Juan Guaidó’s January 24th swearing-in as Venezuela’s interim president ignites a crisis, exposing Maduro’s regime—backed by Cuba, Iran, and Russia—as a narco-linked tyranny amid economic collapse, 20-pound citizen weight loss, and $4.2B embezzled by Maduro’s daughter. Tarek El Aissami, the shadow power broker controlling military, oil, and Syria ties, must fall for democracy to triumph, but foreign interference risks escalating violence into a regional proxy war. Meanwhile, Canada’s Liberals face scrutiny over pro-China donations, like Huawei’s $5,500 to a Trudeau-linked group, and legal battles against election fines, raising questions about Western hypocrisy in supporting Venezuelan freedom while courting authoritarian backers. The moment could rewrite Latin America—but only if allies act carefully. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, it's a Berlin Wall moment in Venezuela as that country rises up to throw off their tyrant.
Will they succeed or will Maduro, hold on, it's January 24th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Venezuela used to be the world's fourth richest country, ahead of Canada, ahead of the United Kingdom.
Can you believe that?
It's lush and lovely and civilized and I'm not sure if you know this but they actually have larger oil reserves than Canada, larger oil reserves even than Saudi Arabia.
They're Venezuelan heavy crude, which is actually somewhat similar to Canadian oil sands oil.
It's so plentiful.
That country has the biggest oil reserves in the world.
They should be as rich as Singapore or Hong Kong.
Actually, they should be richer because Singapore and Hong Kong, those little countries, they don't have any natural resources.
Venezuela is Western.
It's Christian.
It's educated.
It's industrialized.
But then it was taken over by communists.
I mean, I guess you could call them socialists.
There's not much difference, but I think communism is a better description, especially considering how the country has effectively been colonized by Cuba over the past 30 years.
It's practically certain that were it not for Cuban special forces operating illegally in Venezuela, or actually Chavez and Maduro permitted it.
Usually the Cubans are not in uniform, but they pretend to be police or even in plain clothes.
Without Cubans, Venezuela's democracy movement would have toppled their dictatorship long ago.
The worst dictator was Hugo Chavez.
That's him on the right, shown giving sort of a high five to a smiling Barack Obama.
And it was just beaming at a fellow world traveler.
And that thug in the middle there with the mustache, that's Nicolas Maduro, who took over as the tyrant after Chavez died in 2013.
Maduro was definitely a thug, but it's inaccurate to say he was the totalitarian center of Venezuela in the same way that, say, Kim Jong-un or his father or grandfather were in North Korea.
Maduro is rapacious, yes, but he's part of a larger network of tyranny.
The Cubans, Iran, believe it or not, Turkey is meddling in there.
Everyone wants a piece of Venezuela, and Maduro is weak enough, economically, militarily, personally, that he has to give up a lot of control to those foreign meddlers.
So it's not a one-man show.
But Maduro still rings out money from his starving country.
Here's a cell phone video taken from a lavish party a few nights back from the Maduro family at a nightclub throwing American hundred.
Look at that.
Throwing American money around like it's confetti.
Just lavish, conspicuous consumption.
Look how rich we are.
Like if they're Saudi princes or something.
Hugo Chavez's daughter, Chavez himself is dead now, thank God.
His daughter is the richest person in the whole country.
She stole $4.2 billion from her own people.
Meanwhile, the country is so poor that the average Venezuelan has lost nearly 20 pounds, not from a diet or exercise, but from malnutrition.
That really is North Korean style.
Countless people have fled the country as refugees pouring into neighboring countries.
Remember, this used to be the fourth richest place in the world.
Now they're fleeing for food.
But of course, the money is the least of it.
Chavez and then Maduro have been violent authoritarian tyrants, dictators in all but name, modeled in that way after Castro and weirdly after Iran and Syria.
And it's weird the connections.
For more than a decade, Iran has been colonizing Venezuela too.
This is a news story that goes back to 2007, where they declare an axis of unity against the United States.
Independent media, obviously, have been shut down in Venezuela.
Even labor unions have been dissolved unless they're a front group for the government.
No independent labor unions are allowed.
Where's the left-wing up in arms about that, eh?
Political activists imprisoned, political parties suspended, obviously property expropriated violence at the hands of Chavez and Maduro and at the hands of Cuban mercenaries.
