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A seismic shift in global politics just occurred as the Trump administration captured President Nicolás Maduro. Join us as we break down the unprecedented U.S. operation in Caracas, the decades of pressure leading to this moment, and its far-reaching implications. From oil politics to international law, regional stability to sovereignty debates - this crisis changes everything. What do you think about this bold move?
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00:00Good morning, thank you for being here. We obviously have to start with the capture and
00:04indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo. And today, we're breaking down the Trump administration's capture of
00:12Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and its seismic implications.
00:15He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit.
00:21But he's a violent guy.
00:24The moment everything changed.
00:26Good morning, I'm Alison Kosick, and we're coming on the air this morning to tell you
00:30that President Trump has confirmed that strikes on Venezuela.
00:35Just before dawn on January 3rd, 2026, the long-running standoff between Washington and
00:40Caracas crossed a line that few believed would actually be crossed. A U.S. operation in Venezuela's
00:46capital and largest city ended with Nicolas Maduro being taken into custody and flown to the United
00:51States. All Venezuelan military capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our
00:58military working with U.S. law enforcement successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night.
01:05Within days, the image defining the crisis shifted from smoke and debris in the Venezuelan capital to
01:11a courtroom in Manhattan. There, Maduro appeared on January 5th, declared that he'd been captured,
01:16and insisted he remain Venezuela's president, as he pleaded not guilty to federal charges.
01:22In a single weekend, the conflict moved from sanctions and diplomacy into the realm of precedent-setting
01:28force. Before January 3rd, this was pressure politics. After it, the global rules of engagement
01:34themselves were up for debate.
01:36Maduro and Flores have been indicted in the Southern District of New York,
01:41Jay Clayton, for their campaign of deadly narco-terrorism against the United States
01:47and its citizens. I want to thank the men and women of our military who achieved such an
01:54extraordinary success overnight.
01:56Decades of pressure, one breaking point.
01:58Yeah, we've really seen a bunch of sanctions get announced in the past couple weeks,
02:03specifically targeting companies and vessels with ties to Venezuela, including some companies
02:10involved in the Venezuela and Iranian weapons trade.
02:13January 2026 didn't come out of nowhere. It was the breaking point after years of escalating
02:18pressure. Criminal indictments, diplomatic isolation, oil sanctions, and partial rollbacks.
02:25That's not even mentioning repeated warnings that Maduro's inner circle was being treated less
02:30like a government and more like a transnational criminal network. Over time, law enforcement
02:35language blended with national security framing, shrinking the distance between courtroom logic
02:40and military planning.
02:42Secretary Rubio argued the U.S. is at war with drug trafficking operations, not Venezuela,
02:48as President Trump suggested neighboring Colombia could be next.
02:52The top eight congressional leaders are due for a classified briefing today, according to four
02:57sources, with lawmakers in both parties pressing for more information for all of Congress.
03:03By the time the operation happened, the groundwork had already been laid rhetorically and politically.
03:08What changed wasn't the accusation, it was the willingness to act on it. That's what makes
03:13this moment different from every previous standoff. Pressure finally gave way to force.
03:17Yeah, there's been a little bit of mixed messaging here. Right before Christmas, we heard from the
03:22White House that the posture is that they wanted to really focus on economic sanctions. So that is
03:27sanctioning vessels, oil tankers, oil companies, and sort of using what we've seen as sort of
03:32intercepting a lot of those oil tankers to exert financial pressure on Maduro's regime.
03:38The power vacuum and rapid replacement.
03:40We have more breaking news just coming in. Delce Rodriguez has been sworn in as the new president
03:46of Venezuela. It comes as mixed reactions pour in from around the world after that surprise U.S.
03:52mission in Venezuela. We should mention Rodriguez used to be the vice president under Nicolás Maduro.
03:58Now she's being sworn in as interim president there.
04:01One of the most striking aspects of the crisis was how quickly and frantically Venezuela's
04:06institutions moved to protect continuity. Within days of Maduro's removal, vice president
04:11Delce Rodriguez was sworn in as interim president, with the ceremony overseen by National Assembly
04:17President Jorge Rodriguez.
