Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Daring U.S. raid on Venezuelan dictator shows President Trump's commitment to prosperity

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. The whole world has changed. Unbelievable. Donald Trump and the U.S. military

00:00:04.700 snatching the dictator of Nicolas Maduro right out of his presidential palace in Caracas,

00:00:11.160 Venezuela. Just amazing. Even more amazing is what dominoes might fall next. I'll take you

00:00:15.620 through it. And we sent our reporter, Alexa Lavoie, down to Miami to talk to real Venezuelan

00:00:21.400 exiles. Very interesting interviews. I'd love for you to see that. I want you to see that.

00:00:26.600 I want you to look with your eyes, not just listen with your ears. So please subscribe

00:00:30.600 to what we call Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to

00:00:35.840 rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get the great content and

00:00:41.300 you support Rebel News. We don't take a dollar from the government and it shows.

00:00:56.600 Tonight, the Monroe Doctrine is back in the Americas. It's January 5th and this is the Ezra Levant

00:01:06.660 show. What a crazy weekend. I tell you, it's only the fifth day of the new year and already

00:01:26.740 a year's worth of things has happened. In the wee hours of Saturday, Donald Trump sent the U.S.

00:01:34.060 military into Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, a very fortified city in a fortified

00:01:42.440 presidential palace where Nicolas Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela, was heavily guarded,

00:01:49.280 including by dozens, actually, of Cuban shock troops. Just stop for a second on that.

00:01:55.820 Why would a Venezuelan dictator have foreign bodyguards? And I mean, dozens of them. Cuba

00:02:03.300 later said that 32 of their bodyguards were killed. No American losses. I can think of two reasons.

00:02:10.700 First of all, Maduro is so hated by his own Venezuelan people that he doesn't trust anyone.

00:02:16.680 And second of all, you can look at those men as bodyguards. You can also think of them as a sort

00:02:20.660 of prison guard. They're not just there to protect Maduro. They're there to ensure that Maduro does

00:02:26.560 what Cuba wants it to do. In fact, I saw a lot of Venezuelans over the last few days saying that

00:02:32.400 Venezuela is not being colonized by America. It has been colonized by Cuba, by Russia, by China,

00:02:41.120 even by Iran and Hezbollah. That's that weird quirk of having an all foreign personal staff, 0.99

00:02:48.280 isn't it? Anyways, they went in in the wee hours, a grand total of two hours on the ground.

00:02:54.060 They extracted Nicolas Maduro and his wife and took him back to the United States. He's back to New York

00:02:59.800 right now, not as a political or a military move, but in service of an indictment. He was indicted,

00:03:09.340 as was his wife, as the head of a major drug cartel. It's just an absolutely stunning thing.

00:03:15.940 The rest of the country remains unmolested, I should say, that the Americans, as they went in, 1.00

00:03:21.840 blew up certain military establishments. And they did. I guess they couldn't help themselves. They

00:03:26.020 blew up the mausoleum for Hugo Chavez, Maduro's dictator predecessor. But they didn't invade the

00:03:32.980 country. There's no Americans there now. They were in and out in two hours. They went to arrest a man.

00:03:40.400 Now, that's shocking to us because of the concept of sovereign immunity. We don't just go around

00:03:45.940 arresting foreign leaders. But in this case, two things. He is an indicted criminal in a variety of

00:03:51.720 very serious criminal charges. And he is not, in fact, the legitimate leader of Venezuela. He is a

00:03:58.420 narco-terrorist who refused to abide by the election in that country. He is sitting in someone else's 0.98

00:04:04.920 throne. Just an absolutely amazing weekend. And there's one more detail I've got to share with you.

00:04:13.520 Mere minutes before Maduro was seized by the Americans, he was welcoming a large Chinese 1.00

00:04:20.900 delegation. China, along with Iran, had sold a lot of military equipment to Maduro. And China was putting

00:04:28.900 deeper ties there. They were financing things. China really is the world's largest colonizer now.

00:04:34.340 They've taken over half of Africa. And that's what their designs were in Venezuela. So when I say 0.99

00:04:40.080 the Monroe Doctrine is back, that's exactly what it is. The Monroe Doctrine, about two centuries old,

00:04:45.200 is an American doctrine that no large foreign powers get to put a toehold in the Americas. I mean,

00:04:51.520 this was violated by the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But since, I suppose, the last 10 or 20

00:04:58.720 years, it's just gone nuts with Cuba being supported by the Soviets, and then Cuba supporting

00:05:04.620 communists in South America. Donald Trump is saying, get out. He's saying, this is our hemisphere. And

00:05:10.720 he's doing it in that Donald Trump way. He's saying, it's not the Monroe Doctrine. It's the

00:05:14.500 Donro Doctrine now, which is sort of fun to see. I find it terrifying and impressive and exhilarating

00:05:23.520 how powerful and precise the U.S. military is. I say that about the Israeli military sometimes,

00:05:30.540 and it's certainly true even more so about the American military. Imagine going in, 150 aircraft,

00:05:36.340 all perfectly timed, completely evading any defensive measures by the Chinese and Russian

00:05:42.200 and Iranian equipment on the ground. Managing to kill 32 Cuban bodyguards without taking a single

00:05:51.560 casualty and snatching him out. It's almost impossible. It reminds me in Audacity of when 0.99

00:05:58.180 Israel blew up all those Hezbollah terrorists with those pagers. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio,

00:06:04.640 the son of Cuban emigres himself, who used to be the senator for Florida, is now an outstanding

00:06:10.900 secretary of state for Trump. They're taking an interesting line. Like I say, they went in

00:06:15.620 saying this is an arrest, and they indeed are bringing the Maduros to a court in New York.

