur on the UN.
And that got him a helicopter ride that almost took his life and brain cancer that did.
So what I would say is, so I think when, okay, so I would agree with you, for example, the financial aspect.
It's fun because I kind of did a video on my YouTube TikTok and I was, there's a guy, there's a key name that I think most people have never heard in their life.
Ariguel Gonzalez-Valencia, better known as El Cuni.
El Quini, sorry, Equini.
The Gonzales Valencia family, for example, are intertwined with Jaliscanu Generation from a financial.
Anything financial with the Jaliscanu Generation cartel, it's to the point where they have so much money.
Like Mexican cartels are the fifth largest employers of Mexico, right?
And Equini was like the brainchild of Jaliska New Generation's financial network.
He was it.
He knew everything.
He did everything.
And so yes, I would agree with you specifically on the corruption.
If I highlighted that a lot, I would agree with you, like once we saw the, because when the first report came out, it was like, was this a narco-stub?
Because a lot of times, what we see and kind of highlight and understand, and when we're tracking, because you highlighted, for example, the shipment, the container ship, that's a very common occurrence.
That is a very common thing.
And I've even alluded to this when I'm beginning.
Like in 2024, we saw record drug seizures of cocaine.
And 2025 looks like it's shattering that as well, specifically in the maritime routes, right?
The cocaine has exploded in transshipments.
And narco submarines we're seeing in Colombia, for example, Colombia seized the first narco submarine that was autonomous and used Starlink for navigations.
It was completely autonomous, not even people on board.
Right.
So now you have this speedboat, which, as you alluded to, that's not, that's, there's not a big transshipment.
And I'm actually a little bit surprised on 11 people.
That's a lot.
That's a lot of people on a boat.
And so that, when I saw that, there's something there.
There's something there that's just not adding up.
Because generally, when we see these, I mean, you see a couple people here and there.
You alluded to eight people were detained, and that was a container with a why was there 11 people here?
And that just has me think.
I don't have the information.
It's just a little bit more than you would highlight when you're dealing with something like this.
The use of military force directly raises a lot of questions.
It would be because you're right.
I mean, most of the people who do the trafficking, they're low-level.
They're just looking for the easy money.
And I said, like in Mexican cartels, the last SME, fifth largest employer, if you're analyzing cartels from like a holistic approach, which they're not.
But what I would say, though, I think it is important to highlight when we're talking about Venezuela, is the Venezuelan government, ever since Chavez and Maduro, have been heavily involved in drug trafficking.
And we know the dealings they have.
There's no proof of that at all.
Well, the U.S. government sanctions list, we have that.
We do know, for example, the Egertito Iberad Nacional, the ELN.
You can see the United States an objective source with regards to Chavez and Maduro.
Doesn't make sense to me.
So you're saying Maduro is more credible than the United States?
I think that's a judgment call.
I would argue probably the United States is a little bit more credible.
I know.
That's what the discussion is all about.
We have opposing sides.
But I've been to Venezuela seven times.
Okay.
I saw Maduro shook his hand, eye-to-eye contact in February 2019, amongst other times.
That was the occasion when in January 2019, the United States, through Guaido and the Lima Group, were preparing an intervention to overthrow the Maduro government.
And he said, I'll just eye to eye with the United States come here.
We will defend ourselves with our lives.
You can't disagree that, for example, let's look at the region of Apure that borders Colombia with Venezuela.
Venezuela and Colombia, Apure.
We know the Venezuelan military works hand in hand with the ELN.
It's a known fact.
The Colombians have highlighted this consistently.
We have video footage of ELN members battling the far dissident group, the 10th Front, in there in an internal conflict between ELN and the FARC dissidents and the Venezuelan military going in to support ELN.
And that's all because of drug trafficking.
Because why would the FARC dissidents in ELN fight each other?
They're fighting each other.
One of the factions of the FARC.
They're fighting each other because of the drug trade.
Venezuela and the Maduro government and Chavez before were never involved in these activities with regards to drug.
