Juno News - Carney reacts to arrest of Venezuelan dictator

00:00:00.000 Well, Canada's Prime Minister won't say whether he approves or condemns the U.S. raid on Venezuela

00:00:10.560 on the weekend. He has issued a statement condemning what Prime Minister Carney calls

00:00:15.160 the criminal and illegitimate Maduro regime, but he sidesteps any mention of the daring

00:00:21.040 raid that removed the Venezuelan dictator early Saturday morning. In a statement released

00:00:26.600 on the weekend, Carney condemns Nicolas Maduro's brutally oppressive and criminal regime,

00:00:33.560 unequivocally condemning his grave breaches of international peace and security, gross and

00:00:39.500 systematic human rights violations, and corruption. Canada has not recognized the illegitimate

00:00:46.400 regime of Maduro since it stole the 2018 election. The Canadian government therefore welcomes

00:00:51.880 the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people.

00:00:57.960 No direct acknowledgment, however, of the successful U.S. military operation on the weekend ordered by

00:01:03.880 President Trump, complete with airstrikes and elite special operations troops dropped by helicopter at

00:01:10.520 the military base where Maduro and his wife were captured and transferred into U.S. custody. No

00:01:16.520 Americans were killed, although Maduro's Cuban bodyguards were wiped out. Maduro has been indicted in New York

00:01:24.600 City on four counts, including conspiracy to commit narco terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of

00:01:31.800 machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

00:01:38.840 Now, the U.S. Secretary General, the U.N. Secretary General, rather, expressed deep alarm after the

00:01:45.960 raid and described the U.S. actions as setting a dangerous precedent. But the U.S. Secretary of State,

00:01:52.920 Marco Rubio, says he doesn't care what the U.N. thinks. No, you're wrong in your question. Number one,

00:01:58.760 Venezuela is a major source. And the reason why is the following, and I've seen a lot of this reporting,

00:02:03.160 and it's fake reporting, and I'll tell you why. It says that somehow Venezuela is not involved in the drug

00:02:07.400 trade because the U.N. says they're not involved in the drug. I don't care what the U.N. says. The U.N.

00:02:12.120 doesn't know what they're talking about. Maduro is indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District

00:02:17.400 of New York. That means the Southern District of New York presented the evidence to a grand jury,

00:02:22.120 and a grand jury indicted him. And then a superseding indictment came out that was unsealed about a year

00:02:27.160 and a half ago that specifically detailed Maduro's actions. So number one, let there be no doubt,

00:02:32.040 he, Nicolas Maduro is an indicted drug trafficker in the United States, and he's a fugitive of American

00:02:39.000 justice. President Trump says the U.S. will now try to stabilize Venezuela until it can have

00:02:45.640 fair elections. Let's listen. Go ahead. Now, are you, are you going to demand that

00:02:50.280 Del Ciroc-Riguez let opposition figures return or free any political prisoners? We haven't gotten to that

00:02:56.120 yet. Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back,

00:03:00.840 and then have elections. We better bring the country back. Otherwise, you're just going to have,

00:03:07.400 you're going to have a mess that's so bad. It was really bad. It's going to get a lot worse

00:03:13.480 unless we go in and fix it. Now, Trump also says that Venezuela may not be the last country to shed

00:03:21.160 a dictatorship on his watch. Could Cuba be next on the U.S. hit list? Well, let's listen to Senator

00:03:27.400 Lindsey Graham talk about the future of that regime. And as to this commander in chief,

00:03:33.400 he did something people talked about doing. You just wait for Cuba. Cuba is a communist dictatorship

00:03:42.040 that's killed priests and nuns. They preyed on their own people. Their days are numbered.

00:03:48.360 We're going to wake up one day, I hope in 26, in our backyard, we're going to have allies in these

00:03:54.920 countries doing business with America, not narco-terrorist dictators killing Americans.