Elections obviously rigged.
Courts rigged.
It's a slow-motion disaster.
And given Obama's friendship with Chavez and Obama's friendship with Iran, did you really think that Obama would do anything about it for his eight years?
No, but this week, Donald Trump finally did something about it.
There's a democracy activist, a challenger, an opposition leader, a genuine and legitimate president of Venezuela under their constitution.
His name is Juan Guaido.
And here he is, this week, being sworn in.
Now you'll notice he's standing on the street, not in a palace.
Of course, Maduro and Cuba say he is illegitimate.
They still hold the palace.
They still control the guns.
Mexico has sided with Maduro to its eternal disgrace.
It's siding with the tyrants.
So is Bolivia.
Never forget that.
I know we don't talk a lot about Mexico or Bolivia, but remember on this Berlin Wall moment, Mexico stood with evil.
Don't forget that.
Obviously, Iran and Turkey side with Maduro also.
But Donald Trump weighed in.
It's a bit long, but I want to read his whole statement to you, okay?
Because it's impressive.
And it immediately caused so many other nations to follow Trump's leadership.
But it also shows us a little bit more about Trump's foreign policy.
Here, let me read it for you.
Today, I am officially recognizing the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the interim president of Venezuela.
In its role as the only legitimate branch of government duly elected by the Venezuelan people, the National Assembly invoked the country's constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro illegitimate and the office of the presidency therefore vacant.
The people of Venezuela have courageously spoken out against Maduro and his regime and demanded freedom and the rule of law.
I'll read a little more.
I will continue to use the full weight of United States economic and diplomatic power to press for the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.
We encourage other Western hemisphere governments to recognize National Assembly President Guaido as the interim president of Venezuela, and we will work constructively with them in support of his efforts to restore constitutional legitimacy.
We continue to hold the illegitimate Maduro regime directly responsible for any threats it may pose to the safety of the Venezuelan people.
As interim President Guaido noted yesterday, violence is the usurper's weapon.
We only have one clear action, to remain united and firm for a democratic and free Venezuela.
I think that's really pretty, isn't it?
And it's very interesting.
No soldiers being sent, no invasion being planned, no bombing, just moral suasion, economic sanctions, diplomacy.
I think that's sort of great.
Now in response, Maduro, who's still in the presidential palace, he gave the U.S. Embassy notice that he is kicking out their diplomats.
That's the only country Maduro said that to.
And he had three days to get out of the country, and I guess that was a day ago.
But the United States said they do not recognize his authority to kick them out.
So they're not leaving.
So I think we've got a crazy showdown here.
Will Maduro send armed men to attack the embassy?
What if they don't leave?
I don't know.
It's a game of chickens.
Very interesting.
Here's what Marco Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, tweeted, which is quite something in itself.
He said, if Venezuela dictator Nicolas Maduro has any friends left, they should give him some advice.
Don't start a fight.
You have no chance of winning.
And don't start a fight with someone who has proven he will take actions beyond what anyone thought possible.
Yeah, that's something.
I don't think a senator himself has the authority to command the U.S. military.
That's the commander-in-chief called the president.
And his name is Donald Trump.
And I think Marco Rubio described him accurately.
But if I were Maduro or Cuba or anyone, I would be thinking, what does it mean?
Should I believe him?
And I think we can all agree that as between Barack Obama, who rolled over for any tyrant, and Donald Trump, who rolls over tyrants or tames them, as he seems to be doing in North Korea, it's best not to tangle with Donald Trump.
That's China's decision these days, anyways.
I should point out that it took the full day before Canada said a peep about Venezuela.
I was checking all day yesterday on Christia Freeland's Twitter feed, on the foreign policy Twitter feed, on Canada Global Affairs.
Checking, checking, checking.
No, no.
Brazil's new president, Yair Bolsonaro, immediately supported the new Venezuelan interim president, called for Maduro to be ousted.
Most democracies did, including in Latin America, but not our Christian Freeland.
I'm not even kidding.
At the moment in question, she was too busy on this media panel, this vanity TED Talk panel at the fancy JetSet conference in Davos, Switzerland.
She was tweeting about that.
She was being a pundit, a chatterbox, a personality.
Venezuela was rising up for freedom.