04:19UBC's Max Cameron has studied Latin American politics for more than three decades.
04:24I think that there's going to be a complicated game of chicken that's going to be played between
04:29Delce Rodriguez and Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. And where that goes is incredibly uncertain.
04:35It's incredibly difficult to predict.
04:37The speed mattered. It reassured parts of the bureaucracy and security forces that the state
04:42hadn't collapsed. But it also raised hard questions. This wasn't a sweeping transition
04:47led by the opposition. It was a handoff within the existing power structure designed to stabilize
04:53first and negotiate later. Whether that choice prevents chaos or simply preserves the system
04:58under a new face, is now one of the central tensions shaping Venezuela's future.
05:03She has offered some conflicting statements, right, about what exactly, if any, cooperation
05:08there would be with the Trump administration. Initially striking a very defiant tone, then releasing
05:13a statement yesterday suggesting that there might be some room for cooperation or at least
05:19negotiation.
05:20Oil enters the equation.
05:22Donald Trump has been unambiguous that Venezuelan oil and the commercial opportunity it represents
05:27for American companies were a primary reason for the removal of President Maduro. And that's
05:32because Venezuela has the largest oil reserves on earth, an estimated 300 billion barrels lying
05:39on tap.
05:39The crisis became global the moment oil entered the conversation, which was pretty much immediately.
05:45Venezuela's vast reserves of the stuff make it impossible to separate politics from energy,
05:51and talk of rebuilding, reopening production, and renegotiating access followed fast.
05:56The implication was clear. Whoever governs next will also decide who gets paid, who gets
06:02contracts, and who gets left out.
06:04And today, Venezuela produces less than a million barrels a day. Now, given there are sanctions
06:09in place, it's worth asking where those barrels of oil end up. And this chart shows us. These
06:13are exports in Venezuela in the last year, and the bulk goes to China, much of it under exemption
06:19to repay historic loans. But the balance goes to the United States, which has granted Chevron a license
06:26to operate in Venezuela despite the sanctions.
06:29That reality sharpened international reactions and fueled skepticism at home. For many Venezuelans,
06:35the fear wasn't abstract geopolitics. It was the worry that regime change might be less about
06:41democratic recovery and more around resource management. Given President Trump's repeated
06:46mentions of oil, it's a legitimate concern.
06:49We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world,
06:57go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,
07:05and start making money for the country.
07:08Not a war, but not neutral either.
07:10Thank you so much for being here. I want to start with this big-picture question.
07:15Is the United States now at war with Venezuela?
07:21There's not a war. I mean, we are at war against drug trafficking organizations. It's not a war
07:26against Venezuela.
07:27Officially, Trump and the United States insisted that there was no war with Venezuela,
07:31but neutrality wasn't really on offer either. The operation was framed as enforcement of criminal
07:37charges, yet carried out by the military, blurring lines that international law normally tries to
07:43keep bright. By leaning on drug trafficking and narco-terrorism language, the administration wasn't
07:48just making a legal argument, it was shaping the moral battlefield.
07:52We are enforcing American laws with regards to oil sanctions. We have sanctioned entities. We go to
07:58court, we get a warrant, we seize those boats with oil, and that will continue. And we continue to
08:05reserve the right to take strikes against drug boats that are bringing drugs towards the United
08:09States that are being operated by transnational criminal organizations, including the cartel de
08:15La Salle's. The war on drugs slash narco-terrorism justification is a strategic narrative, not just
08:21a legal one. It broadens domestic support, pressures allies to fall in line, and makes critics sound
08:27like defenders of criminality rather than sovereignty. That framing doesn't resolve the legal debate,
08:33but it does change who feels comfortable speaking up.
08:36We expect to see changes in Venezuela. Changes of all kinds, long-term, short-term. We'd love to see
08:41all kinds of changes, but the most immediate changes are the ones that are in the national
08:44interest of the United States. That's why we're involved here, because of how it applies and has a
08:49direct impact on the United States. Red lines and precedents. The UN reacts.