There's no proof at all that can indicate that President Maduro and his government is any way involved in drug trafficking.
It's a false flag.
I think Jason was talking about his experience with Panama.
Let's go back further.
In 2003, we remember the weapons of mass destruction, which was used as a pretext to carry out war against Iraq.
There are many other examples like that.
And what we are seeing now, in the end of August, September 2025, it's another attempt by the United States to float a pretext in order to try to overthrow the government in Venezuela.
I mean, you know, you don't, you know, they're fighting for their life.
I mean, Maduro is not the type of person who will put his life on the line to defend his country if he was a drug trafficker.
If he was a drug trafficker, he would find something else to do.
But they are ready to give their life to defend their sovereignty and the dignity of Venezuela against the United States.
Regarding evidence, real quick, if I may.
Those are the values that they have.
But regarding evidence, you said there was no evidence.
I want to go a couple of, you tell me if this is true or not true, okay?
The narco-terrorism charges against it from the DOJ in 2020 against Maduro, alleged that he conspired with FARC to traffic cocaine via ARC Rouse CUS.
That's fake, right?
Then there was the cartel of the Sons, alleged drug trafficking network, high-ranking officials, Maduro identified as a leader.
That's fake.
Maduro's nephew convicted in the U.S. for trafficking cocaine with diplomatic aid.
Fake.
Hugo Cavarjal plea, the Venezuelan intel chief who pled guilty on narco-terrorism charges.
That's in 2025.
That just happened.
We're going to assume that's fake.
And he was actually detained in Spain and then extradited to the United States.
Right.
So all of these things, you said there was no evidence.
So this is what I would argue to be evidence and plus what Stefano just or Stefano just highlighted.
So all of that you're arguing, none of that is tied to Maduro.
It's all fake.
Nothing at all, David.
Like, for example, all those examples you gave, the sources that you give are U.S. sources.
How can anyone in their right mind, excuse me, believe in U.S. sources when it comes to opposing Venezuela?
There's no way.
I mean, you know, there is no concrete proof.
In addition to just what happened today, where's the proof that there was drugs on that boat?
We have no proof at all.
We don't know what it's about.
They just, you know, we saw those drone shots from afar.
And of course, they want everyone in the world to assume, oh, there's drugs on that boat.
And then they just make the link where there's no link at all that this is connected with President Maduro.
There is no connection at all.
And you would argue that the 2024 election was completely legitimate in Venezuela as well, right?
Well, I was there in 2024.
Were you there?
I was there.
Okay, so you say it's legitimate.
The election was legitimate.
It was completely legitimate.
I was there.
I followed every.
No, I mean, you know, you asked me and I was there.
David, can I jump in here real quick?
So in July 2024, I went through every step of the electoral process from the beginning to the end.
And I saw with my own eyes that there is no way that any fraud could be, could be, have taken place.
In fact, I would say that the Venezuelan electoral system is so transparent, it is fraud-free.
Even if the government wanted to carry out a fraud, it is impossible.
Everything is done by computerized and very modern machinery, unlike the United States.
There was no fraud.
He was elected in a legitimate manner.
And the same thing went, I also.
So the Carter Center, the United Nations, and several analysts who rejected the official result, it said the aftermath, said the result was invalid.
Your eyes, though, are way more credible than all these other organizations.
David, can I jump in and defend Arnold for a second?
I'm going to defend you.
Let me just say this.
First of all, you know, they also told us there were no shenanigans in the 2020 election.
Now, I'm not saying any of the things that you said are real or fake regarding to the narco-traffic.
But let me say this.
You know, he just mentioned weapons of mass destruction 2003.
How about the fact that in the late 90s, the opium trade had almost been completely eviscerated by the Taliban in Afghanistan and that government system.
And then when we took it over, it absolutely exploded.
But the Taliban didn't get taken out.
They're still in power over there.
And now we have a big drug problem.
And of course, there's that famous clip.