But you see, she had this really important speaking gig, and she had some autographs to sign afterwards.
So it was not until nighttime that she bothered to put out a statement.
Don't interrupt her.
She was on a TV panel.
What an embarrassment.
But to be honest, look, that's pretty much all Christian Freeland is good for being on panels.
I mean, ask China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, America.
No one listens to Canada anyways these days.
So maybe it doesn't matter that our dilettante foreign minister was too busy signing autographs for millionaires and showing off her socks or whatever she's doing than answering her phone.
Venezuela's Inflection Point00:15:13
What really matters is America.
I mean, that's sad to say as a Canadian, but it's true.
And of course, what really matters are the Venezuelan people.
here's what they have to say.
Would you look at that?
That's amazing.
I mean, unless Maduro literally was willing to murder tens of thousands of his home citizens, and maybe he is, how could he ever stop that massive crowd as a dictator?
That's got to be close to 100,000 people.
And that was just one partial view of the streets in a neighborhood in Caracas.
I think those people would overwhelm any police force, even unarmed, the people would.
That's the people speaking.
That's amazing.
That really made me feel like the Berlin Wall was falling in its own way in Venezuela.
I just felt great to see that.
Now, Maduro's supporters, they asked for rallies of his side.
They asked people who support Maduro to rally around the presidential palace to show support to Maduro, to the world, and maybe, I don't know, act as some sort of human shield or something.
I think that's probably what they wanted.
But here's a video taken last night outside the presidential palace called Mila Flores.
You'll see there's no one there.
There's not a single citizen.
That's the gates of the presidential palace.
Not a single citizen was there to defend the tyrant or even stand by him.
None.
That's amazing.
To the contrary, here's video of people overrunning Chavez's party headquarters, the PSUV.
That's Maduro's political party.
a look at this.
How exciting is that?
That sort of reminds me of when Iraqis ransacked Saddam's palaces or when in East Germany people ransacked the Stasi headquarters.
It's hard to tell, but I think it's organic and genuine.
And it's not orchestrated or uniform.
It doesn't seem that way.
You can't orchestrate something as big as that huge Caracas rally.
That's got to be real.
Here's just some random cell phones from the subway station.
People are chanting and cheering.
It just really feels genuine to me from my perch here thousands of miles away.
I think people just had enough.
And maybe they see that change is possible and maybe they're giving each other courage and the fact that strangers are united in this moment of solidarity.
Maybe they heard about Yair Bolsonaro in Brazil and the changes he's making there.
So maybe they think they can be another way forward for Venezuela too.
And they don't have to become an Iran-Cuba colony.
They can be free.
Maybe they're inspired by him.
I don't know.
I like that the Empire State Building is in Venezuelan colors.
What do you think of that?
I like that half of Miami and Venezuelans around the world are excited about rebuilding their home.
Maybe even returning home from exile.
I mean, listen, if you're in Miami, you don't want to leave, but to also rebuild your home, there's a lot better prospect of turning Venezuela around than, say, turning Afghanistan into a vibrant, prosperous, safe, liberal democracy.
Spoiler alert, you will never turn Afghanistan into a vibrant, prosperous, safe, liberal democracy.
But you can with Venezuela because it already was once and not even that long ago.
And surely not one American soldier needs to die to accomplish that.
And obviously no Canadians would help.
Trudeau would never send troops to do something like liberate a place.
He's got us off in Mali right now, a place that is a failed state, and it will never be right, but he wants to virtue signal there.
Him and Christopher Freeland are a perfect fit, aren't they?
Now, of course, it's not over yet.
Here's a political leader on the side of democracy, Maria Corina Machado.
And she says, and we've clicked the translate button here.
This is her tweet.
She's got a huge following.
She says, Nicolas Maduro is responsible for the violence unleashed in several cities today.
17 Venezuelans murdered, dozens wounded, and more than 70 detainees.
This is how the criminal regime acts in its collapse.
My solidarity and prayers with the families of the victims, there will be justice.
Habla Jusistia.
That's the translation of her tweet.
I have no doubt that's true.
That Maduro and the Cuban mercenaries, and who knows, maybe there's even some Iranian mercenaries.
I don't know.
We don't know the full extent of what the secret police are doing.