00:04:00.760 This is a big frigging day. And everybody in the world is thinking differently than they were just

00:04:06.920 a few days ago because of what you did. Maduro and his wife, by the way, have pleaded not guilty to

00:04:12.600 those drug and weapons charges. Closer to home, there are demands for liberal MP

00:04:17.160 Kristia Freeland to step down after she was named an economic advisor to Ukraine. This post by the

00:04:25.400 Toronto Sun's Brian Lilly. Kristia Freeland cannot sit as an MP in the government caucus or even as an

00:04:32.360 independent MP and be an economic advisor to a foreign government ally or not. She needs to resign

00:04:39.000 her seat before working for another government. This post by conservative MP Roman Baber.

00:04:45.720 To be clear, Freeland is still a sitting member of parliament. Not only did she lack the decency

00:04:52.680 to resign her seat, this is a blatant conflict of interest. Liberals get away with everything.

00:04:59.080 Well, we'll see if they get away with this. We're still waiting to hear from the Prime Minister

00:05:03.480 regarding the Kristia Freeland matter. I'm now joined by Cesar Guillarte. He's a Venezuelan-born

00:05:10.440 Canadian who now lives in the Toronto area and he's been here since 2015 and he's keeping a

00:05:15.480 close eye on what's going on in his former homeland. Cesar, welcome to the show.

00:05:20.760 Thank you, Mark. Always a pleasure joining you.

00:05:23.480 All right. I have to get your reaction right off the bat. You woke up Saturday morning and you found out

00:05:28.520 that President Maduro had been arrested, taken away in a daring raid early Saturday morning,

00:05:37.160 taken now to the United States where he is facing multiple charges on weapons and drug-related

00:05:44.200 offenses. What is your reaction? Well, I was actually awakened by some commotion at my house. My mom is

00:05:50.440 visiting and I heard noise downstairs. And at 4 a.m., you know, that never means something pleasant. So,

00:05:57.480 I ran and I was faced with the news that the U.S. had initiated attacks on certain Venezuelan targets

00:06:04.520 and they were taking Maduro. I have to say that was probably the best gift we could have received

00:06:11.480 for starting 2026, for starting the new year. It was just fantastic, Mark. The only thing that we're not

00:06:18.040 entirely happy about is that they only took Maduro. There are probably 10 or other 15 actors that they

00:06:25.800 should have taken with them because they are as co-responsible with the Venezuelan debacle as Maduroids.

00:06:31.480 But it was definitely a great news to wake up to and we're looking forward to what is in store for

00:06:37.880 Venezuela. We have some reaction from Canada, although it's somewhat tepid. The prime minister has come out

00:06:44.840 and condemned the Maduro regime, but he never said that the raid to have him removed was good or bad.

00:06:51.640 He's kind of steering clear of that. What do you make of Canada's reaction so far?

00:06:56.840 Well, that's actually a complex answer because I spent most of my weekend on X pushing back on people

00:07:03.560 who really have no clue what's really happening in Venezuela. You have a lot of people saying

00:07:07.720 that there was a U.S. invasion, that there was a U.S. attack on the country, but none of that happened.

00:07:12.680 There was a precise targeted operation to capture Maduro, who is an indicted drug trafficker, who's

00:07:18.200 a dictator, who has rigged elections, and who has committed endless human rights abuses. And just to

00:07:24.520 clarify, there is a confusion between Venezuela, the country, and the Maduro regime. Those are two

00:07:30.280 completely different things. The regime was a brutal, murderous communist dictatorship that was

00:07:35.640 oppressing everyone within the country. And there's also confusion by mixing agreeing with the decision

00:07:42.760 of Donald Trump to remove Maduro from power with being a Donald Trump fan. And I think the best example

00:07:49.720 is what happened to Olivier. He congratulated Trump for successfully arresting a narco dictator. And then

00:07:57.000 you have all of these people saying, how can you side with Trump and all of this empty platitudes that

00:08:02.360 we are unfortunately used to now. To be perfectly honest with you, for me, the least that Canadian

00:08:10.040 government does, the better, because I think they are generally incompetent. So we don't really need

00:08:14.600 them saying anything. Definitely their reaction was very, well, to use your word, it was steppid. It was sort of

00:08:20.600 mild. I think they were trying to come out balanced, not necessarily offending anyone. I think all of

00:08:28.680 that, to be perfectly honest with you, is just empty hot air. The Canadian government has imposed sanctions