Election Results Controversy00:13:53
And I think that we've kind of, Stefano discussed a little bit, where Geraldo shows U.S. troops in front of those fields.
It becomes a huge farming crop while we're, because we're so concerned as the United States about the narco-trafficking, that it explodes there under U.S. troops guarding it.
And then we'll lead Karzai as one of the main warlords who happens to be the brother of the guy that we install.
Again, I'm just saying, color me skeptical that our executive, the ones that really, not necessarily Trump, who I think wants to throw on his Superman cape and he's a guy who probably never has had a drink, never has done the nose candy, God love him.
I'm talking about the people that really run the things behind the scenes, all right?
The people that would cause a false flag, et cetera, the banking systems.
That's where my skepticism comes in, that we're so damn concerned about Venezuela and we blew up this boat that, look, I'm assuming they're going to come out with more intel than we just saw it on the drone, right?
They're going to say we had these guys followed, we had human intelligence, here's, you know, some text messages back and forth, maybe some beepers that'll magically go off Israeli style.
I kid.
But they'll provide something else.
So let me do this.
David mentioned the Carter Center evaluation of the elections in July 2024, where they said it was not credible.
But you did not mention the Carter Center report on the previous elections four years ago, when the Carter Center said that the Venezuelan electoral system is the most democratic and transparent system in the world.
Now, what happened?
The Carter Center was taken over by someone who's directly connected with U.S. aid, in other words, CIA, and they changed their position.
And instead of looking at it objectively as they did before under the influence of Jimmy Carter, they start to look at it from the point of view of the United States.
That was what happened with the second report that the Carter Center came up with.
I would like to say something.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Luis Peche.
I'm from Venezuela.
And I would like to take some things about the things that Mr. August has just said.
First of all, there are no results of the Venezuelan presidential elections by the official entity that had to make them to publish the results of the presidential election of July 28, 2024.
So this happened.
This is a major question.
Where are the results of these elections?
The official entity that had to publish this result argued that they were hacked, that the system was hacked.
And because of it, they couldn't publish any results.
This system that you are talking about, Mr. August, has some locks, has some security mechanisms in order to preserve the integrity of the elections.
The main issue that we have here is that the opposition published the results that were collected by all the persons that were involved in all the country in the election and they published the results that they had.
And these results were 77% for Mundo Gonzalez, that was the opposition candidate against Nicolas Maduro.
The Chalismo regime hasn't been able to publish these results by any means.
So this is like the main issue on the presidential election theme is this one.
So in that fact, second of all, and just Louis, just one second, please.
Okay, please.
Your point of view is very interesting, but I think the audience should know that the opposition facts and website or whatever is based in Miami.
They organized their own electoral website in Miami.
And based on that, they said the winner was not President Maduro.
I mean, this is not serious.
It's not true.
If you enter the website, the website is like the existence of all the proofs of each and every one of the counties where the election was held with the result of each and every they could collect about 85% of the data because the electoral authority couldn't do it.
So it was the proof in there with the signing with the signatures of the government party and the opposition party members.
So those are the facts.
One question.
If their position was so strong with regards to the fraud, how come that the opposition did not respond to the request, the suggestion of the official electoral body to show up in the in Caracas in front of the electoral commission to prove that there was fraud?
They did not show up.
No, rather than showing up.
If I may, Arnold, I think that's let's let's be honest.
I think it's fair to assume and say, not even assume as a fact that the Center Nacional de la Fiones, the CNE, the electoral center of Venezuela, is completely 100% controlled by Maduro loyalists.
He has appointed every single person in that body.
Like that's that's like this isn't an independent board of technocrats, just like the Venezuelan Supreme Court.
It is 100% appointed, just like the Venezuelan military.
They're 100% controlled by Nicolas Maduro and his political party.
Yes, they were appointed.
Where is the official data?
Where is it?
When is the official data?
This does not mean that the people on the electoral commission or the Supreme Court can have an objective account of how the elections took place in July 2024 or previous elections.