08:53The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council wrapped up an emergency session just minutes ago.
08:59The meeting was called to discuss the U.S. capture of Nicolas Maduro, the talks at the U.N. headquarters
09:05happening just a short distance away from where the ousted Venezuelan leader was appearing in court.
09:11At the United Nations, the concern wasn't about sympathy for Maduro. It was about the rule book.
09:16Senior U.N. officials warned that the operation undermined a core principle of international law,
09:22that states are protected from the use of force against their political independence.
09:25The United Nations top diplomat, Antonio Guterres, was in the process of rushing back to New York,
09:31so his remarks were delivered on his behalf.
09:34I am deeply concerned about the possible intensification, the instability in the country,
09:41the potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states
09:48are conducted.
09:49The fear wasn't limited to Venezuela. It was about what happens next time, and where.
09:54If a head of state can be seized under an indictment rationale, the boundary between prosecution and
10:00intervention starts to dissolve. Enforcement may be weak, but precedent is powerful. Once a line moves,
10:07it rarely moves back.
10:08While none of the states at the Security Council meeting today, or the guest members who spoke there,
10:12directly spoke in favor of the U.S.'s actions, some of them did seem to support them by a lack of words.
10:18In essence, the representative from the U.K. gave a very short speech in which he reaffirmed the U.K.'s
10:24commitment to international law, but also reaffirmed that the U.K. does not recognize Maduro as president of Venezuela.
10:30Shockwaves at home. How Venezuelans at home and abroad reacted.
10:34Here in Caracas, there's been moments of quiet. Most people have decided to remain at home, considering today's events.
10:46And also, some people have decided to go to the streets, mostly the supporters of Nicolás Maduro.
10:52Inside Venezuela, the mood was unsettled rather than strictly celebratory. Relief, anger, fear, and disbelief all coexisted.
11:01Almost immediately, authorities moved to control information. Journalists were detained, phones searched,
11:08and coverage restricted around government buildings, signaling that narrative control was a top priority.
11:14In the streets and across the diaspora, reactions split sharply.
11:17Across South Florida, Venezuelans erupted in celebration.
11:21This is the biggest choice that I've had in, like, decades. It's amazing.
11:26Hundreds poured into the streets in Doral, where 40% of residents are of Venezuelan descent.
11:31Oh my god, I'm gonna start crying. It is pretty awesome.
11:36For some, seeing Maduro in a U.S. courtroom felt like long-delayed accountability.
11:41For others, it felt like humiliation imposed from abroad.
11:44What was felt most palpably was uncertainty. The removal of a leader didn't resolve Venezuela's crisis.
11:51It reframed it, and raised new questions about legitimacy, sovereignty, and who gets to decide what's next.
11:58And the former leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, told his supporters that in case he was not present,
12:07the people should go out to the streets.
12:09Well, we are witnesses, like, small gatherings in Caracas, mostly,
12:15and the majority of Venezuelans remain at home, waiting what is going to happen in the coming hours.
12:22The world weighs in.
12:23South Africa has asked for an emergency meeting of the Security Council, and the U.N. is not alone.
12:30Russia, China, France, and the EU are among the countries and blocs that have said the U.S. may have
12:35broken international rules, while many other nations have stressed the importance of respecting those rules.
12:41Governments around the world faced an awkward balancing act. Many had long criticized Nicolás Maduro's
12:47rule, but far fewer were comfortable endorsing the way he was removed.
12:51Major powers like China and Russia condemned the operation as destabilizing, warning that it blurred
12:57the line between law enforcement and military intervention.
13:01China is deeply shocked by, and strongly condemns, the U.S.' blatant use of force against a sovereign
13:07state and action against its president. Such homogenic acts of the U.S. seriously violate international
13:14law and Venezuela's sovereignty and threaten peace and security in Latin America and the Caribbean
13:19region. China firmly opposes it.