00:08:36.520 on Maduro personally and on the Venezuelan regime since I think 2013. So I don't see that there was a need

00:08:45.720 for them to be, to come out with this quite bland communique that they put out. And if you look at what

00:08:55.640 Anita Anand said, that was actually embarrassing. That was not a word salad. That was a salad bar that she

00:09:04.040 plastered across, across her social media. So I, I don't really, I don't really have a lot to say about that. I

00:09:10.520 think it, I think that it speaks on its own. Yeah, that says something about the fact that she

00:09:17.000 probably didn't want to say anything, but felt like she had to say something and didn't know really

00:09:21.960 what to think. And then we had a statement by the prime minister who was fairly strong in terms of

00:09:29.000 condemning the Maduro regime, but spoke about Canada's sanctions in the past and, you know, the demand for

00:09:36.920 democracy. I mean, you're not going to get democracy in Venezuela, unless the guy at the top, a dictator,

00:09:44.920 a narco terrorist is removed. I mean, somebody had to do the heavy lifting here and get that.

00:09:50.120 Absolutely. And I can assure you, Venezuelans are celebrating worldwide.

00:09:57.080 Sorry, repeat that. I was going to say that, that, that was absolutely necessary. That is a regime that

00:10:02.040 was, um, that was essentially ruling because they have, they had the strength and they have the force

00:10:08.040 to oppress everyone that would oppose them. So the only way to get them out, uh, was by, by bringing

00:10:13.320 in a foreign actor that was stronger than them. And, um, what I was saying is that you see most Venezuelans

00:10:20.360 who live outside of the country are currently celebrating because we are now one step closer, um, to gaining back

00:10:26.040 the freedom that was stolen from us by Chavez first. And then, and that was kept from us, uh, by Maduro

00:10:32.520 for the last 20 years, actually more than 20 years for the last, almost 30 years now.

00:10:38.120 Yeah. And the reaction by some of the media outlets has been frankly bizarre. You have the Globe and

00:10:43.160 Mail going after Trump, you know, suggesting, you know, they want to cover the handful of protesters,

00:10:49.800 Maduro supporters at the embassy in Ottawa, the U S embassy protesting meantime, they're ignoring

00:10:55.800 the literally millions of Venezuelans who are celebrating today. The fact that Maduro is gone.

00:11:02.760 I take your point that there were others, uh, in the regime who needed to go as well,

00:11:07.720 but I guess it's one step at a time. He and his wife are gone. You've, you've cut the head off that.

00:11:13.160 And the other ones will no doubt be scrambling. Another story I saw in the Globe and Mail suggested that,

00:11:18.280 you know, there may be more refugees from Venezuela. Now people leaving as a result of what happened

00:11:23.160 that to me is a strange thing to say, you know, considering the joy of, on the part of so many

00:11:30.120 Venezuelans, including yourself at what happened. I mean, if anything, we'll get some of the, I guess,

00:11:35.000 fewer than 30,000 Venezuelan born people in, uh, Canada that I know of, according to numbers that I

00:11:42.040 saw, some of them, I expect once the smoke clears and things settle down, might be looking to go home.

00:11:48.920 But is that possible? No, it's definitely possible. I can say it's going to be something that's going

00:11:53.800 to happen in the short term. Uh, before I get to that, I can tell you something, Mark, I can guarantee

00:12:00.280 that there are zero Venezuelans protesting outside any U S embassy or consulate, not one. I am willing

00:12:08.840 to bet the entirety of my network, which is not that much, but it's all I have on that. There are,

00:12:16.040 there's no, a single Venezuelan who is doing something other than celebrating like crazy.

00:12:22.120 You have probably seen the shots in Miami, in Madrid, in Santiago de Chile, in Lima, in Mexico

00:12:29.160 city, people are dancing. They are waving flags. They are honking horns. They, they, unfortunately,

00:12:35.000 the ones that are within Venezuela cannot do that because the, essentially the regime remains in power.

00:12:40.840 So they can still, they can still be repression, but everyone who lives in a relatively or even

00:12:45.240 moderately free society, it's celebrating the fact that Maduro was removed from power.

