Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured from a bunker in Venezuela on January 3rd, now en route to New York facing drug trafficking charges. Host Pete Hegseth frames this as the end of six years of Chavismo dictatorship, which decimated an economy once boasting Latin America's highest per capita income. Donald Trump asserts U.S. interim control to ensure energy security and enforce the Monroe Doctrine against foreign influence, while Vice President Delcy Rodriguez leads a transition amidst internal regime infighting. Analyst Hans Humes warns against past mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, urging pragmatic stability to halt migration and replace thuggish governance with functional leadership. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, Qwen/Qwen3-ForcedAligner-0.6B, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Maduro Finally Out of Venezuela00:08:18
Welcome to a special edition of the Trish Regan Show.
We didn't anticipate coming to you with breaking news today.
What do you know, though?
This is one for the history books, shall we say?
Nicolas Maduro finally out of Venezuela.
It took, well, maybe about six years.
I feel like I've been reporting on this for at least six years.
I've been reporting on it actually for quite some time, but we came close a couple of times ago, maybe two times before, once with Chavez, once with Nicolas Maduro.
Finally, now he's out.
They went into his bunker in the dead of the night, the wee hours of the morning, and they got him and his wife.
And what do you know?
They're now on a ship en route to New York, where Nicolas Maduro will await trial on charges of drug trafficking, etc.
He has had a pretty storied history there, a pretty ugly history in Venezuela, as so many of you know, and I have reported on over the years in terms of his introduction of a, how shall we say, dictatorship of socialism that has been so disastrous for the Venezuelan people, so disastrous for the Venezuelan economy.
It's just really decimated a country that was once known as having the Best in terms of per capita income in the entire section of Latin America.
So they were once doing incredibly well, and then after the Chavismo section of the political wing took over, it was all downhill from there, from Chavez on.
We're going on about 25 years right now.
I want to go straight to Donald Trump speaking earlier today about what happens next, because guess what?
We're going to have our work cut out for us.
It turns out there's really no one that can run the country.
As well as us, I guess.
So we're going to be doing the job a bit alongside one, Delcy Rodriguez.
More on her in a moment.
She's the VP for Nicolas Maduro, who's going to be taking over in the interim.
But I want to go to President Trump speaking in a press conference moments ago.
Listen.
We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.
So we don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in, and we have.
The same situation that we had for the last long period of years.
So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.
And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about.
We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela.
And that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country.
It's their homeland.
We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind.
Decades of that.
We're not going to let that Happened.
We're there now, and what people don't understand, but they understand as I say this we're there now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place.
So we're going to stay until such time as we're going to run it essentially.
We're going to run it.
You heard them.
We're going to be staying until we no longer need to stay.
So, what exactly does that mean?
Look, Donald Trump making the point as a reporter asked him, you know, why are we doing this?
How is this America First policy?
Really, why do we see MAGA trying to get involved with, of all things, Venezuela?
And I want you to hear his explanation.
Mr. President, why is running a country in South America America First?
Well, I think it is because we want to surround ourselves with good neighbors.
We want to surround ourselves with stability.
We want to surround ourselves with energy.
We have tremendous energy in that country.
It's very important that we protect it.
We need that for ourselves.
We need that for the world.
And we want to make sure we can protect these guys.
Bingo.
Bingo, bingo.
You know, I've said this forever.
And, you know, it almost sounds crude or crass to talk about it.
But the reality is, Venezuela is home to the largest source of oil reserves outside of Saudi Arabia.
OK, and it's right here in the Western Hemisphere.
Have you heard of the Monroe Doctrine?
I guess it's now, he's calling it the Don Roe Doctrine, because you've got a very important, strategically important country.
That for whatever reason, China was very interested in.
And Venezuela was soon getting more attention from the Russians and then attention from the Iranians.
And it's like, whoa, whoa, wait a second.
This is our hemisphere.
Shouldn't we kind of be the ones that are the biggest friends with the Venezuelans, especially with all that oil?
And again, I know that this sounds crass to talk about.
And the truth is, a lot of this is about trying to actually free the people from this horrible socialist regime that has resulted in so much economic pain.
But there's also the little reality of that thing called oil.
And, you know, He knows that pretty well.
I want to show on the screen we have a picture of a woman named Delcy Rodriguez.
She is the current vice president, I guess now president, interim president of Venezuela.
And the wrap on her, I've interviewed her in the past, is that she's kind of a straight shooter and she's a chavismo person.
So, you know, there's that.
But for the most part, there's a thinking that she'll be able to get the job done in the here and now.
She has been out calling today saying she wants to see proof of Maduro's life.