I would be surprised if they tried to assassinate the interim acting president, but I wouldn't be shocked.
Or I would be shocked, but not surprised.
But freedom is coming to Venezuela.
I believe that.
I really believe that.
I want to believe that, but I think things are different now.
Obama's gone.
Trump is in.
Bolsonaro is there.
Look at those people on the streets.
At this point, I was planning to show you a list of North American celebrities who have lavished love and praise on Chavez and Maduro over the years and said he was a role model.
Sean Pann, Oliver Stone, most of Hollywood.
It's gross.
It's awful.
Political leaders from Bob Ray in Ontario to Bernie Sanders.
Here's one I hate the most.
This is one of Rachel Notley's MLAs, Rod Loyola.
at what he said.
Yeah, I'm not one to talk about being fat, but you can tell he hasn't lived on the Nicolas Maduro malnutrition diet, has he?
But today is not the day for Rod Loyola's disgrace and Rachel Notley's disgrace, she who for years wore the Shea Guevara watch and the disgrace of Nikki Ashton, the NDP member of parliament who's taking Venezuela's side against America.
Today is not the day for their disgrace.
There will be plenty of time to talk about their disgrace, their collusion in the crimes of Chavez and Maduro.
But today, for now, let us focus on whose day it is, the people of Venezuela.
And let us put our hopes and prayers with them in these dangerous days.
Stay with us.
More on this with Joseph Humeyer, next.
Well, there you have it, an incredibly exciting day.
Juan Guaido being sworn in as the new president of Venezuela, but the tyrant Nicolas Maduro refuses to let go.
Massive protests in the streets, reports of Maduro loyalists murdering protesters, Cuba and countries of that sort standing with Maduro, Mexico to their great discredit, but the United States, and I'm pleased to say Canada, Brazil, and others standing with President, I don't know what you would call him because he has not yet taken power.
President Guaido joining us now is someone who has helped us navigate this important issue for more than four years, I think.
Our friend Joseph Humeier, the executive director of the Secure Free Society, and he actually joins us from El Salvador, where he is today.
Joseph, thank you for fitting us in.
I know you're so busy, and part of what keeps you busy is generating support for the removal of the tyrant Nicolas Maduro.
Thank you for being here today.
Thank you, Ezra.
It's a pleasure to be on.
It's an important time to talk about Venezuela and Latin America.
One of the reasons I'm in El Salvador is because there's going to be an election here in about a little over a week on February 3rd, where there's an important inflection point where the Salvadorians, much like many Latin Americans, have decided whether they want to go in the direction of peace and prosperity or they want to have more Venezuelas, Venezuela, that are under consideration.
So it's an important time.
So thank you for having me on the show.
Yeah, well, it's great to have you.
And you have helped us understand Venezuela, its connections to Cuba, its connections to Iran.
I think a lot of people are unaware of how Venezuela has actually become colonized by other powers.
I mean, it makes sense to me that Cuba would prop up their ally, especially the ally that gave them cheap oil after the fall of the Soviet Union.
But remind our viewers about Iran.
And I see that Turkey is standing with Maduro now.
Those are folks that you wouldn't imagine would be mucking around in the Western Hemisphere.
Yeah, that's a great point.
And I think one of the things that I think everyone needs to understand, particularly your viewership, is that the Bolivarian Revolution, which is what brought the Maduro regime and the Chavez regime before that into power, has a lot of history behind it.
And that history actually looks not so much like Cuba and looks a lot like Syria.
One of the things that I've learned through our studies is that it had a lot to do more with the extension of pan-Arab nationalism that was at the height of conflicts in the Middle East throughout the 20th century, using the same tactics of insurgency and infiltration, be able to create this kind of phenomenon of democratic dictatorships, which they did very much in the Middle East and exported that to Latin America and Venezuela being one of those countries that adopted that methodology.
That's very different than Cuba, which was more of a guerrilla warfare tactic to create communist control over a country.
So I think that's one of the things that we have to examine when we look at Venezuela because it's not like Cuba.
It's much different than Cuba.
It's not like anything we've seen really in Latin America before.
And it's a lot more like conflicts we've seen in the Middle East, namely conflict in Syria.
If you're to define the Syrian conflict, it's a humanitarian crisis with the world's largest refugees outflows and a large control of Turkey, Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah.