00:06:20.440 They're not putting him in a prisoner of war camp. They're not killing him. They're prosecuting him

00:06:26.080 like they would a drug kingpin. And interestingly, Trump and Rubio have not called for the winner

00:06:35.440 of the last election, including the Nobel Prize, Peace Prize winner last year, to be installed as a

00:06:41.820 leader. They've said they don't have the strength and the respect to do so. They're actually working

00:06:46.320 with the remains of Maduro's government, basically saying they want peaceful regime change. I'm sure

00:06:55.000 an election is part of their plans, but for now, it's American interest. Donald Trump gave a lengthy

00:07:00.860 elocution over the weekend, saying that U.S. interests will come first, and that includes

00:07:06.360 oil, but also improved civil liberties will come. Here's just an excerpt of Trump talking about some

00:07:12.620 of his ideas for the future in Venezuela. We are going to run the country until such time as we can

00:07:18.400 do a safe, proper, and judicious transition. And it has to be judicious, because that's what we're

00:07:27.060 all about. We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela. And that includes many

00:07:35.300 from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It's 1.00

00:07:42.580 their homeland. We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good

00:07:49.720 of the Venezuelan people in mind. We've had decades of that. We're not going to let that happen. 1.00

00:07:59.240 We're there now. And what people don't understand, but they understand as I say this, we're there now,

00:08:07.000 but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So we're going to

00:08:15.820 stay until such time as we're going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take

00:08:21.820 place. As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of

00:08:28.020 time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could

00:08:36.900 have taken place. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the

00:08:45.800 world go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure,

00:08:55.000 and start making money for the country. So he's not arresting them all. You'll recall that when the United

00:09:00.520 States went into Iraq, they had playing cards, 52 playing cards with a picture of a terror leader on

00:09:07.080 each one. And of course, Saddam is same with the ace of spades. They're not doing that in Venezuela.

00:09:12.520 They're not arresting the entire cabinet. They're not arresting the head of secret police or the

00:09:17.300 military. They're saying to them, you work for me now. I've never seen it before. I don't know if it

00:09:23.880 can work. I think they've all been stunned by the removal of their totalitarian leader, and perhaps they

00:09:29.740 don't know quite what to do. But one thing they do know for sure is America can do whatever it wants,

00:09:34.920 and they just can't hide. I think the whole world was riveted to the situation. A lot of people on

00:09:41.480 Twitter, which I think is the go-to social media platform for breaking events like this,

00:09:46.680 a lot of what I call monitoring the situation. I mean, that's what I call it when I just sit there

00:09:51.720 looking at Twitter for hours. Oh no, I can't take out the garbage right now. I'm monitoring this

00:09:56.240 situation. It's a funny thing to say, but Zoran Mamdani, the communist mayor of New York, who's only been in

00:10:03.080 office for a few days himself, he issued a statement how this was an illegal and unconscionable

00:10:09.200 act by the president of the United States. But he's impotent. I mean, he's the mayor of a city,

00:10:15.540 and good for him. But he is not involved with the foreign policy of the United States. And it's a bit

00:10:20.440 rich for him to condemn the United States arresting an indicted narco-terrorist and objecting to that

00:10:28.420 when he himself has said he would arrest Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu if he could. The European

00:10:34.320 Union was particularly pitiful. They're monitoring the situation. They weren't consulted. They weren't

00:10:39.640 asked for their opinion, let alone their permission. Keir Starmer, I think, is the lamest. He's the

00:10:45.460 prime minister of the UK. He put out a statement saying, just so everyone knows, we weren't involved.

00:10:51.000 That was his way of saying, don't blame me. I don't think anyone in the world thought that Keir

00:10:55.840 Starmer was involved. But he lacked the courage to either approve of or condemn Trump's actions,

00:11:01.940 saying he wanted to monitor the situation a bit more. Here's a video clip of him doing that.

00:11:06.620 Have you spoken to Donald Trump about what's happened in Venezuela?

00:11:10.360 No, I haven't. And it's obviously a fast-moving situation. And we need to establish all the facts.

00:11:17.620 What I can say is that the UK was not involved in any way in this operation. And as you'll expect,

00:11:24.100 we're focusing on British nationals in Venezuela and working very closely with our embassy. And so

00:11:29.620 I will want to talk to the president. I will want to talk to allies. But at the moment,

00:11:35.280 I think we need to establish the facts. I think President Trump is doing a press conference later.

00:11:40.280 So hopefully more information will come out then.

00:11:43.360 What is clear, though, which the White House has said, is that America carried out strikes on

00:11:48.100 Venezuela and captured their leader, Maduro. Some politicians in this country have already

00:11:53.500 condemned that. Do you? Well, I want to establish the facts first. I want to speak to President

00:11:58.240 Trump. I want to speak to allies. As I say, I can be absolutely clear that we were not involved

00:12:03.700 in that. And as you know, I always say and believe we should all uphold international law.

00:12:12.560 But I think at this stage, fast-moving situation, let's establish the facts and take it from there.

00:12:18.580 I mean, look, just pick a side and own it. Saying, oh, I wasn't part of it, but I don't know

00:12:24.360 if I support it. And I'm going to wait for more information. What a weak man. Of course,

00:12:28.940 his military is otherwise occupied. Not so much the military, but the police hunting down mean tweets

00:12:35.580 and comments on Facebook. So yeah, I don't know if they would do anything as dazzling as what the

00:12:40.580 Americans did. What are the things you're hearing from everyone from the Europeans to Zoran Mamdani

00:12:47.780 to Canada? Mark Carney made a passive aggressive tweet saying he wants all parties to respect

00:12:54.020 international law. Well, of course, that's got nothing to do with Venezuela. Venezuela is just

00:12:58.760 sitting there. It's obviously a passive aggressive criticism of Donald Trump saying, hey, stop doing

00:13:04.080 this, man. It's even more pitiful than Keir Starmer's. So what is this international law? And who

00:13:09.320 is this international policeman? And who is the international judge overseeing it? The answer is

00:13:15.040 there's no such thing. The answer is not the United Nations. Who's their police force? They

00:13:20.380 don't have a military of their own. The only reason that Canadian law and Canadian police and Canadian

00:13:25.380 judges work is that they have a monopoly of violence in society. And if you don't go along and police

00:13:31.380 arrest you, they'll, I guess, theoretically shoot you. You will be sent to a prison by the judge using the

00:13:37.920 law. But there is no such analogy in the world of international affairs. It's just strength and

00:13:43.220 interests. And I suppose some international treaties keep different countries in line and

00:13:48.300 countries can all sign a UN document. But like I say, that's just a piece of paper.