She's not exactly sounding so friendly.
So, we're going to talk to a friend of mine who knows a lot about her and knows her very well and knows the whole situation on the ground very well in just a moment.
But first, again, remember what I told you about oil.
This keeps coming up, and Donald Trump is no fool.
When it comes to natural resources, this is a guy who wants all the oil he can get.
Listen.
But one of the things that you've already obviously cracked down on these drug boats, you've also cracked down on these illegal oil shipments coming out of Venezuela.
The countries that negotiate with Venezuela for those illegal oil.
Are already starting to suffer.
What do you see as the future of Venezuela's oil industry?
Well, I see that we're going to be very strongly involved in it.
That's all.
I mean, what can I say?
We have the greatest oil companies in the world, the biggest, the greatest, and we're going to be very much involved in it.
We can't do something like this, and we're prepared.
You know, we were prepared to do a second wave.
We were all set.
And this was so lethal, this was so powerful that we didn't have to.
We're prepared.
We're out there with an armada like nobody's ever seen before.
We're prepared and we're prepared, and frankly, probably thought we were going to have to do it, but we were prepared for a second wave going in.
I also just want to say thank you for all your patience.
It's my understanding that once again, we're having a little bit of a challenge.
It looks like it.
I can see it right now on the screen.
So hopefully that will be resolved in the near future.
Anyway, thank you for your patience.
I am traveling on a boat, actually, ironically, just off the coast of Cuba, believe it or not.
I want to go to my friend's Hans Hume's.
Who's joining us right now with his take on everything that's going on?
Because, you know, Hans, of all people, he is one of the best to talk to on this because he has been involved in the committee that's trying to ensure some kind of better economic future for Venezuela.
He's working with bondholders who also want to see a better economic future for Venezuela so that they get their debt repaid.
And he joins me right now.
He's the CEO of Greylock Capital.
Hans, good to have you here.
And I hope that you're able to see everything okay.
I know some of the viewers are concerned about.
The connection, the connectivity, but you're up in Canada.
I'm off the coast of Cuba, and Maduro is on his way to New York City.
Yeah, Trisha, I'm surprised you didn't pay for the Wi Fi option on your cruise.
It's Elon's fault.
I'm using Starlink.
Oh my gosh.
Well, anyway, yeah, quite a morning.
Prudent Steps for Transition00:16:02
I think we, all of us who've been involved, whether, you know, knee deep, You know, ankle deep, knee deep, or up to our neck in Venezuela, we're surprised by the headlines that came out this morning.
And I think the best way to look at this is sort of pointless.
If we're not lawyers or anything, if you get bogged down on the legality issues, I would just go around in circles.
So, what I'd like to do is sort of talk about the pragmatic part of this and touch upon what you were saying that in terms of making sort of a Aggressive move.
You know, you have to say that what Trump did today is it's a strong bet.
If it succeeds and he can facilitate a transition to bring Venezuela back into the fold with the United States without committing a lot of mistakes that we made in Iraq by trying to wipe out Chavismo, he's going to reset the power structure in the energy world.
Completely.
If it works, it really frees our hands to make bold moves in the Middle East.
We're not going to be handcuffed by being concerned with any of the oil producers there.
It frees us completely if we have the access to the oil supply in Venezuela.
But again, I mean, you know, you've got to give credit to people who are bold.
If there's a failure, it's And we replay some of the mistakes that we had in Iraq or Afghanistan, that won't play so well.
The first steps, in terms of who you took out and who you left in Venezuela, I'm not paid to have an opinion on this stuff.
I'll just reflect what I've heard from some of the advisors to the regime who expressed a lot of discontent with both President Maduro and his wife for.
Particularly his wife, for being obstructionist in a lot of the negotiations in the United States?
No, she keeps a pretty low profile, but she's, you know, on one hand, a very smart, intuitive woman can read the room very quickly, but she has, I mean, you just look at the concessions that were made in the negotiations around the Chevron license in the Biden administration.
What did Venezuela get?
We released their.
Her nephews and this guy Alex Saab.
Why?
I mean, those clearly were her nephews and her relationship.
And there was a lot of frustration by the people working for the Venezuelans who were really trying to bring the Venezuelans back into our orbit, but in a methodical way.
A lot of frustrations with her interventions.
And I think even if you went to some of the Biden people who frankly agreed to these demands, for better or for worse.
Concerns on that.
The person.
So, do you think that there was a part of the Trump administration, sorry to interrupt, Hans, but just frustrated?
No, no, no.
In other words, this has been going on for a while and we've been talking about it for a while.