That definition now fits Venezuela, and that's not by coincidence.
Well, that's very so.
I mean, I remember the first time I heard that, I thought, what?
That can't be right.
But of course, Ahmadinejad and Rouhani, they are really Maduro's most vocal and powerful allies in many ways.
Now, let's talk about Donald Trump, because I think when he and when Vice President Mike Pence said, we stand with Juan Guaido, that is a change, not just from Trump's last two years of relative silence, but obviously from the eight years of Barack Obama.
I'll never get it out of my head that image of Barack Obama warmly greeting Hugo Chavez, not just with a handshake, but almost like a high-five type embrace.
And you can see that on the screen here, a very famous photo.
Obama praising Maduro and in the background, sort of praising Chavez, and in the background was the successor to Hugo Chavez, Nicolas Maduro.
It's obvious why the parties of the left in America and Canada and around the world supported Chavez Maduro.
Let me ask you, is there a backlash to America and other Western democracies standing with Guaido?
Will that be used by Maduro to say, oh, you see, Yankee imperialists, we all must unite against the evil Donald Trump.
I told you there's meddlers in Venezuela, but it's not Cuba and Iran.
The meddler is in America, Yankee, go home.
Is that a risk?
Well, that's always, I mean, that's going to happen regardless.
That's going to happen whether we do nothing, whether we say nothing.
And that's been the policy of previous administrations to kind of just not talk about Maduro and Ninchabas before him.
And that doesn't stop them from talking about you.
I don't think we have to worry too much about what Maduro says because he's going to say what he wants to say regardless.
I think what we have to take in consideration, though, is that the time, the moment right now is at an inflection point in Venezuela, where you have two presidents that are completely opposed from different alliances and recognition in the international community.
One president, the legitimate president, Juan Guaido, who's the interim president, is backed up not just by the Venezuelan Constitution, Article 233 of the Constitution that backed them up constitutionally.
It also has the alliance, has the recognition of 50 countries in the international community, most of the countries that actually respect the democratic norms of sovereign states.
Maduro, on the other hand, has the backing of his own 50-plus countries, but those are mostly anti-democratic countries, anti-U.S. countries, anti-Israel countries, just Turkey, such as Iran, non-aligned movement, as they're called, 77 countries, which Venezuela is actually the acting president of.
So what we're looking at is a confrontation that's happening with a crisis in Venezuela.
It's moving to more of a conflict.
And we have to be very careful because that could quickly devolve into a civil war, which would not be good for anybody.
Well, that's right.
I mean, I saw yesterday that Maduro told the U.S. Embassy they have three days to get out of town.
And I saw that Secretary of State Pompeo said, yeah, no, we're not leaving.
We no longer regard you as the constitutional president of Venezuela.
That's quite a game of chicken because, I mean, you've got this little compound in Caracas of the American interests.
And you presumably have the entire Venezuelan army and its Cuban and perhaps Iranian reinforcements.
Like to say, no, we're not leaving, that is raising the stakes.
How will this end?
Because, I mean, from what I can tell, Maduro still has most of the guns.
And even though some of the police and soldiers have defected to the people, I think he's still in control of most of the violence.
So what's going to happen in the next 48 hours?
Look, this is a very precarious time.
It's very sensitive.
We have to see what scenarios play out.
It's curious to me that out of the 50-plus countries that don't recognize Nicolas Maduro's legitimate president, he only wants to kick out the United States.
Venezuelan Crisis Scenarios00:10:21
So that's a little bit interesting in its own right.
But I think the Trump administration is going to test the resolve of the Maduro regime.
They're going to see how far he wants to really claim his state to power or if he wants to look for a negotiated solution out.
I see one or three different scenarios happening.
I see one scenario where the military rises up and tries to attack the regime with a constitutional backing of the legitimate president, Juan Guaido.
But that's a very dangerous situation because, as you know, the Cubans, the YLN guerrillas, the Hezbollah networks, the Cuban, there's all these kind of armed non-state actors that are willing to defend the regime in Venezuela.
So that creates a situation for more bloodshed and a real type of civil war.
The other scenario is that there's a negotiated solution to have to take Maduro out discussions through Russia, Turkey, Cuba.
And so I think those actors will get more involved.