00:13:54.920 International law didn't save Ukraine from a Russian invasion. It didn't save Tibet from a Chinese 1.00

00:14:00.700 invasion. International law is words. And what we saw over the weekend was military hardware

00:14:07.400 and highly trained soldiers. That is the ultimate law in international relations. And that may be hard

00:14:14.440 to take, but that's how it is. By the way, until Donald Trump became president again, most of the

00:14:20.840 world agreed that Maduro was a criminal, not a sovereign leader of Venezuela. In fact, a number of

00:14:27.740 Democrats, you can dig up their old tweets, they're chiding Trump for not being tougher on Maduro.

00:14:33.560 Even Joe Biden, even the Democrats acknowledged that he stole the last election. The full European 0.98

00:14:40.040 Union position is he stole the election. Just his close allies, China, Russia, Iran, think he's legit.

00:14:47.340 That just flipped now that Trump took him out. I saw CTV actually called him a sovereign leader.

00:14:55.300 That's the kind of talk that Zoran Mamdani would have. Now, some people say, and I see this from

00:15:00.900 journalists, and I see this from politicians and pundits, some people are saying, well, Trump's

00:15:05.820 unilateral action without going to the UN and without being polite. Well, this is now a license

00:15:12.900 to the bad guys in the world to do this same sort of unilateral thing where might makes right.

00:15:20.220 Suddenly, Russia and China are going to have no compunction about invading their enemies or 0.79

00:15:25.620 snatching their dictators or their leaders. Yeah, they've been doing that for a while now with or

00:15:34.120 without this international law. Literally right now, China is having exercises, military exercises

00:15:41.620 around the island of Taiwan, sort of practicing for invading that country. They didn't wait for a 1.00

00:15:47.820 rules-based international order and a motion of the United Nations. If and when, God forbid,

00:15:53.180 China takes Taiwan, it will be a military invasion. It will not be through resolutions of the United

00:16:00.020 Nations. Same thing with Russia. Russia has invaded Ukraine twice now in the last decade, and it's

00:16:06.920 both times where they felt strong and thought the Americans were weak. They didn't wait for some

00:16:12.900 international law group to tell them to do it. Only the West feels bound by these notions of

00:16:20.080 international law and a rules-based international order, which is a very Canadian way of saying,

00:16:24.660 hey, Americans, don't do things without our permission and consent.

00:16:29.260 There's also some colonizing talk going on. America going back in to take the oil, and Trump did very

00:16:35.280 much say that. But yeah, the bad guys have already been colonizing Venezuela. I mentioned before

00:16:42.180 that the Cubans basically run the joint politically and militarily, and in return for that, they get 50,000

00:16:50.640 barrels of oil a day from Venezuela. Trump's cutting that off, which means Cuba is going to be in trouble

00:16:55.960 pretty soon. Venezuela is important in the region. It funds Cuba through subsidized oil. Trump is seizing

00:17:02.840 those oil ships. It's going to put a lot of pressure on Cuba. Venezuela is the doorway for the defeat of the 0.62

00:17:09.760 Monroe Doctrine. You bet that Trump's going to cut that off. And I have to say, Marco Rubio has done

00:17:15.920 a great job elocuting, articulating, explaining what America is doing and the thesis for it. And he's not

00:17:22.840 saying words like international law. He's using other words like what's in the American interest, or we have

00:17:29.640 to protect ourselves. Those are concepts that Canadians have forgotten about. We have a luxury foreign policy

00:17:36.220 based on press statements and feelings. We don't actually do things. I mean, we try and negotiate

00:17:42.700 some trade deals. But on the hard stuff, on the military stuff, Canada's not there. We were completely

00:17:48.320 absent in the Middle East and in Israel. I mean, first of all, Israel would not permit us to be part

00:17:54.120 of a process. We've basically said Palestine should emerge from Israel unilaterally without disarming, 0.85

00:18:02.000 without acknowledging Israel's place in the world. Like it's shocking how out of the norm Canada's 0.50

00:18:06.660 foreign policy is. But even if we weren't pro-Palestine crazy, I don't think there's any

00:18:15.100 Canadian peacekeepers deployed anywhere in the world right now. I'd have to check for sure.

00:18:20.120 There's a few Canadian troops in the Baltics with a larger NATO force, but I don't think there's any

00:18:25.600 Canadian peacekeepers in the world. There's only so much diplomatic power you can have by just putting

00:18:32.120 out tweets and press releases. Canada is not part of real foreign affairs anymore. All we're good

00:18:38.240 for is putting out tweets that terrorist groups seem to like. Marco Rubio explained it pretty well.

00:18:42.960 Here's some clips of him. He was doing the rounds of TV yesterday. I thought he was so articulate.

00:18:46.900 It's funny, policy. The policy with regards to this. We want Venezuela to move in a certain direction

00:18:51.240 because not only do we think it's good for the people of Venezuela, it's in our national interest.

00:18:55.360 It either touches on something that's a threat to our national security or touches on something

00:18:59.420 that's either beneficial or harmful. And are you involved in that transition,

00:19:02.660 Secretary? So obviously I'm very involved in this.

00:19:04.720 Well, of course, I mean, I think everyone knows I'm pretty involved on politics in this hemisphere.

00:19:09.000 Obviously a Secretary of State, a national security advisor, very involved in all these elements.

00:19:13.300 The Department of War plays a very important role here, along with the Department of Justice,

00:19:17.160 for example, because they've got, they're the ones that have to go to court. So this is a team

00:19:20.820 effort by the entire national security apparatus of our country. But it is running this policy.

00:19:25.960 And the goal of the policy is to see changes in Venezuela that are beneficial to the United

00:19:31.140 States, first and foremost, because that's who we work for. But also, we believe, beneficial

00:19:35.460 for the people of Venezuela who have suffered tremendously. We want a better future for Venezuela.

00:19:40.380 And we think a better future for the people of Venezuela also is stabilizing for the region

00:19:44.440 and makes the neighborhood we live in a much better and safer place.