And again, I can remember interviewing Delcy back in, I want to say it was like 2018, 2019, sometime around then.
And she actually, to her credit, by the way, a lot of people saw her as a more sort of methodical, less emotional, not that Nicholas was.
Emotional.
Maybe it was the wife the entire time that was the emotional one, right?
But people thought that they could kind of deal with her and that there might have been a path forward.
I know that at times, and she told me this, she's like, We want to try to work with the United States and we feel like we would have a lot in common with the United States.
So it was like, Well, why are you working with Russia?
They're like, Well, you know, we're working with anybody who we can work with, frankly.
And so I kind of was under the impression it was like, Well, why can't we get this all fixed up?
And I think it was because there's still A lot of frustration and animosity and anger towards what the Maduro and previously the Chavez regime had done to people, right, and to groups.
And so there's a little bit of payback going on.
My question is do you think that she has the same kind of baggage?
Like, can she walk in there and say, okay, we do want to play ball with the Americans?
And I don't know if she really does or not.
I mean, I'm looking at the rhetoric that she's put out today, and I don't know if that's her talk in her book and trying to keep everybody sort of on the same plane down in Venezuela.
And whether she's telling the Trump administration something entirely different, but let's assume that she's willing to work with us.
You know, where do we go from there?
I mean, this is sort of wild to me that we're going to go in and quote unquote take control.
Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, on one hand, if us taking control isn't necessarily if we send the right people down there, one of the biggest problems that operationally within.
Perevesa, the state oil company, is there was a culture of graft there.
And the big problem with dealing with the Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians is that culture of graft really played to their purposes.
So there was, I mean, structuring some of the agreements with the United States was attacked in a restaurant in Caracas by the hardline Chavistas because this economic inefficiency was their bread and butter.
So, you know, you still have this sort of stagnant mass in the oil company there.
And if we can get the right people in to make it work like a serious oil company, that's not a bad thing.
However, having said that, the Venezuelan oil company operation historically has never been very free of graft or corruption.
So there needs to be a wholesale change, and maybe this is a way to be a catalyst for it.
We'll see.
I mean, this is a bold stroke.
This is really bold.
It has a lot of the makings to be extremely successful.
Very bold.
Nobody's disagreeing that it's bold.
And you've worked.
You know, with Marco on this to some extent in the past.
I know Pete well, having worked with him, and I'll tell you, Pete was a big believer as long as I've known him in making sure that our hemisphere is shored up.
You don't want the Iranians and the Russians and the Chinese hanging out in three hours from Miami.
And I think Marco has a very, very strong conviction being Cuban American himself.
This is very important to him on a personal level.
And I've looked at some of the video coming out of South Florida today, and it's just, you know, people are ecstatic.
They are partying in the streets.
They are so happy.
They are so relieved.
I can only imagine just all that I've learned from the Venezuelan people in terms of my own coverage of the nation is that they were really seeking, and granted, there are plenty that are socialists, et cetera, but a big, big contingent of those people were seeking that freedom and they wanted to return to those happier years pre Chavez.
And this is an opportunity, I think, for them to be able to do that.
And they're going to see possibly Trump and America as a bit of a savior.
There's some interesting things that you've pointed out to me in the past.
And again, if you're just joining us, I'm with Hans Hume's founder.
And CEO of Greylock Capital Management.
And Hans is running the committee of debt holders that are trying to find a better path forward, economically speaking, for Venezuela, because that's how you get paid back on the debt.
Anyway, he's restructured nations all over the world and really has quite an expertise in this in terms of knowing how to get these countries back into a better place.
So there's no better person to talk to about this today.
Hans, it's first things first.
I mean, you got to make sure the water's on, right?
You got to make sure that.
People have food.
You've got to make sure that the streets are safe.
And this is perhaps the elephant in the room.
I'm wondering about a guy called Diaz Dado who runs the military.
And is the military on board with this?
Because I guess, you know, if they're not, then that's going to be more work for Trump and team.
You know, I assume in the conversations I've had, there was sort of an ebb and flow of, you know, clearly below Maduro and Celia, you had Justado on one side and Delcy and her brother on the other.
And to some extent, he was the glue that bound those two sides that were somewhat competitive.
But I would expect that there's been an awareness of, you know, The game plan to some extent was the two of them could step in and keep the country running if Maduro was taken out.
And again, that's smart because what was the big disaster in Iraq is we tried to just wipe out the Baathists and try to drop in a bunch of people who had been on the outside for forever and expected them to run the country.
It doesn't work.
And I would take it one step further.
You have somebody.