Matter of fact, I have information that says that Erwan himself wants to get involved in mediating the Venezuelan conflict and that the regime, the Venezuelan regime, is preparing to do that.
But I see it as a trick because I know that Erwan is not no friend of the United States and he's been doing a lot of these kind of underhanded shenanigans in the Middle East and just extending it to Latin America is not good.
And then the final solution is that basically the Maduro just cracked down and 12 like he's done in 2017 and 14 before him and just does a countrywide crackdown and clamps down and that'll seal his dictatorship in the country, which presents all kinds of other different scenarios.
So none of these scenarios are good, but that's likely something's going to happen.
You can count on that.
Something's going to happen that this tension isn't just going to wither away.
Yeah.
You know, one of the things that you and I have talked about over the years, and we've had other experts on Venezuela, I was thrilled yesterday.
I felt like in a small way, it was like the Berlin Wall came down.
And I know that most Canadians are not as attentive to Venezuela as they would have been to Europe for a lot of good reasons.
But I mean, 30 million people, 32 million or whatever the population is, for the first time in decades have a chance of freedom.
And I felt exhilarated.
And when I saw those images of the crowds in the street, I thought that there's no going back.
And you know what?
The West has been so involved in Arabia and Iran and Afghanistan and all these godforsaken places.
And here's Venezuela, a Western country, literally, Christian country, liberal country and its people, educated country, industrialized country.
Surely, of all the places for us to help and weigh in, these are people we must help.
And I'm not saying America should put boots on the ground, but we should do everything Canada too.
Anyway, I just was telling you emotionally, I felt thrilled to see this.
I want to ask you one more question because very recently, Brazil made an important course change.
We've talked about it a little bit on the show.
Yair Bolsonaro, who I would say is anti-communist, not just pro-freedom, but he's aggressively against the kind of Latin America that Maduro and Chavez would support.
And I saw Bolsonaro in Davos, Switzerland, really pushing for freedom in Venezuela.
And I was excited.
I thought, well, imagine if it was Brazil and then Venezuela, and maybe we could see a new era of freedom and prosperity and democracy in Latin America.
I don't know.
I just don't know enough about it, which is why I'm relying on you.
And you're in El Salvador right now, and you say there's a big election coming there.
How does this all fit together?
I'm sorry for the long question, but I just see so much hope and I'm nervous also.
Well, I think, you know, we have to remain hopeful.
I mean, there's no other option.
We have to stay hopeful with Venezuela.
We have to stay hopeful with all of Latin America in the world, the people that are trying to rise up against oppression on any corner of the world.
And I think Venezuela is the most recent example.
However, we can't underestimate our adversary.
We have to know who we're fighting against, and we have to know what their strategic intents are.
And I just came from Brazil.
I was in Brazil for a week, and I met with many people in the Bolsonaro team at the understanding of what is the criminal, a civic military insurgency structure of the Venezuelan regime.
Until we understand that, it's hard to know how to attack it.
And I don't think Brazil is going to be very prudent on how it acts and not going to be reckless as some may have suggested on how they maneuver.
But it's awesome to have an ally like Brazil, a very powerful country, a big country that can count on to basically stand up to the regime.
That said, my main point to everybody is that while we focus so much on the regime, we cannot forget about the revolution.
Regimes come and go.
They change faces, but revolutions remain.
And the revolution is advancing through the exportation of the refugees.
And we have to contain the refugee crisis first before we move anything else.
We have to understand that the Venezuelan regime wants the conflict.
All their international backers, Turkey, Iran, Russia, they're all in precarious economic situations.
They want this conflict because they prefer to drag the United States into another proxy conflict, much like Syria, than to fight their own battles at home.
And so in that sense, we have to be very careful not to engage in a traditional conflict, asymmetric conflict.
That's what we're working on here in Latin America because we need allies to do it.
And Brazil's at the top of the list.
You know, you just made me think of the Arab Spring, which had the outward appearance of being some sort of democracy movement, but it actually was an Islamist movement in Egypt in particular and other places.
And you've terrified me because you're right.
pushing out, destabilizing the refugee flood that would turn Latin America, South America into what Syria and other countries were like.
Just very, very scary stuff.
We're going to find out pretty soon, I guess.
I have one last question for you.
And it's based on what I think I know about Maduro, which is he loves money.