00:19:48.880 Ultimately, legitimacy for their system of government will come about through a period

00:19:53.000 of transition and real elections, which they have not had. And by the way, it's the reason

00:19:57.320 why Maduro was is not just an indicted drug or an indicted drug trafficker. He's illegitimate 0.64

00:20:02.760 president. He was not the head of state. And I continue to see these media reports referring

00:20:06.340 to him as President Maduro and the head of state. He was not the head of state. He was not the head.

00:20:10.860 And it's not just us saying it. The Biden administration said it. And so did 60 something

00:20:15.300 countries around the world hold that position. If the purpose of the operation was to capture

00:20:19.920 Maduro and bring him to justice, why does the United States need to take over the Venezuelan

00:20:26.960 oil industry? Well, we don't need to. First, let me go back up. We don't need Venezuela's oil. We have

00:20:33.920 plenty of oil in the United States. What we're not going to allow is for the oil industry in Venezuela

00:20:38.740 to be controlled by adversaries of the United States. You have to understand, why does China need

00:20:43.420 their oil? Why does Russia need their oil? Why does Iran need their oil? They're not even in this

00:20:48.120 continent. This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live. And we're not going to allow the 1.00

00:20:51.740 Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors and rivals of the United 0.91

00:20:56.280 States. Have specific oil companies? We also want to see that oil and the proceeds from it. Hold on.

00:21:01.480 We want to see the oil proceeds of that country benefit the people of Venezuela. Why have 8 million people

00:21:06.600 left Venezuela? 8 million, the single largest mass migration probably in modern history,

00:21:10.840 left Venezuela since 2014 because all the wealth of that country was stolen to the benefit of Maduro

00:21:16.580 and his cronies in the regime, but not to the benefit of people of Venezuela. You know how

00:21:20.480 destabilizing 8 million migrants is? The number one fear that Brazil has, that Colombia has, that all 0.90

00:21:27.220 these countries in the region have about what's happening in Venezuela and our involvement is they're

00:21:31.240 afraid of another mass migration event. That's what they fear. This is deeply destabilizing stuff.

00:21:35.940 It's not going to continue to happen. They are not going to come from outside of our hemisphere, 0.99

00:21:40.400 destabilize our region in our own backyard and us have to pay the price for it. Not under President

00:21:45.020 Trump. Trump is feeling pretty good about things, obviously. In fact, on his Air Force One the other

00:21:50.780 day, just yesterday, in fact, he was actually giving amazing comments all weekend, including today.

00:21:57.840 He has said that even Colombia had better watch it. Other countries that sell drugs into America had

00:22:04.540 better watch it. Their time might come, too. That's quite a thing to say. Here, listen to him say it.

00:22:09.260 Colombia is very sick, too. Run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United 1.00

00:22:15.140 States. And he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you. What does that mean? He's not going to be doing it very long. 0.98

00:22:20.420 He's not doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.

00:22:27.300 So there will be an operation by the U.S. It sounds good to me. 0.99

00:22:30.980 Mr. President, so Colombian President Gustavo Petro, you know, a couple of weeks ago, he said he's got to watch his ass. 0.97

00:22:37.220 And today he said he's not concerned about anything happening to him in the aftermath of this operation. 0.93

00:22:41.460 So just what your message is about that.

00:22:43.300 Well, he has cocaine mills. He has factories where he makes cocaine.

00:22:47.900 And yeah, I think I stick by my first statement. He's making cocaine.

00:22:51.900 They're sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his ass. 1.00

00:22:56.220 You know, Donald Trump has been president for just under a year. 1.00

00:23:00.680 Remember, he was sworn in in January. I think it was January 20th or 21st, 2025.

00:23:06.400 So it hasn't even been a year. It's just over 11 months.

00:23:10.100 In those 11 months, the U.S. military has not dramatically increased in size.

00:23:15.620 It has not acquired dramatic new weapons in the last 11 months.

00:23:20.380 Its recruitment numbers are up. It's true.

00:23:23.240 But that has not significantly changed the U.S. military.

00:23:27.460 What has changed is how that military is wielded.

00:23:32.600 Under Joe Biden, who had all these gadgets and gizmos, who had the most powerful military in the world,

00:23:38.880 the symbol of how he expressed America's force around the world was the helter-skelter abandonment

00:23:47.220 of Afghanistan, where you saw people literally trying to cling on to the outside of the airplanes

00:23:53.040 as they scrambled out of the country. It was like the last helicopter out of Vietnam.

00:23:58.760 Joe Biden was terrified of anyone and anything.

00:24:02.660 And most importantly, he was terrified of using American power.

00:24:06.540 He was on apology tours like Barack Obama.

00:24:09.120 He basically telegraphed to the world's enemies.

00:24:11.840 They could do whatever they wanted. That is why Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

00:24:17.440 Donald Trump is using the same military with the same people and the same equipment.

00:24:23.420 But now it's with a purpose and a focus.

00:24:26.120 Biden could have done what Trump just did, but he lacked any will to do so.

00:24:31.100 It was against his ideology.

00:24:32.900 There's sort of an anti-Americanism in the Democrats.

00:24:35.620 The word credibility is what comes to mind.

00:24:37.860 Donald Trump is so credible right now.

00:24:40.780 When he says he'll do something, are you going to gamble that he won't?

00:24:45.420 When he says he could or would or should do something, you're a foreign leader. 0.62

00:24:49.120 You should take it seriously.

00:24:50.340 The other day, Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs in Iran,

00:24:53.180 they better not shoot their own people protesting.

00:24:55.760 Well, they are shooting their own people protesting.

00:24:58.000 After what you saw Trump's military accomplish the other day,

00:25:01.920 would you roll those dice?

00:25:03.720 And it all comes down to credibility.

00:25:05.820 That's from the Latin word for believing.

00:25:08.980 People believe Trump when he says he's going to stand up for America.

00:25:12.660 And if you don't believe it, well, I'll tell you one thing, Nicolas Maduro did.

00:25:16.240 I read in the newspapers today that one of the things that finally tipped Donald Trump over,

00:25:21.320 he's been, of course, sparring verbally with Maduro for weeks now.

00:25:25.620 He's had the flotilla of the Armada off the coast of Venezuela.