00:12:51.800 Now on, on the number of Venezuelans that could potentially return to the country,

00:12:55.720 that's definitely a possibility. I cannot say that it'll be 30,000 or a hundred thousand.

00:13:02.040 Uh, it's been going for so long. The exodus started, um, it started in 1999 when Chavez won the

00:13:09.240 presidency for the first time, but it, it, it, it sort of expanded at around 2013 when Maduro stole

00:13:15.240 the election. And, uh, as of now, there are more than 8 million Venezuelans living outside of the

00:13:21.800 country. So I, I, I don't think you're going to see 8 million people returning to the country

00:13:27.480 within the next year or so, maybe some of them will. I, I, I know definitely a few of them,

00:13:32.600 um, are, are, are longing for their families or longing for go back to the place they call home.

00:13:38.200 Uh, some of them unfortunately has not been as blessed as me and my wife. Uh, we came to Canada,

00:13:43.480 a country of opportunity, but we were able to essentially give ourselves and give our children

00:13:47.480 the life that we would have never been able to give them back home. So for us, it's a more

00:13:52.040 complicated decision to go back, but there's people who are struggling people who literally

00:13:57.480 walked from the Venezuelan border all the way to the U S Southern border, all the way to Chile.

00:14:03.160 Those people, uh, have not, some of them have not been as blessed as we have. So maybe for them,

00:14:08.040 it's an easier decision, but I anticipate that there will be some of them coming back. I think

00:14:13.400 this is just the first step. I think we're going to see some of those, uh, members of the ruling elite,

00:14:19.240 um, allies of Maduro either fleeing the country, looking for, uh, exile, maybe signing amnesty

00:14:26.840 deals with the U S and as the situation progresses and it gets better, it's going to become more

00:14:32.760 attractive for people to go back. So yeah, it's definitely possible. And I look forward to seeing,

00:14:38.280 um, I, I look forward to being able to go back to my country, even if it's on vacation, I want my

00:14:43.560 children to, to, to see the country where their parents are from. That's something that we can not do

00:14:48.360 right now. It would be too risky. And, and just to add some, some context to our specific situation,

00:14:54.440 my wife and my kids, they don't have Venezuelan passports because there is no Venezuelan embassy

00:14:59.080 in Canada or in the U S. So we would be allowed to go in because legally we're Venezuelans, but we

00:15:04.760 would not be allowed to go out even though we have a Canadian passport. So for us, it's going to be

00:15:09.800 complicated, but I understand there are others that would want to go back. And I think it's perfectly

00:15:14.280 plausible for them to do that. And I wish them the best. I want what's best for my country.

00:15:19.400 I think for more than 20 years, we have been crushed, um, economically, socially,

00:15:25.160 even spiritually. And, um, I think, um, that the Western hemisphere and specifically the Americas,

00:15:32.120 uh, we owe a lot to president Trump for having had the determination of, of removing whatever from

00:15:37.320 power. Yeah, absolutely. Now, if you had any advice for president Trump right now in terms of,

00:15:44.040 yeah, you got Maduro out, he's going to be facing justice in a U S court, but what next? So if you

00:15:52.520 were advising president Trump on how to deal with the situation now, what would you tell him?

00:15:57.160 I would tell him not to lose momentum. I think history will be on his side. I think this is the

00:16:04.040 time, uh, for, for going into overdrive, you know, go pedal to the metal. Um, he, he said it in,

00:16:10.600 in, in, in, in relatively, uh, unclear terms that we're going to be running the country.

00:16:15.160 Oh, what does that mean? Um, we spent most of the weekend going over, um, TV channels and, and on

00:16:21.240 social media, uh, looking for designations. Like we now have a special employee for Venezuela. I don't

00:16:27.000 know. Marco Rubio was appointed, you know, SAR for the Venezuelan reconstruction. We were looking for that

00:16:32.440 because we were very eager to see what's next. And, um, I think president Trump needs to take

00:16:37.960 advantage of, of, of, of all of the support that he has been able to build with the Venezuelan

00:16:43.080 community, both within the country and outside the country to push his agenda for reconstruction,

00:16:48.120 to entirely remove the threat that the, that the communism in Venezuela represents for the region.