He loves to eat.
He loves wealth.
There's this famous video of him going to, speaking of Turkey, going to a Turkish steakhouse by a bit of a steakhouse celebrity, Salt Bay is his nickname.
And your average Venezuelan has lost almost 20 pounds from malnutrition.
And there's Maduro with this celebrity chef cutting up succulent cuts of beef in a theatrical way and sprinkling salt.
It was a bit of an internet sensation, this Salt Bay.
And I'm not even blaming the restaurateur.
I mean, you serve whoever comes in your restaurant, but for Maduro to feast on probably what was a $1,000 dinner while his own people are starving.
So here's my question.
Maybe someone says, look, Maduro, go to Havana.
Go to Istanbul.
Take your money with you.
Take your family with you.
Live in a luxury mansion.
Have the rest of your life in retirement as a billionaire.
You'll be a rogue.
You won't be allowed to travel much.
But you'll have your life and your money.
Get out.
And that's really what you care about, money.
Go into exile and end this problem nonviolently.
Do you think that's a possibility to appeal to his ego and wealth and selfishness?
Well, I don't think that's going to make what we try to portray to him.
He's going to make a decision in concert with his international backers, and Turkey is one of those.
I mean, I do see a scenario where Maduro goes to live off the rest of his days in some type of protection in Istanbul under the Turkish government.
And that might be what Erwan wants to do when it comes down to Venezuela.
But I'm not worried about Nicolas Maduro.
Nicolas Maduro doesn't even control Venezuela.
I'm worried about other people in the Venezuelan regime that are more important than Nicolas Maduro, such as Tarek El Asami.
Tarek El Asami has much more power control over the armed forces, over the economy, over the natural resources of the country.
And he has a threat network that extends all the way into the Middle East and all throughout Latin America that's much more dangerous than Nicolas Maduro.
So what will we do with Tarek Al-Assami and then all the other individuals that are in the regime?
We've gotten about 250 individuals in the high command of the regime that are either narco-traffickers, military commanders, or corrupt politicians that control that country.
One individual isn't good enough.
There has to be a clean slate.
Isn't that amazing?
And I remember we've talked before about that Tarek, I forget his last name, he's the vice president, isn't he?
Is that right?
He's the vice president with ties.
Not that he controls the mines and things.
Yeah, we don't have time to go deep on that again, but I remember when you showed us his connections to Syria, and I couldn't believe it.
But it's true.
Well, listen, Joseph, you've given me a good dose of reality.
We're definitely not through this yet.
But let's close on an optimistic note.
Will you say, would you agree with me that for the first time in more than a decade, there's a real chance Venezuela will be free?
The Berlin Wall has not fallen yet, but it's wobbling.
Well, this is the time to fight.
And I think that it's not going to be a kinetic fight.
It's not going to be a physical fight, but it's an ideological fight.
And I think in Latin America, I'm part of this group of people that are going around trying to make sure that we build allies that are going to fight this fight.
So it is the time for that.
And I'll share the optimism that we can win this.
So I definitely think that this is something that we're going to be applying to.
And I hope the Trump administration and any other administration stands behind it.
Well, thank you so much.
I won't keep another minute of your time because I know you're doing such important work in El Salvador, trying to get that country on the right track.
And I really hope, and I'm not really a religious person, but I tell you, in my own way, I'm praying for the success of this peaceful democratic revolution.
And there's so many people whose lives are at stake right now.
And I think it's the most important story in the world.
And I thank you for over the years giving our viewers a bit of insight that I know they wouldn't have got anywhere else.
So thank you to you, Joseph.
You've been a lonely fighter on this when others have turned away.
So I want to congratulate you for the, I know you're not on the ground there, but indirectly you've helped shape this moment in your own way.
So thank you to you and your team.
Thank you, Ed.
It's always a pleasure.
And thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about this.
All right.
Well, stay safe, my friend.
Huawei Donations Controversy00:05:32
Well.
All right, that's our friend Joseph Humeier.
We've talked to him.
He's from, of course, the Secure Free Society.
And he's the executive director of that organization.
Quite often, when we talk to him, he's in Washington, D.C.
But as you heard, he just came from Brazil and he's in El Salvador.
And of course, we were talking about Venezuela.