00:25:29.300 He's been talking on the phone with Maduro.

00:25:31.660 And Maduro started to, well, to dance, to sing and dance as if to say to America,

00:25:40.520 I'm carefree, you're a joke, I'm stress-free, you're not serious, I don't believe you.

00:25:47.120 They say that Trump's staff allegedly told the media, that it's reported that they told the media, 1.00

00:25:53.880 that it was this video of Maduro dancing like an idiot that made Trump pull the trigger. 1.00

00:26:00.940 Take a look. 1.00

00:26:15.580 Why would that be?

00:26:18.740 Well, because Donald Trump is using harsh words and Maduro just wasn't listening.

00:26:22.980 He wasn't believing Trump because America had no credibility after four years of Biden.

00:26:28.720 Do you believe him now?

00:26:31.540 Do the Aitolas believe him now?

00:26:33.120 Do the Cuban communists believe him now?

00:26:35.200 Well, they should.

00:26:36.900 No one believed Biden.

00:26:38.400 Everyone believes Trump.

00:26:40.240 Anyways, that was going on in a very dangerous place called Caracas, which, by the way,

00:26:44.920 is one of the highest murder rates in the world.

00:26:46.700 Caracas, Venezuela, terrible things are being done to it.

00:26:49.300 They're very poor.

00:26:50.340 The people are literally, the average Venezuelan has lost more than 20 pounds just from malnutrition.

00:26:57.220 It's how do you wreck a country with so much natural wealth?

00:27:00.660 Anyways, we didn't send any reporters down to Caracas.

00:27:03.180 That would be too dangerous.

00:27:04.020 But we sent Alexa Lavoie and Efrain Monsanto down to Miami, where there's a large community of exiles, 1.00

00:27:11.760 not just from Cuba, but also from Venezuela.

00:27:14.820 And Alexa and Efrain are coming back today, but I asked them to put together a special video of what they've been doing.

00:27:22.240 Without further ado, look at what Alexa and Efrain have been doing down in Miami.

00:27:27.780 Take a look.

00:27:28.100 Hello, Ezra.

00:27:31.460 Thank you for having me on your show.

00:27:32.980 So far, this trip has been incredible.

00:27:37.540 We actually traveled from Canada to be here on the ground because we wanted to give a voice to the Venezuelan people.

00:27:45.200 I don't know if our viewers know about it, but in Doral, it is the biggest exiled Venezuelan community in the U.S.

00:27:56.060 And on the first day, as soon as the U.S. military did their strike in Venezuela, they all woke up around 5 a.m. to celebrate.

00:28:09.720 They celebrated all day.

00:28:11.920 Unfortunately, that day I was in Canada, so I arrived a little bit too late.

00:28:17.000 But we were able to catch the second celebration last night, and it was just powerful.

00:28:24.280 We spoke with so many people.

00:28:26.740 I'll let you hear, first of all, one of the women who actually recounted her own experience with the regime in Venezuela.

00:28:37.780 Listen to that.

00:28:38.820 What bring you out here today?

00:28:41.280 The love for my homeland, which is Venezuela.

00:28:44.800 I was born there.

00:28:47.460 Unfortunately, I had to come when I was eight because we have to flee the country because of the political issues.

00:28:54.140 But, yeah, the love for the homeland.

00:28:56.480 What is your experience over there and your family experience?

00:29:00.600 Well, everybody's suffering over there.

00:29:03.540 There's barely anything for anyone over there.

00:29:07.360 So, yeah, that's just the experience that the whole country is going through right now.

00:29:11.920 So, what would you say to the people, the leftist people, who are taking to the street to protest in favor of Nicolas Maduro?

00:29:22.420 So, none of them that are protesting outside the country are actually Venezuelans or lived through it.

00:29:29.920 So, they can't really speak unless they actually lived through it.

00:29:33.560 So, they won't know what it is to not know whether you're going to get a dinner or what are you going to eat the next day.

00:29:40.200 Living off $2 a month because they don't have anything to, basing off on what your family could send you from other countries, your family working harder to send you money.

00:29:53.020 So, it's easy to protest from outside.

00:29:56.700 It's easy to protest from your couch or what you see online, but actually living through it and know what it is, then they can't speak on it until they actually live it.

00:30:06.000 So, you probably saw some Democrats, including the new mayor of New York, Zoran Mandani, literally declare that what Trump did on Saturday morning was illegal.

00:30:20.340 What do you think of that?

00:30:22.040 Again, if people don't live through it, they won't know how desperate us Venezuelans are for a change.

00:30:28.480 I know they're talking about Trump only wanting the oil, but everybody is there for the oil.

00:30:34.340 Russia, Iran, everybody is there for the oil already, China.

00:30:38.280 So, if Trump needs the oil to give us freedom, then that's a price we're willing to pay just so that we have our freedom and make a change.

00:30:47.240 In 26 years, nobody has done anything for our country except for Trump.

00:30:51.140 So, if that's a price that we – he's the only one that has made an action on it, and he's the only one that has delivered his promise.

00:30:58.520 So, if that's the price we need to pay for it, then that's okay.

00:31:01.700 Venezuela has a lot of other resources.

00:31:04.000 It's not just oil.

00:31:05.240 We have minerals.

00:31:06.340 We have so many other things that once our country is better, then we – as Maria Corina always say, we will be an amazing country.

00:31:15.400 We just need that change and somebody to help us for it.

00:31:18.600 What do you think is only Trump who did something regarding Maduro?

00:31:22.460 Well, he is a businessman, so he knows there's opportunities there.

00:31:26.420 But, again, that's – at this moment, Venezuela is willing to provide him with the opportunity to take over the oil, make a change out of it, or make a business out of it, just so that we can have our freedom back.

00:31:38.500 Again, 26 years suffering.

00:31:40.860 Then we spoke with another man, a man who actually faced persecution from the regime, the Chavez regime, because it was a Haiti in an oil patch.

00:31:55.280 I want you to hear his experience.

00:31:58.060 It's just frightening.

00:31:59.000 Actually, we were living pretty good in Venezuela many years ago.