Delcy Rodriguez, whatever you think about her politics, was surrounded by very competent economists who were using very traditional economic metrics to manage the economy.
Her legal advisors were about as good as you can get.
Not Venezuelan.
Venezuelans, unfortunately, tend to have a lot of infighting.
You take it a step further.
She's a good person to work with.
Gustavo was our guy in 2015 when we had the negotiation.
Tom Shannon negotiated the election of the National Assembly.
So.
And then Padrino Lopez, he went to the School of the Americas.
So there's connections there.
I would hope that we have enough of an arrangement.
There clearly was not a lot of firepower directed at the incoming Americans.
So we'll have to see how it goes.
Most of the rhetoric today, as you said yourself, and maybe that's playing to the base.
I would expect that given the time that's been put into this, that things are arranged so that.
Things that stuff doesn't come apart of the seams.
I think that there's another, the signaling also.
Obviously, I'll take it one step further.
The people you want to work on on the economy, the Chavistas can bash the oligarchy all they want.
But the people, the kids of the oligarch families who stayed and continued running businesses in Venezuela, in Caracas, through all this, Are the ones who understand how to make it work.
It's very tricky to build a recovery.
We make this mistake over and over and over again to build a recovery around people from the country who've been outside for decades and have no idea how things work now.
I mean, there was a reason that Chavez came to power.
There was a frustration.
It was the same thing.
It was a class warfare.
And you had a lot of wealthy in Venezuela and a lot of poverty in Venezuela.
And people kind of were like, no more.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, take a look at, you know, many people have made the observation that you have this sort of, you know, this class issue in Latin America that also is reflected by, you know, the racial makeup of the population.
So the more indigenous people are poorer, the Europeans run the show.
Who cares?
I mean, well, it's just a question.
No, but that was a big part of Chavez's speeches.
I mean, I've told you this and I've told the viewers this.
I.
It was trying to get an interview with him.
This was a lot of years ago, like back around 2006 or so.
And they kept saying, Manana, Manana, Manana.
I'd go and listen to his speeches, and they always ran too long, right?
They'd be speaking for people who listen.
But it was on and on and on about the Europeans and the colonizers.
And that was a whole theme.
I mean, he could put Mamdami in his head.
And it clearly played to enough of the people.
But people, I mean, and that was the frustration.
And he was of the indigenous class.
And so, you know, this was.
This was a big thing, and he was very, very into Venezuela's history and had his view of it.
And you're not wrong.
I mean, this is exactly why he came to power.
The problem is, you know, he stayed in power, and then Maduro came in, and in the beginning, right, it was fair.
And then last time around, he clung to power, even though he had been voted out.
So it was like.
Yep.
Yep.
I mean, it's, you know, what's amusing is some of the people on, even inside the Maria Corina Machado team, Have said to her that in many ways she captured the discontent that existed that brought Chavez in.
The population, frankly, and you could tell it at every level, was just sick of the paralysis.
And you can point fingers to the US, to the Chavistas, to socialism, whatever.
It wasn't working.
And something had to give.
Now something's, you know.
Something gave.
The thing that had to give maybe just a little bit.
You got Donald Trump a little bit.
And he's like, buy a Delta force.
You know, but Venezuela is great at one point.
He's Islam.
And I'd love to, you know, that's the joke now.
It's not the joke.
I mean, they're actually saying that.
Let's make Venezuela great again.
And so, what's the path forward to doing that?
You mentioned Maria Carina Machado.
This is the woman who just won the Nobel Peace Prize.
I put out a tweet because I'm thinking naively, okay, she's it.
But I will tell you this, and you know this very, very well yourself with all the dealings you've had down there.
There's a lot of infighting.
It shocked me when I first began reporting on this.
Because it's sort of like, okay, you got the Democrats and the Republicans, you got the Chavismo wing of the party, and then you got the opposition.
I'm thinking the opposition is kind of like just united against the Chavistas, right?
And that's not it at all.
As I quickly learned out, they hate each other.
Infighting the Chavistas.
They seem to hate each other more than they hate the Chavistas.
At least they all are on the same side.
So now this is Maria Carina Machado's problem?
Well, I mean, let's.
I'm, again, I'm not paid to have a point of view.
I'm paid to deal with things as they are.
I think it is prudent to work with people who have had their fingers on the levers of power for quite a while rather than bringing, you know, clear the decks and bringing new people.
I think that there are some very competent people.
Within Maria Corina Machado's team.
And I think they will rise to the surface and be part of the transition.
Maybe what we'll do is start building towards a national unity government, which is the most sensible way to do it.