Stay with us.
more ahead on The Rebel.
Hey, welcome back on my monologue yesterday.
Betty writes, so the Liberals are willing to sell Canada and Canadians out to the Chinese as long as they can make money for themselves.
Betty, I think that's part of it.
You cannot deny that's part of it.
When Jean-Cretchen goes to work for Demarais and the Chinese conglomerates five weeks after stepping down as PM, yeah, it's about the money.
And Peter Harter, who's Justin Trudeau's leader in the Senate, Chinaman.
Yeah, absolutely.
But it's not just money.
There's a romance of the third world.
There's an admiration for that authoritarian style.
Justin Trudeau, little potato, like his father, admires strongmen.
That's why they love Castro.
That's why they love the Chinese.
That's why they love the Soviets.
I think it's really gross.
And there was a moment there where the Liberal Party tried to pass itself off as the Party of Human Rights.
I don't think anyone believes that anymore, do you?
Stephen Wrights, McCallum should be fired, but the Liberals never fire anyone.
Oh, you're so right.
You're so right.
I mean, they don't fire people.
But I want to say I disagree with you one level deeper because to think that John McCallum, former cabinet minister, longtime MP, senior hand, political guy, to think that he would have done that as on his own or as a rogue, to think that he would have called a press conference with only Chinese media, specifically said those very particular arguments,
to think he would have done that without consulting or rather being directed from the PMO is, I think, to be naive.
Of course, he said it because he's the ambassador to China, but of course Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butz approved it.
And you saw that in that Trudeau did not disown it.
Don't pretend for a second those words weren't scripted by Gerald Butz or Trudeau couldn't even write such big words, but that Gerald Brutz and the PMO scripted.
Of course he did.
Barb writes, McCallum handles his new position like he did while immigration minister, a complete farce and joke.
Yeah, yeah.
I just I don't understand it other than some of the things I said a moment ago about the liberals who are enthralled with money.
I mean, let me say this.
So many, being stationed in the Canadian embassy in Beijing is considered a prize station, a prize position in Canadian diplomacy.
And here's why.
I mean, obviously it's interesting.
Obviously, it's important work.
I've been to China.
I found it very interesting.
I wouldn't call it a vacation to go there, but it's interesting.
But if you spend, let's say, two years or five years in Beijing interfacing between the Canadian government and the Chinese government, you're going to meet a lot of companies on both sides that want to do business, a lot of regulators, a lot of politicians, a lot of Communist Party insiders.
You're going to have a very powerful Rolodex.
And if you retire after five years, well, now you have a reputation of being an insider, a connected guy.
And let's say you were making, I don't know, $100,000 a year as some counselor in the embassy.
Well, now you can bill yourself out at $1,000 an hour or more.
You can get a cut of deals.
And you know the inside track.
And so many former diplomats who serve a term in Beijing then turn tables, go to the other side, and go to make money on the Chinese side or the Chinese-Canadian business side.
Don't think that that same thinking didn't apply to Jean-Cre-Chen as Prime Minister and isn't in John McCallum's mind.
Maurice Strong used to be the head of Ontario Hydro, used to be the Deputy Secretary General of the UN.
He was the mastermind behind Kyoto.
He was a Canadian.
In his later years, he moved to China for the absolute total economic score.
That is absolutely on the minds of Liberal Party members today.
Let me throw one thing at you before I go.
I should tell you that Huawei, the Chinese company, has made donations all over the place in Canada, including to Canada 2020, which is sort of the Trudeau in-house think tank.
So Huawei has donated money to a Justin Trudeau front group called Canada 2020.
That is a fact.
Folks, that's it for today.
If you're still with me, I would invite you to tune in to standwitherebel.com because I have news today.
A Kooky Letter From The Election Commissioner00:00:40
We have filed our appeal to the courts in Alberta against the $5,500 proposed fine being levied against us by Rachel Notley's censors.
You can read the entire 10-page appeal at standwitherbel.com.
I encourage you to do so.
And just hours after we filed that, we got a kooky, kooky letter from the election commissioner saying, oh, guys, we didn't really mean it.
Please don't appeal.
Please, please, please, please don't take this to a real court.
It's a crazy letter, and you'll see that at standwithitherbel.com also.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night and keep fighting for freedom from Caracas to Calgary.