You know, you say that the military is a point controlled by Maduro.
Well, that's great.
Thankfully, the military is very strongly in support of Venezuelan sovereignty.
And there's no way.
Okay, let me let me let me use that.
There's no way go ahead.
No, because I want to ask that question because you have a disagreement.
And because I know you heard your point, and Luis joined us later, so I did want to pivot back to kind of the original conversation for Luis, because that's the thing, right?
So if you look at the foreign terrorist organization designation by the Trump administration, if you look at the bounty on Nicolas Maduro, the 50 million, which is kind of ridiculous because, like, he's in Mira Flores, the Venezuelan presidential panelist.
Like, I don't know where do you need it.
Here he is.
Give me my money.
But this isn't only Trump.
I mean, this has gone all the way back.
And this is a question for Luis, right?
Let's be like the cartens de los soles in reality does not exist in the sense that it's not like the Sinaloa cartel.
Our argument should end there.
It did not exist.
It does not exist because the current one does not exist either.
They're fabrication.
They're made up by the United States as a pretext to investigate.
Let me finish my point.
Let me finish my point.
The term the sun cartel came about because the Venezuelan military symbol is the sun.
And because the Venezuelan military is involved in drug trafficking, the Justice Department, the U.S. government, and all that just simply said, okay, we're giving you a label.
You're the Sun cartel.
It's basically the Venezuelan military involved in drug trafficking.
That is what's going on.
So Luis, like, from your perspective.
Are you saying that United Nations official drug institutions are wrong when they are saying they never mentioned these two cartels?
No, I could say on that, that I could say on that, that the data that the UN is receiving is the official data that the governments give to the UN.
So basically not realizing that in the UN, we are not part of any tribal.
It would be like really controlled by Maduro, the United Nations Drug Administration.
No, no, no, no, not the United Nations.
The United Nations receives information from the governments that are part of their government of Venezuela.
Investigating the UN this information that says, no, we are not drug traffickers.
So carried out by the President Maduro's government, absolutely no information.
They can do their own investigation.
They do not get the information from Maduro.
They do not have to.
So you think the indictments against Maduro's family members in the United States where he pleaded guilty was completely fabricated?
The ones specifically that David Hanler.
Luis, go ahead.
Because there are two reasons currently in place.
One of them is Ugo Carbajal, that was the former intelligency commissioner, basically the authority on intelligence in Venezuela.
He is right now in the United States.
He was extradited by Spain and he declared guilty on drug trafficking.
There are others that it's Clibera Cala, another member of the military of Venezuela, that has declared guilty on the drug trafficking.
These are two cases that are ongoing right now.
No, but the United States government, by Trump, by Biden, whatever, no.
It's the United States justice that right now is developing this case on drug trafficking by Venezuelan officials.
And they both are right now saying we are guilty on drug trafficking.
So this is happening.
No, these are facts that are happening right now.
So, so, so, I think, Jason, let me let me go back to you then with this question.
So, walk this for me.
Is this a situation from your perspective when we're analyzing?
Is this now a situation where this and I think I want to get the opinions of everybody here, but I'll go to you first.
Because when I first saw the reporting of military strikes or military planning for military strikes against cartels and the deployment of forces in the Caribbean Sea, and my perspective was this is a knife pointed at Venezuela, not in Mexico, right?
So, Jason, my question to you is: is this some because again, this strike happened in international waters, right?
We don't know who we're talking about.
We don't know.
We have no idea, at least us public, we have no idea who was actually targeted just based on Trump's claim that this was Trendiragua.
My question to you, Jason, is, is this an actual step against counter, you know, military force from a counter-narcotics perspective?
Or is this something that is more like a ruse and it's really directed against Maduro?
And because there are people on both sides of the argument, I think a lot of people even who I've talked to, scholars and people that would not agree at all with Arnold, that just like, this doesn't seem like really it's pointed against necessarily narco-trafficking, but more against Maduro.