The biggest, in all the conversations I had with people in Caracas today, other than your city being bombed is not a great way to wake up in the morning, is that one comment one friend of mine said is there's a sense of retribution everywhere on all sides.
Building a National Unity Government00:04:53
And that's the thing that we need to be very careful about.
We can go on and on about the fighting between Democrats and Republicans in the United States.
But this can get bloody.
And you don't want to see.
I mean, it can get quite violent.
Payback is.
There may be some of it, but it's not a good way to resolve the standoff.
This has been a fight that's been going on since Chavez came in.
I'm really.
Again, we'll see how Dulce Rodriguez plays this, which way she goes on it, what D'Osala does.
But in terms of sort of the game plan going forward, I'm not going to, you know, it's co opting the functional part of Chavismo is a good sign.
You do not want this breaking down into chaos on the street.
All right.
So, in your view, smart move by Trump to kind of say, okay, this is the team that's there.
Now we're going to manage them.
But here's my question like, what does she want to do with this?
Do you think that she was actually informed?
And let me back up even further because you've been to that bunker.
That they got, I hope I can say that, but you've been, you've been to the point that they got him in the wee hours of the morning, January 3rd, which didn't you say this is kind of an important date?
Was it we got Noriega?
Yeah, same day that we We pulled Noriega out and we hit Suleimani.
And it's your dad's birthday and my mom's birthday.
It's my dad's birthday.
So January 3rd is a very important day.
Right.
So January 3rd is a great day for our families to celebrate birthdays and a lousy day for anybody who's banging heads with the United States.
Okay.
So they went in, they get them in the bunker.
What was this bunker like?
You know, it's a.
You know, a few levels you go up in the mountains, a couple sort of, you know, there's a few levels of security going in, and then you go in, do some fences, and then you can go down to certain different levels.
And it looks sort of like, you know, a regular house.
They must have had pretty good information.
There's no question that there was some inside help on this, because as of a couple months ago, what would have been sort of put out there I thought wasn't particularly good information.
But, you know, about the bunker.
Yes.
But they got it.
I've seen it.
You got it all wrong.
I didn't say that.
They had good information.
And the Chinese were there.
So the Chinese delegation was just meeting with him in Caracas yesterday.
They woke up this morning and this is all happening.
Any insight into what's going on there?
I mean, did they just get sort of shocked?
Was this a message to China?
And maybe China knew this was coming?
I don't know.
I haven't had the time to really sort of pursue that.
You can sort of game it out in different ways that, you know, there's a handshake that we'll keep our hands on if you do.
But I mean, just the signaling on this is interesting.
It could also be like you guys can say whatever you want, but we have the, you know, we have the capacity to go in and do what we need, what we want to do.
I don't know.
It sends a message, though, don't you think?
To a very, very strong message.
Yep.
To a lot of other factions around the world.
Tell me about that, Hans.
I mean, it really depends.
What, you know, it shows that we have a capacity to go in and do, you know, the old story was that you had to have boots on the ground, you couldn't secure stuff.
But the special ops has clearly given us the capacity.
The way that we took out the air defenses was just impressive.
Like, I caught me by surprise.
The air defenses were mobile.
And they're sort of cutting edge, you know, some Iranian, some Russian technology.
We just cleared out in no time.
So, expressing a bit of discontent and, hey, we can go in there and just, you know, impose our view that's a strong signal.
And people have got to sort of sit up and take notice that there's an intent in DC, you know, it's backed up by very strong kinetic capacity.
Yeah.
I mean, I would think this definitely would make a lot of players around the world think twice.
Putting It Back in the Hands of Law00:14:54
But what I couldn't get, and I actually had said this to you off air, even a couple of weeks ago, I think I said to you, like, why the heck can't they convince him to leave?
And I remember you telling me he was actually, he thought, like, there's no way I'm going to get out alive that the minute I leave, I'm dead.
I mean, this is another way to go.
Well, no, no.
What I've said to everybody is he won't go.
I saw no inclination to go willingly, that he would have to go at a point of a gun or go the way Allende did.
Clearly, he did not go willingly.
And based on what President Trump said, they had a number of conversations and he was offered an exit a few times and he refused.
He may have just overplayed his hand.
Again, I don't have full information on any of this.
It sounds like that's what happened, though.
I mean, it sounds like they gave him a lot of opportunities to leave.
I, you know, they could have dressed up a nice little package for him.
He could have lived out his years and who knows where, but he was clinging on.
Why is it so important to get rid of him?
I mean, if you're going to keep his vice president in on an interim basis, why was he the problem?