00:16:55.080 And, um, he's going to have the support that he needs from the Venezuelan community moving this

00:16:59.320 forward because things could not be any worse for Venezuelans than what they are right now.

00:17:07.400 Have you had a chance to chat with some of your relatives? Um, I know you don't have that many there

00:17:12.440 these days, but have you spoken to some of the folks in Venezuela since this happened?

00:17:17.160 I have, yes, they are, they are static and the, the, again, the same, they pretty much feel the

00:17:22.600 same way I do. The only thing they regret is that they didn't take at least two more members of the

00:17:27.560 ruling elite. I'm going to give you their names, uh, Diosdado Cabello and Vladimir Padrino. Those are

00:17:33.160 the minister of justice and the minister of defense. Um, I think Maduro and those two,

00:17:39.240 those are the true ruling elite of the cartel of the sons. Um, everybody, everybody sort of

00:17:44.280 disappointed that they didn't take them, but everybody expects that they are going to be

00:17:48.920 going into exile very, very soon. I think the message that Trump sent with the operation was

00:17:55.400 that the U S was not playing at least not anymore. They are willing to take the decisive, decisive

00:18:00.520 action against, against the Venezuelan regime. And I think that changed the chessboard entirely.

00:18:06.760 I think they are evaluating what to do. And, um, I wouldn't be surprised if you would see in the news

00:18:13.000 tomorrow, maybe later this week that, oh, Diosdado Cabello fled for Cuba or fled for Russia.

00:18:18.680 And the bloody new Padrino disappeared. Um, that's the only thing that they have expressed, you know,

00:18:23.880 sort of, uh, uh, uh, disappointment upon, but, um, everything else, everybody else is happy.

00:18:30.600 Everybody's celebrating. Some of them are doing it discreetly, uh, because they are still within

00:18:34.760 Venezuela and the regime still holds a certain level of control over, especially over the security forces.

00:18:39.560 And people are getting thrown in jail for sharing memes about Maduro. People are being thrown in jail

00:18:44.920 for sending WhatsApp messages with videos of the helicopters flying over Caracas. So the situation

00:18:49.880 it's, it's, it's delicate and, uh, people are trying to be discreet in that sense, but everybody

00:18:54.920 is happy. Everybody's celebrating within their possibilities. And again, we're looking forward

00:18:59.800 to what's next because this was again, the first step, the first huge step towards, um, getting back

00:19:07.640 the freedom that was, and the opportunity that was stolen from us.

00:19:11.160 Yeah. And speaking of stolen, it would be nice to get some of that stolen

00:19:15.160 billions. Some of those, all that cash that Maduro, his wife and some of the inner circle

00:19:20.120 stole from the people, you know, oil revenues. It would be nice to get that back. The other point

00:19:25.800 I was going to raise was just the fact that the military has been subdued. And I don't know what the

00:19:31.160 body count was. I don't know if you've heard anything. I know that the Cubans who were basically

00:19:37.480 Maduro's bodyguard, that they were killed during that raid. But, and I know that there were some

00:19:43.000 airstrikes on bases and key military installations in Venezuela, but I don't have any reports of the

00:19:49.560 numbers of dead. Have you heard anything?

00:19:52.200 I have heard a bit of it. Um, it's, it's, it's basically rumors. It's not information

00:19:57.880 that I can confirm. Uh, there were attacks on at least four military bases. I think they were

00:20:03.800 extremely surgical in choosing the targets that they, that they effectively attacked.