00:32:03.700 We have been here, what, 20 years?

00:32:06.360 And we were doing good until Chavez came.

00:32:10.840 And then the Army, in particular, I worked for the oil industry, and they came after me.

00:32:18.140 So I had to leave the country.

00:32:20.000 And after a couple of years, I had to bring all my family.

00:32:22.780 That's the reason.

00:32:23.580 Otherwise, I didn't have any other reason.

00:32:28.040 What was the main reason why they came after you?

00:32:30.300 I was a manager in one of the oil industry companies.

00:32:35.000 I was the IT manager.

00:32:37.920 And they wanted me to allow them to listen to all of the fun conversations.

00:32:42.320 And I said, no, you're not going to do that while I'm the manager.

00:32:46.380 I'm not going to allow you to do that.

00:32:48.280 And that brought a lot of problems to me.

00:32:51.520 And after a couple of years, I had to leave.

00:32:53.780 They came after me because I didn't allow them.

00:32:57.160 Yeah, they, you know, that's communists.

00:33:00.520 They don't care.

00:33:03.860 I told them, you're not going to listen to the conversations.

00:33:06.100 The people that I know.

00:33:07.540 I know the people here.

00:33:08.600 I know how honest they are.

00:33:10.720 I'm not going to allow you to listen to private conversations, but to find out, oh, there's nothing here.

00:33:16.860 That's not going to happen.

00:33:17.760 You have to come to some other way, but not through me.

00:33:20.720 And that's why.

00:33:23.120 I mean, they went after everybody.

00:33:25.800 That's what they've been doing for the last 26 years.

00:33:29.320 What do you think only Donald Trump did something regarding Nicolas Maduro?

00:33:34.640 We all are very happy with what happened. 0.79

00:33:39.220 We, the Venezuelans, we are very sure that Nicolas Maduro, he's a criminal.

00:33:45.840 And about narcotics, everybody knows that he's the leader of the cartel de los Orles. 0.71

00:33:52.460 Everybody knows that.

00:33:53.280 And he's been killing people for many years, young guys, young people, and taking people to jail, being innocent.

00:34:01.940 You know, he deserves, I don't know what's going to happen with him, but I deserve the horse for him.

00:34:07.360 And I believe a high percentage of Venezuelan people deserve the same.

00:34:14.580 They think the same that I'm telling you.

00:34:16.820 I'm very sure about.

00:34:18.860 You probably heard the Democrats, as well as the new mayor of New York, Zohan Mandani, saying that what Trump did was illegal.

00:34:30.520 That was a violation of international law.

00:34:33.000 What do you think of that?

00:34:35.200 He's wrong, because he's also a communist.

00:34:37.920 He is.

00:34:39.140 I mean, he doesn't have to be a member of a communist party.

00:34:46.780 But if you listen to anything that he says, he's a communist.

00:34:50.920 And he's going to be against anything that President Trump will do.

00:34:54.740 You see, so, of course, what Trump did is just to go after a criminal.

00:35:03.340 It's not against the country.

00:35:05.400 It's not against Venezuela.

00:35:06.460 We are very sure about that.

00:35:08.120 So that guy in New York, you know, I hope, you know, he's also taken away from, I don't know how he was elected, but that happens.

00:35:15.940 You know, in democracy, in a country like this, that happens.

00:35:18.900 And then, but he's absolutely wrong.

00:35:21.940 We also had the chance to speak with the city councillor for the wrong, Mr. Rafael Pinero.

00:35:31.120 He is born in Caracas, but he moved to U.S. at the age of 15 with his family.

00:35:37.260 And he recounted a little bit of his experience over there.

00:35:41.400 But I asked him the question about Democrats and the new mayor of New York, Zoran Mandani,

00:35:47.920 about saying that what Trump did was a violation of international law.

00:35:53.600 Look at his answer.

00:35:55.400 Obviously, you probably saw some Democrats, including New York Mayor Zoran Mandani,

00:36:01.980 have claimed that arresting Maduro is illegal and that Venezuelans in New York disagree with Trump.

00:36:08.480 I called the president and spoke with him directly to register my opposition to this act

00:36:14.940 and to make clear that it was an opposition based on being opposed to a pursuit of regime change,

00:36:22.700 to the violation of federal international law, and a desire to see that be consistent each and every day.

00:36:30.740 What do you say about that?

00:36:37.240 Shame on him.

00:36:38.240 Shame on him because he's representing a city where a lot of Venezuelans reside. 1.00

00:36:42.880 A lot of Venezuelans have left the country for the same reasons that my family and I,

00:36:48.020 we left the country 26 years ago.

00:36:50.720 So shame on him for making that common.

00:36:53.720 He's just starting an administration.

00:36:55.120 He should know better what has been taking place in Venezuela for 26 years.

00:37:01.620 So how are you going to be in support of something that has created all this chaos and disaster across nations?

00:37:12.300 How are you going to support the fact that you have captured, that the U.S. have captured a person

00:37:18.440 that has been involved in the killing of a lot of people, that has been involved in the kidnapping of a lot of people,

00:37:23.920 that has, again, over 800 political prisoners still in Venezuela, that has been involved in a lot of criminal activities when it comes to narco traffic?

00:37:34.160 And again, he's a narco-terrorist. 0.58

00:37:36.100 So how are you going to be in favor of the capture of someone that is not even a legit president of any nation?

00:37:43.140 So I think that comments like that, we don't have to pay attention to those comments.

00:37:48.500 We just have to keep working hard and making sure, again, that Venezuela once again becomes the country that they deserve to be.

00:37:56.660 You said it was a violation of federal and international law.

00:37:59.620 Do you plan to use any of the city's resources to interfere with the prosecution or anything like that?

00:38:06.640 This is a federal action on a federal timeline, and I owe it to New Yorkers to deliver for them across the five boroughs

00:38:13.560 and also to be honest and straightforward about my own thoughts on this.

00:38:17.240 I also ask him another question, and this time I ask him about our mainstream media from home.

00:38:24.080 Probably some people saw, or maybe not, but in Quebec, Radio-Canada, that is the French CBC outlet,

00:38:33.920 literally say that Maduro was the man of the people.