Well, it may be, again, I'm going to just go back to what I've heard from advisors to the Venezuelan regime who thought that he and Celia were obstructions in imposing their personal interests over the interests of the country in all the negotiations going back to the Biden administration.
And we're frankly actually obstructing a lot of forward progress in the last few months.
You know, releasing Alex Saab, you know, so there was.
The argument for keeping him in there is the glue that keeps Chavismo together.
And if you have a vacuum and the guns, the army isn't part of the deal, whoever takes power could.
Feel pretty threatened.
But in practical terms, if the pragmatic steps forward, the demands of the country end up being too personal, then it's not just him, it's him and his wife.
And again, that comes from an advisor to the regime who certainly would not make any argument about how this is totally okay by international law.
But we'll say, you know, I kind of don't mind the people they chose to take out.
I hope I'm not betraying any confidences.
No, no, we won't say anyone's name, but I think I know who you're talking about.
I guess my next question would then be, you know, when you talk about international law already, and we don't have to get political in this, I know that your position is just, okay, we want to see Venezuela through to a better economic future.
And You know, if Maduro was in the way of that, then so be it, right?
And maybe there's a better opportunity there with somebody else in the seat or with the US in there in the interim.
I don't know, but a lot of people are going to get very political on this.
I watched a bunch of Democrat senators already all over CNN today saying that this is awful.
And, you know, you've got a lot of people just making this about politics.
I mean, look, if Biden had done this, I would have been like, wow.
That's kind of great.
But, like, you know, I just try and call it like I see it.
I'm pretty conservative.
You know that.
But I just try and call it like I see it.
And I don't, you know, need to hit someone just because they're on the other side.
But this is what's going on right now.
And so America's going to get very divided on this issue.
You know, if you're suffering from TDS, you're going to assume that this is a violation of international law.
If you're someone who believes that it wasn't right to have Maduro there, that the country was too, Against us and too sort of aligned with China and Russia, and that this was a direct security threat to us as a nation, then you're going to see this as a win for us.
Any sense of where people are going to come out?
Yeah, again, we got to work with what we have.
And I think that arguably, we could have established pretty much full control.
Another one came out two days ago to say, hey, you know, I promised the entire oil industry to President Trump.
You know, why is he still picking on me?
But it's seen as a huge sign of weakness.
The reality on that is that we, I think that there's two things going on.
It's energy security for the United States, and also demonstration of, you know, by the administration to not mess around with us.
When we say something, we're, you know, take it seriously.
So, you know, the, but this has the makings to be.
To be a good transition.
There are some, a lot of the business people I talk to in Caracas are very concerned about, you know, again, the retribution, but also concerned that things just work.
And what they don't want to do is go through a huge amount of turmoil.
Like, okay, there's good stuff and bad stuff about the way things are working over the last years.
2023 felt like a golden time.
You know, money was starting to pour in.
I mean, there's so many business opportunities there.
And then You know, everything came apart at the seams in many ways because of the demands for what the U.S. needed to give to Venezuela in exchange for us backing off.
You know, the nephews, Alex Saab.
But what they're hoping for now is, you know, U.S. investment come in.
It's natural.
It's, you know, it's always part of our ecosystem.
And, you know, the best thing going forward is that there is a, you know, Respect for sovereignty in some ways, but an understanding that the North South economic relationship is really the strongest one for the United States.
You know, Marco Rubio is very supportive of the Americas Act that Senator Cassidy from Louisiana put in and put a lot of work into.
You know, I don't think that the America complimented this action, but arguably this is part of setting the stage for building that relationship.
We'll just see where it goes.
I mean, again, there.
You can get really caught up in a lot of the debate.
That's not my job to get caught up in that debate.
It's really where do we go from here?
You know, and I mean, I just think it's amazing.
I, you know, people thought I was crazy some six years ago.
I was like, that's going to happen.
It's going to happen.
I tend to be early on these things.
I also said he was going to take marijuana off of schedule A, but I got that one right way, way many, many years ago.
I think that.
You know, there's a huge opportunity.
It's a great country, has great people, a very educated population, at least until recently.
I know that that suffered under the Chavismas.
And I think that there's a chance that they can really do a lot there with the influx of investment that they're going to get.
I mean, we're going to be way better than Russia.
We're going to be a way better partner than China.
Oh, yeah.
No, I don't think there's any question.
And to some extent, if you want to be really crude about it, you know, Chavismo was an expression of.
Unrest in society and a feeling that there was a big portion of the population that was cut off from the real economy.
But as a result of holding on to power, there was a very thuggish element that developed as well.
So if you can capture the functional part, the part that wants to manage the country for the benefit of the people, and erase the thuggish part, great.