My first belief was when I saw this, like this is more pointed against Maduro because not necessarily Mexico cartels.
But what do you feel?
Is this a Maduro thing or cartels as a whole, which the Trump administration, the 2025 Office of Direction National Intelligence Threat Assessment listed cartels as the number one threat to the United States?
And terrorists, right?
And that's the word that is key because it's not, you're not wrong on the ruse part.
I would say it's anybody that becomes a figure like Maduro that can be framed up as the enemy of the week, month, flavor, or whatever.
I'm not saying the guy's a good guy, but just like you said, well, if we're worried about cartels, why aren't we worried about our border on Mexico, particularly Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, all that?
We're not.
And the other thing is, again, this is a small boat, and this is the first taste to see how that we're actually handling this militarily.
And it's nothing like we would have handled something in our own waters via the Coast Guard, right?
These are drone strikes.
So not only are you legitimizing the military against another leader of a nation state, you are further, further legitimizing the use of force by robots in the sky and more and more that will become autonomous, right?
How much longer, if this continues, that we're just going to say, well, we're not even pulling the trigger.
We're not even making the decisions.
We have an AI algorithm that's running it.
So good luck in your boats, guys.
You know, if the AI picks you up and you're running drugs, you're going to be blown up like this.
I think that that sends the message that we're going to be doing this a lot more.
And, you know, if you've been keeping up on this type of warfare, you got people like Lucky Palmer, the head of Andoral, saying, look, we don't want to be the world's policeman, wink, wink, wink.
We want to be the world's gun store.
All right.
So this also gives us a great opportunity to pick off which enemies we want to utilize, what technology, and then make a buck while we do it.
And just like Trump right now, when he's talking about Ukraine and Russia, right?
He goes, well, well, we're not funding it anymore.
It's our weapons, but they're paying for them.
So I mean, there are a lot of advantages to the way this is going for the military-industrial complex.
Venezuelan Sanctions Crisis00:08:10
I don't know that any of them actually stop drug trafficking or stop quote-unquote evil dictators or the cartels, Stefano.
I've only seen their power and influence increase in the decades that I've been alive.
And that's an unfortunate thing.
So let me go to – go ahead, Arnold.
I wanted to go to you to kind of address that and then anything else.
So go ahead, Arnold.
And then I have a question specifically.
I just want to, you know, I mentioned, you know, my experience directly in Caracas meeting with President Maduro on a couple of occasions.
But do you know what is the best argument against the notion that there is drug dealing and corruption going on in Venezuela?
Since the United States announced its military operation in that area a few days ago, there has been ongoing volunteer enlistment by thousands and thousands of Venezuelan people to enlist going into the militia.
Now, if there was corruption and everything was going wrong in Venezuela, there's a lot of things undergoing underhanded, why would people line up in their hundreds of thousands to enlist, give their life to defend their country against the United States?
There's a reason for it because you know what?
I'm not saying there are no problems in Venezuela, but it's not.
The problem is not corruption.
The problem is not Maduro leading any kind of a narco state.
Otherwise, people will not be, you know, there are 8.2 million people in the reserves and the militia ready to give their life to defend Venezuela's sovereignty against the United States.
That comes about because people are sincerely in support of the Venezuelan government and how they've been developing it over the last few years.
So why would people line up to enlist and offer to give their life to defend themselves against the United States if they were not convinced regarding the transparency and the honesty of the Venezuelan government?
So Luis, I want you to address that.
I guess my only counter to that, Arnold, I mean, I don't know how Maduro can explain the largest humanitarian crisis the world has seen, even outside of a war zone with the mass amount of refugees that's fled in Venezuela.
But, you know, that, you know, because there are significant humanitarian tolls there, but just a second, you talk about humanitarian crisis, but how about the sanctions that have been going on carried out by the United States against Venezuela, trying to cripple its economy, make the economy scream so that people rise up against the Maduro government, just as they did in Chile with Allende.
I've been there.
There's no crisis.