00:20:08.520 Uh, we, it were primarily air force bases that could have compromised, you know, the air superiority

00:20:14.040 that they needed for the extraction. Um, in, in terms of, of people who unfortunately lost their

00:20:19.400 lives. Uh, the only number that I have heard is that Maduro security ring was made up of, I think

00:20:26.040 it was 50 people and all 50 are disease. Uh, something that I was told is that, um, the, there, there was,

00:20:35.320 um, the, the, there was the concern that human security was going to actually murder Maduro before

00:20:45.480 letting him be captured by the U S forces. So the U S forces proceeded with extreme prejudice against

00:20:54.120 Maduro security ring because they wanted to keep, to, to distract him alive. And, uh, and that explains

00:21:02.120 why, uh, they, they operated the way they did. But, but as I said before, they, they proceeded in a way

00:21:08.120 that was extremely surgical, extremely precise, the targets that they selected, the way they took them

00:21:14.520 over the entirety of the operation is just, uh, it's, it's, it's surprising. It's, it's quite frankly,

00:21:20.440 it's baffling. Yeah. And you don't see the military now reacting against what, what took place. I mean,

00:21:26.520 I don't hear much about, uh, you know, pushing back by the military. You don't, you know what I

00:21:33.720 mean? It's, it's like you attack somebody's leaders, uh, country's leaders. You would expect

00:21:38.360 that the military, assuming that they were in support of that leader would rally, you know,

00:21:43.800 in defense of the country against the attackers. But I haven't seen any evidence of that.

00:21:48.920 No, there isn't. There isn't. I think they, I think for the first time,

00:21:52.840 they are erring on the side of caution. It's not the same to use your, your, your weapons

00:21:58.280 and your arms against your fellow Venezuelans who are unarmed versus using them against such

00:22:04.280 an overwhelming military force that the U S deployed. Um, I think a lot of the military,

00:22:10.360 a lot of the members of the military force in Venezuela, uh, you know, they decided to,

00:22:14.600 for the first time, think twice about grabbing a weapon. They decided to think twice about

00:22:19.800 launching a missile against, uh, one of the aircraft that was, um, flying around Caracas,

00:22:25.960 because it's not the same when you shoot at, um, um, unarmed students than shooting at a helicopter

00:22:33.400 that it's being escorted by F-35s. I think the, the potential for retaliation is massively higher.

00:22:39.480 And they simply decided that Maduro was just not worth it. They know what the situation is. They

00:22:44.280 know Maduro is an illegitimate leader. And I don't see why anyone in their same mind would risk their

00:22:51.000 lives, uh, defending him. Other than the Cubans, of course.

00:22:55.720 I'm reading also about the failure of the Chinese and the Russians, because they have infrastructure

00:23:01.640 in Venezuela, including radar and supposedly all this sophisticated hardware designed to

00:23:08.280 let them know if there was an attack in place. And all of that was a colossal failure.

00:23:12.520 And so when we heard that China was shocked by what happened, yeah, they were shocked that their

00:23:18.520 measures aimed at protecting their guy in Venezuela were such a colossal failure.

00:23:22.600 Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. I think the asymmetry of force,

00:23:27.800 I don't think there was a level of infrastructure provided by China or by Russia that would have

00:23:32.920 kept the U.S. from extracting Maduro or launching an even larger scale attack if they had wanted to.

00:23:38.920 The, the, the, the, the, the, the force that the U.S. deployed was simply so overwhelming

00:23:43.800 that, uh, unless you have an entire contingent of the Chinese, uh, army, you simply would have not

00:23:49.640 been able to withstand it. Um, again, I think the Americans proceeded, um, with, with such

00:23:55.320 surgical precision that, uh, none of those assets would have made any difference. Maybe if it had

00:24:00.680 been a full on invasion, some of it would have played a part. Uh, but I think the nature of the

00:24:06.760 operation was so targeted that, um, no level of equipment, um, in terms of volume, in terms of

00:24:13.880 sophistication is a different discussion, but in terms of volume, I don't think there is a level of

00:24:17.400 equipment that would have made any difference at this, uh, for an operation such as this.

00:24:22.040 Cesar, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really do appreciate your insight,

00:24:25.160 and we hope you're, you're able to come back and talk about this, uh, as this story moves forward.

00:24:30.120 Absolutely. Mark, thank you for having me. Always a pleasure, and have a wonderful rest of your day.

00:24:35.400 Thank you. Cesar Guillarte. And that is it for this edition of Straight Up. Appreciate you

00:24:40.120 tuning in, my friends. Let's do it again soon, shall we? Bye-bye for now.

00:24:47.400 Bye-bye.

Juno News - January 05, 2026

Carney reacts to arrest of Venezuelan dictator

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