Let's see where we go with it.
So, you know, I think, as I said, there's a lot of things that are being done that seem to be heading off, you know, the mistakes that were made in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Let's just keep our fingers crossed that it holds together.
Because you're right.
I mean, let's do something for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.
So far, so good.
It does mean it looks like we're going to have to have some boots on the ground there for a little bit, which, you know, a lot of people, even in the MAGA movement, right, they're not going to be so happy about that.
But if it means cheaper oil for us, and if it means a better livelihood in future, economically speaking, for Venezuela, then to me it looks like kind of a win win.
I guess the question really is going to come down to where's the military in Venezuela on this?
Are they going to back Delcy?
Hopefully, all of that has been settled.
We don't know right now, but I'd have to assume if she's willing to take this gig, and it sounds like she is, albeit with some caveats, the demanding of wanting to see Maduro, et cetera.
I think that, you know, there's a, hey, there's an opportunity there.
And I'm very glass half full, as you know.
And, you know, I think it would be great.
I think it would be great for the people.
I think it would be great for us.
And it's a beautiful country.
So much could be done.
It is.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
And I think both of us have to go off and celebrate a birthday with our parents.
That's right.
Happy birthday to your mom.
Happy birthday to your dad.
Enjoy the family time.
Thanks so much for your time today.
Hans Humes, everyone from Greylock Capital Management, the guy on this story.
So good to have him here.
Again, we've been talking about this enormous, enormous story.
In the wee hours of the morning, you get your special forces going in and taking out Maduro, waking him up, his wife, and airlifting them out of their bunker, their secure bunker, and putting them on a ship.
They are now en route to New York, and he will face charges as a narco trafficker.
So Unbelievable.
This is something that the people have hoped for, have been waiting for many, many years.
Chavismo has just been a disaster, frankly, for that nation.
And by the way, let's be really clear that is a big warning, shall we say, for New York City and some of these other places.
I mean, look at all the graphs.
We've been talking about it for days now.
What we've seen with Ilhan Omar's district in Minnesota, with all the Somalian daycares and feeding our future and Medicaid and Medicare fraud, all of it.
Right?
That is what happens when your government gets too big and takes all the resources away from the people and decides to redistribute them, and you get all kinds of graft.
And you heard what Hans was saying about there's a thuggish element involved.
It's not just graft, it's more than that.
There are thugs, and it is a dangerous place.
And enough is enough.
We don't need it in our hemisphere.
Not when there's such potential for good, not when we can all be better and more prosperous together.
So this was a big move from Donald Trump.
But did you expect anything less?
Right, other than big moves, really, really amazing.
Again, a lot more to come, a lot more to see, and we don't want to count all our blessings just yet.
But like I said, I'm a glass half full kind of girl.
So even though I've got, I don't mean to pick on Elon, okay, but I am using Starlink.
This is amazing that I can be right off the coast of Cuba, ironically so, and getting Starlink right now, Starlink service.
And we haven't been that bad.
So we had a few little hiccups early on, but I appreciate that he has created such an internet service to begin with.
And I'm thrilled to be able to use it and come to you live with this amazing story today.
Again, I went to sleep very late last night because.
The kids wanted room service at like 1 30 in the morning.
I'm like, what the heck?
We're on vacation, right?
And so at some point, I settle down and I start seeing some rumblings on my phone about what was going on in Venezuela and the explosions, et cetera.
And I wake up, of course, to this morning news that we have got them.
So let this be a lesson to every socialist dictator out there, every narco trafficker out there.
We can find you.
We can find you pretty quick.
Just that's Pete Hegseth and SEAL Team Six.
We can find you.
And we will.
So, when we try to negotiate with you and we're really nice and we put a lot of different offers on the table, you might want to take one.
Right?
But, you know, he held on, tried to insist there was no way he was leaving Venezuela.
And I guess we showed him.
So he is now going to be facing the judge and facing this court case.
And I'll tell you, this is a good way to do it.
It's a really good way to do it because at least it's them putting it back into the hands of the law.
We didn't hurt him, we took him out and we're giving him the opportunity to face the charges that he.
Must face in a court of law.
I've done so much reporting on this nation over the years and became so passionately hopeful that they would have this freedom one day.
And I think they get a much better shot of it, a much, much better shot of it.
And it's a shame to have so many natural resources and not to be able to use those for the benefit of the people and the benefit of the Venezuelan economy.
And now that has a chance to all change.
I think Delcy's heart is in the right place.
Granted, she's a socialist, but she believes.
In something for the people.