I could send you my videos that I took of plentiful things available in the stores and the markets in Venezuela.
There is no humanitarian crisis.
That is, you're saying the things that are collapsing between them.
Because if you say that there's no crisis, then how can you explain that Venezuelans are still fleeing the country to all about the continent?
From Chile to the United States, Canada, Europe, everywhere you can find Venezuelans that flew the country because there were no opportunities in there for them.
That's the first part of it.
So I wanted to talk.
So yeah, that's really a contradiction on your part.
This is an ongoing crisis.
Why aren't you still there?
American sanctions.
You support American sanctions against Venezuela as a Venezuelan.
The crisis, the Venezuelan crisis, is prior, is previous to the installation of this earth sanctions by the United States government.
And like 95% of the people.
Arno, wait, wait, wait, you guys are talking.
Arnold, wait, wait, wait.
Let Luis do his point.
Let Luis finish everything he's saying and then you can go back.
Luis, but I'll let you do everything.
But I do, we have seen an increase in the recruitment and then those militianos, borivarianos.
So I want you to address that point as well with any of your response.
So yeah, this is like a threat by Maduro, but a short point on this.
Maduro wasn't able to find 4 million votes on his election, and he claims that 4.5 million people enlisted on this militia.
So this is a really hard to believe claim by Maduros.
But What I can say about that is that this arming these people, giving weapons to these people that are mainly people that depends on the government on a high basis, depends on the money that the government gives to them.
Right now, the economic situation in Venezuela is one of the worst in the world.
This is not an exaggeration.
If you look for the minimum wage in Venezuela, it's something that it doesn't even get to $10 a month.
The government gives bonus to people.
Your fascination with the American dream...
Mr. August.
No, no, no.
It does fascination.
I am Venezuelan.
I have lived this for many years.
So I am just saying things that happen to my family, to my friends, and I can relate from my point of view.
You can later say your things from your point of view as a Canadian or whatever.
But what can I say is that the minimum wage in Venezuela, and you can Google it, it doesn't get to $10 a month.
So the government gives bonus, economic bonus to people that are, yeah, I don't know, loyal to them.
So there's a relation of dependency in this that makes sense.
Some people have to do what the government says.
This week says, well, we are enlisting in the militia.
Well, we are enlisting in the militia.
But this is the relation that it is.
Louis, you could see.
You could go on television and X and other social media and you could see very clearly people lining up to sign up for the militia.
I'm not making it up.
Those are real footage.
And people are doing it because they believe in the necessity to defend the Venezuelan project despite all the problems and even despite the problems created by the American sanctions.
Well, Louis, you refuse to say the American sanctions are the cause of economic hardships that are taking place supposedly in Venezuela.
Why don't you say it?
Are you for or against the economic sanction, Luis?
Or are you like the leader of the opposition, Maria Machado, she's in favor of sanctions.
She's also in favor of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, like you, Louis.
You're not objective at all, even if you're Venezuelan.
That's great.
But you're not.
You're just mesmerized by the American dream.
And everything in the United States is fine.
And Venezuela is terrible.
You can cartonize my position, but Luis, where do you live currently?
Can I just ask you, do you live in the States or are you in Venezuela?
I am currently not in Venezuela because I have to flee.
I can't tell right now where I am because I had to flee Venezuela because of political reasons.
Right now in Venezuela, there are more than a thousand political prisoners.
This is something that has to be said in this forum.
There is no freedom of speech.
I salute that these spaces are made when we can freely share our ideas.
In Venezuela, this doesn't happen in the way that we are speaking right now.
I had to flee the country, so that's my...
I was just curious...
Guys, I've got to run.
I'll be back for the Epstein thing later.
Free Speech Panels00:01:37
Thank you so much for having me on the platform.
Another great debate and discussion.
Love you guys.
Love Mario.
We'll see you soon.
Folks, I really hope you enjoyed this one.
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We ended up doing a space.
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It's always about right and wrong.
That's true, but you've got to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
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