00:38:39.060 Listen to his answer.

00:38:41.140 So in the mainstream media in Canada, and especially in Quebec,

00:38:45.720 there were headlines saying that Maduro is the man of the people,

00:38:50.360 and I want to have your reaction to that.

00:38:51.940 Well, he might be the man of a few 10 or 20 people, but he's not. 0.54

00:38:58.820 I mean, he's just a criminal.

00:39:00.900 He's someone that, from the first time, he didn't deserve to be there.

00:39:05.040 He just got there because of Chavez, took power in 1999,

00:39:09.160 and Maduro has been, you know, just another criminal as part of that group.

00:39:14.660 He has been involved in all this. 0.98

00:39:17.680 He's a drug dealer.

00:39:18.320 He has been involved in all these narco deals that have been taking place around nations, 0.74

00:39:25.780 especially in Latin America.

00:39:27.580 He's not the person that he was portraying to be.

00:39:30.520 But let me tell you, they're worse people than him.

00:39:32.480 The ones that are still in Venezuela, they're worse than him. 1.00

00:39:34.880 Delcy Rodriguez, Diosdado Cabello, they're worse than Nicolás Maduro.

00:39:39.040 So that's why we still have a lot of work to do. 0.81

00:39:41.840 But Nicolás Maduro is going to pay the price of, again, killing people,

00:39:47.420 kidnapping people, political prisoners, creating Venezuela, 0.94

00:39:53.380 making Venezuela one of the more poorest countries in the world.

00:39:58.820 So how we're going to be, how are you going to say that he's the main of the people?

00:40:04.280 Last night, we also had the chance to have an exclusive interview with the mayor of the Rome.

00:40:09.280 Her name is Christy Fraga.

00:40:11.260 She is Cuban, but she's born in the U.S.

00:40:14.940 So her family escaped Cuba for a better life and to escape the regime in place.

00:40:22.140 We actually discussed also what would be next.

00:40:26.460 Is it Cuba?

00:40:27.900 Listen.

00:40:28.820 First of all, when you heard about the action that Donald Trump led in Venezuela,

00:40:35.300 how your community and yourself reacted to it?

00:40:38.280 I was happy about it.

00:40:39.360 I mean, I come from a Cuban family for years.

00:40:41.980 We fled oppression in Cuba, and the illegitimate government of Venezuela was the one feeding Cuba. 0.91

00:40:50.460 So we feel that with this change, there will be change in Cuba, too, and hopefully Nicaragua.

00:40:56.800 I know many may not be in agreement with what happened,

00:40:59.700 but I think it was very necessary for the safety and security of even the United States.

00:41:05.260 You know, this definitely put in jeopardy the security of the United States.

00:41:14.460 So things were happening in our backyard that affected Americans.

00:41:17.780 And so I did not see anything wrong with it other than they needed to go in there and rip out a dictator

00:41:28.360 that was, you know, causing a lot of harm to not just the people in his own country,

00:41:34.240 but allowing for terrorist cells to grow that none of these people like the United States of America.

00:41:39.420 And allowing them to be in our backyard without any control, I think, was a threat to our national security.

00:41:48.160 Why do you think only Trump dare to do something against Maduro?

00:41:55.080 This isn't a country that's on the other side of the world.

00:41:58.380 This isn't a country like we have to travel 24 hours in an airplane.

00:42:02.920 This is Venezuela that's in our area, the Don Road Doctor. 1.00

00:42:06.600 Well, there's been many presidents before that have said they're going to do something.

00:42:10.660 And there has been many legislators that have said that they've fought against it,

00:42:14.260 but no one's actually taken the action to bring down this regime.

00:42:18.320 What he did brought down the regime or is in the process of.

00:42:21.860 And there will be an opportunity for the Venezuelan people to choose a rightful leader in a democratic process

00:42:28.180 and have rights restored to them that were taken away a long time ago.

00:42:33.160 People lost everything.

00:42:34.620 They've lost family members.

00:42:36.260 There's absolutely no respect to human rights, no access to medicine, the basic needs.

00:42:42.860 And so, you know, many have said that they would or would negotiate, but they were all just talk.

00:42:47.740 I think the action was necessary.

00:42:49.340 And I'm very proud of our president for doing that and our secretary of state

00:42:52.300 for having the political pants to go in there and do what needed to be done to protect the Western hemisphere.

00:42:58.300 And we saw Democrats as well as the new mayor of New York, Doran Mandani, who literally say that Trump's action was violating the international law.

00:43:10.980 What do you think of that? 0.96

00:43:11.860 I think that's an ignorant statement.

00:43:13.280 I think history has shown that this is not an illegal act and there's much precedent to be able to take these actions in the name of national security.

00:43:24.080 So I disagree wholeheartedly with them and I think that those who make those statements don't have an understanding of not only our history as a nation,

00:43:35.220 but also the president, the president's executive powers to be able to make these decisions.

00:43:41.820 How do you explain the phenomenon and across the Western nations where we see people taking to the street to protest,

00:43:50.020 not in favor of the Israelis, but in favor of the dictator, Nicolas Maduro?

00:43:55.940 How do you explain that?

00:43:57.100 I mean, to me, it's shocking.

00:43:58.300 I don't understand it at all.

00:44:00.140 And what I would ask them is why don't they ask themselves the question that why are the people in Venezuela out celebrating that this happened?

00:44:07.800 I mean, this tells you these people were captive.

00:44:09.900 You know, they talk about a kidnapper, that the United States is kidnapping the president.

00:44:14.080 No, this person who was not a legitimate president or recognized as a president had kidnapped this country many years ago.

00:44:20.160 So if anything, we have the United States has liberated them and is giving them an opportunity to actually choose through a democratic process their rightful leader,

00:44:32.540 which they should have the right to do, that's going to give them the opportunity to have resources and opportunity, which is all they want.

00:44:40.700 Safety, opportunity and freedom.

00:44:42.260 We take for granted so many times the freedoms we have in this country.

00:44:45.820 And I know I can understand how some may talk about it that don't have never had to live oppression and a dictatorship.

00:44:53.920 But talk to someone who has.