And I've said before, if you're really believing in what you can do for the people, wouldn't you want some of the companies in there that could help you get this oil out of the ground?
I've traveled myself to the Orinoco region in Venezuela, and I've held that oil in a coffee cup and turned it upside down.
Nothing comes out.
That's how heavy it is.
So they're going to find a way to thin that.
And we've got that technology.
Addressing Root Causes and Economic Stability00:02:45
We've got that technology in spades.
And so, as you heard Hans say earlier, this makes us less reliant on the Middle East.
Yippee.
And this makes their economy hopefully more prosperous with more opportunity for all the people.
Again, win, win, win.
And Donald Trump's about winning.
So am I. I'm so thrilled that you're here, that you're joining me for this very special show.
I didn't give you any warning.
And gosh, our internet was going out too.
But again, we're lucky we got Elon at least giving us.
The Starlink to begin with.
Thank you for being here.
I just want to go to some of your comments because we have the time to do that here today.
And people are saying, yeah, you know, Maduro was giving China a sweetheart deal, Mimi Hayes writes.
And he was.
I mean, it was like the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians.
I had heard that the number one language after Spanish that you heard in Caracas these days was Russian, followed by Chinese.
How is that doing anybody any good?
And we do have something called the Monroe Doctrine.
Thank you very much, which I hear Donald Trump is now.
Naming the Don Roe Doctrine.
Canada, watch out.
Anyway, Maria Carino, Dean Nunes is saying, didn't play her cards correctly.
Trump is doing the heavy lifting.
She was just catering to the international community.
I don't know.
I think that the real problem, and he stated it, was that she doesn't have enough support from within the country.
She's too divisive.
And he wants somebody that can kind of keep the wheels on the bus.
And I've experienced this myself with the opposition.
I love her.
I think she's terrific.
By the way, she was educated at Yale.
She is a total capitalist.
She'd be great.
The problem is that opposition is so splintered.
It drove me crazy, right?
Aren't you guys all on the same team?
No, they're not all on the same team.
So the fact that you have all that division amongst them means that there's a few too many knives effectively pointed at her.
And that's going to make it harder for her to succeed in terms of running the country.
So, economic stability in the region, Texas Gidget is saying, is a total bonus.
You're right.
I mean, we get the oil, we get economic stability, you can stop the influx of people that are coming here.
You want to talk about the root causes?
Can I just say, for Kamala Harris, with all her, oh, I got to address the root causes of migration.
What do you think Trump's doing?
This is the root cause, people, okay?
They don't have any economic opportunity.
So now you're going to inject capital from the US of A. We're going to get the oil.
All of a sudden, you got economic opportunity like they haven't seen in 25, 26 years ever since Hugo Chavez came to power.
Securing Regional Oil and Stability00:02:26
Think about that.
That's addressing the root causes.
Then people want to stay.
Then they have a life.
Then they have a chance.
But if you sit back and you say, we're going to let the whole place go to socialism, guess what?
They're all coming here because you can't blame them.
They're trying to escape lefty socialist dictators.
And so, what are we looking at one by one?
Each of these countries from Argentina to Chile is going to go.
I mean, you've got now Venezuela, Cuba.
Watch out.
Cuba, watch out.
You know, Marco Rubio's there.
He's moving fast.
No one saw this coming.
No one.
Well, I mean, I did.
I didn't necessarily see it coming today, though.
I should have thought about Noriega and a few of the others.
But I didn't see it coming today.
But I knew that they meant business.
And this is one way to do it.
Anyway, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for putting up with the funny Wi Fi.
And I'm so appreciative that we've been able to build this channel.
And you know what?
We're doing important stuff here.
It's an important day and we're covering an important story.
And I'll just say this you know what?
Do not mess with Trump.
There is a new sheriff in town, he's in charge and he means business.
Did you hear that, Nikki boy?
Yeah, well, I guess you just found out.
Thanks, guys.
A good day, a good day for us and for Venezuela.
Much more to come.
We have more on Ilhan Omar and the alleged terror connections that I want to share with you coming on Monday.
This is just explosive, and we've been able to connect the dots in some pretty important ways.
You heard me say before that really and truly, Minnesota was most likely the largest.
Contributors to Al Shabaab more than anyone, right?
The Minnesota taxpayer, imagine that.
I guess secondary would be federal taxpayers, the rest of us.
There's evidence now that points to Somalia's direct involvement in Al Shabaab, et cetera.
I want to share that story with you on Monday, but enjoy your weekend.
I'm going to enjoy the rest of mine, and we will speak again.
I will be live from home base in the studio late Monday afternoon with more.