13:21European governments, meanwhile, largely avoided celebratory language, stressing the importance
13:27of international law and urging restraint as events unfolded.
13:31If this becomes an accepted tool of statecraft, no leader can assume immunity based solely on
13:36borders. In that sense, the world's response wasn't just about Venezuela. It was about protecting
13:42the rules that smaller and mid-sized countries rely on when power politics collide with legal norms.
13:48Nicolas Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance, until they didn't and until he didn't.
13:56He effed around and he found out.
13:59Washington reacts.
14:01You need to have congressional oversight over this. And more importantly, you still need to have congressional approval.
14:06The president is very clear that he wants to occupy Venezuela. He wants to take the oil.
14:10Nothing in what they've said so far in the justification is a reason why they went to get Maduro.
14:16But going forward, he does not have the approval of Congress nor the American public foreign occupation of Venezuela and needs to come and ask for that or get rejected for it.
14:26Back in the U.S., the response split along familiar lines, but with unusually high stakes.
14:32Administration officials emphasized decisiveness and secrecy, acknowledging the role of information control ahead of the operation.
14:39American lawmakers demanded briefings and clarity, questioning whether labeling a military raid as law enforcement sidestepped congressional oversight.
14:47He's a bad guy, of course, and he's going to stand trial in the American court of law at this particular point in time.
14:53It remains to be seen whether the people of Venezuela are going to be better off.
14:57Donald Trump claims that he's going to run Venezuela.
14:59He's done a terrible job running the United States of America.
15:03Life hasn't gotten better for the American people over the last year.
15:06Life has gotten worse.
15:07He promised to lower the high cost of living.
15:09Costs haven't gone down.
15:10They've gone up.
15:11Meanwhile, Maduro's own words in court, quote, I am not guilty.
15:15I am the president of my country, became instant fuel for both sides of the debate.
15:19For supporters, it was proof of impunity.
15:21For critics, proof of overreach.
15:24Washington didn't just launch an operation.
15:26It launched a long argument.
15:28Well, there's been no evidence that the administration has presented to justify the actions that were taken in terms of there being an imminent threat to the health, the safety, the well-being,
15:39the national security of the American people.
15:42This was not simply a counter-narcotics operation.
15:46It was an act of war.
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16:04Neighbors on Edge.
16:05Colombia and the fear of regional spillover.
16:08Responses have been mixed across the region and along bordering nations.
16:12Some Venezuelans celebrate the development, while others are accusing the U.S. of trying to steal the country's oil.
16:19For Colombia, the crisis was never abstract.
16:22Geography makes that impossible.
16:24Sharing a long, porous border with Venezuela, Colombia has already absorbed millions of Venezuelan migrants over the past decade,
16:32reshaping cities, labor markets, and public services.
16:35That history explains why Colombian officials reacted quickly and publicly, warning about regional instability and signaling military readiness along the border.
16:45Petro responded to the questions that Trump was asked yesterday when he said that Petro might not be there for much longer.
16:53And when he was asked, does this mean that there could be an operation like Venezuela?
16:56And he kind of, you know, quipped or mentioned that that's not a bad idea.
17:00Petro responded today and said what he told me when I interviewed him and asked him about prior threats about Trump.
17:07The concern wasn't just a sudden wave of displaced people, though that risk certainly loomed large.
17:12It was also about armed groups, smugglers, and criminal networks exploiting uncertainty on the Venezuelan side to expand their influence or move weapons and personnel.
17:23For Colombia's government, even a short period of disorder across the border can have outsized consequences at home, politically and economically.
17:32Petro, in his response, said and reminded people in his ex-response that in the past he was a guerrilla member.
17:39He was a member of the M-19, a socialist guerrilla, and that he put down his arms, but that he would be willing to pick them back up.
17:46And he said that he's commanded that his army stay loyal to him.
17:50So clearly, there is a concern there.
17:52What do you think about the U.S. strikes in Venezuela?
17:54What might happen next?
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