00:44:56.000 Talk to my family who left Cuba, who left everything behind with just the clothes on their backs to come here and rebuild all over again.

00:45:02.940 They didn't want to do that.

00:45:04.440 They had no choice because they were suffering.

00:45:07.420 They were literally going to go hungry if they didn't stay there.

00:45:09.940 So I would ask those people to turn and look at the people in Venezuela that are being killed for going out and celebrating this because they have been held kidnapped for so long.

00:45:22.060 So I don't understand it.

00:45:23.520 To me, it's unjustifiable. 0.98

00:45:25.740 And that's, you know, I would tell them to do a little more research before they go out and make ignorant comments and statements. 0.93

00:45:31.620 And what is the next for Cuba?

00:45:33.080 Because there's so many Cubans that went out in the streets, has hope. 1.00

00:45:37.720 Do you think Cuba is next?

00:45:39.240 I do.

00:45:39.780 I think that, first of all, we're living vicariously through the Venezuelan people because we wanted this for our country for so long.

00:45:46.000 And it's been 70 years of oppression in Cuba.

00:45:49.940 I was actually born here.

00:45:51.040 I'm a first-generation American from my family.

00:45:54.100 But I've heard the stories that my grandparents have told for years.

00:45:57.580 They left, you know, 65 years ago and have never been able to go back.

00:46:01.960 You know, they lost family members they never got to say goodbye to.

00:46:04.900 It's very sad to think about those things.

00:46:07.160 I do believe Cuba could be next in a very different way.

00:46:10.620 I don't think there's going to be military action or anything like that.

00:46:12.720 But I think that the restructuring of Venezuela is going to dry up the economic resources that were being fed to Cuba by the Venezuelan government.

00:46:21.380 And that is going to make that last leg fall. 0.98

00:46:24.840 And I think it will allow pressures to be put for a real change and for a real democratic election so that the people of Cuba can also have an opportunity to rebuild.

00:46:34.960 This is the weakest the Cuban government has ever been.

00:46:39.540 And it's because the Venezuelan resources have dried up to give to Cuba.

00:46:45.040 So we do have to take advantage of this moment.

00:46:47.340 And Trump made it very clear that this was the opportunity to do that as well.

00:46:51.860 They weren't going to stay behind.

00:46:52.840 I don't think many dictators are going to be able to continue through the last three years of Trump, you know, in those situations.

00:47:05.500 And again, I think that especially in the Western Hemisphere that has been ignored for so long, the priority has been shifted because it does affect our national security.

00:47:14.540 They've allowed new players to come into this region that are not friends of the United States.

00:47:21.320 And I think that the president and our state, our secretary of state, who understands this issue very, very well, have their eyes on them.

00:47:30.200 Secretary Rubio mentioned Cuba yesterday in his remarks.

00:47:33.120 Does the U.S. have a plan to do some of the last thing?

00:47:36.320 Well, Cuba always survived because of Venezuela. 0.74

00:47:39.060 Now they won't have that money coming in.

00:47:41.680 They won't have the income coming in.

00:47:43.120 Knowing of what is happening in Venezuela, we know that there is terrorists over there, gangs.

00:47:49.200 Yes.

00:47:49.480 Do you think it would need a second strike?

00:47:51.580 I'm sorry, say what?

00:47:52.300 Do you think it would need another operation?

00:47:54.380 Look, I'm not going to pretend to have any understanding of the military actions that need to take place or the strategies that are being considered by the president or our military personnel.

00:48:04.840 But they did say yesterday they were not opposed to that.

00:48:08.480 And if they needed to take those actions, I think the president has taken a decisive step.

00:48:12.200 And there's no turning back.

00:48:13.280 And people are so happy with what we've done.

00:48:16.080 You know, you go down to Miami, you go down to a lot of places, and they're all dancing in the streets of this country.

00:48:22.820 Now, he was a rough man.

00:48:24.360 Killed millions of people. 0.92

00:48:25.960 He killed millions and millions of people.

00:48:28.800 In your own opinion, what would be the best person to govern Venezuela?

00:48:32.860 Look, I followed Maria Corina Machado closely.

00:48:36.620 Actually, in 2014, I gave her a proclamation here that she came when she was still able to travel.

00:48:42.680 I think she has the respect of the people.

00:48:44.920 I think that people love her.

00:48:46.260 She's extremely charismatic.

00:48:47.200 I understand the president's comments yesterday on the strategy.

00:48:52.760 You know, right now it would be very difficult for her party to take over in this transition because they need the military support still.

00:48:59.440 There's still a lot of moving pieces to this process that I think were very hard to just plug and play.

00:49:06.620 A lot of her party and her support had to leave the country because they had to flee because of their safety.

00:49:14.540 So I've listened to Marco Rubio very closely.

00:49:17.140 I've listened to the president.

00:49:18.400 I don't think that they have said in any moment that she's not capable of running the country and that she doesn't have the support of the people. 0.59

00:49:24.140 I think that's very clear.

00:49:25.140 She has the support of the people.

00:49:26.780 They won the election in 2024 by 80 percent and possibly more.

00:49:31.380 You know, so I think you need to listen when they're speaking.

00:49:34.100 No one has said that the people of Venezuela would not be able to choose their rightful president through a democratic process.

00:49:41.640 Whether they engage in a new election and monitor that and are able to enforce the outcome of that election,

00:49:47.600 I am pretty certain Maria Correa Machado will be the next president of Venezuela.

00:49:52.480 Truthfully, she wasn't even going to be the president with the last elections.

00:49:54.860 It would have been El Mundo because Maduro prohibited her from being the candidate for the party.

00:49:59.920 So truthfully, those elections already were rigged from the moment they started.

00:50:03.680 So if I was a citizen of that country, I would want a new election so that I could choose Maria Correa Machado, 1.00

00:50:11.640 who has fought for the democratic process and the liberation of Venezuela.

00:50:17.320 And I would hope that she does get the opportunity to be their president. 0.99

00:50:20.700 And I am certain that if she's given that opportunity to be on a ballot, she will win.

00:50:25.120 Do you think that Trump qualifies for the Nobel Peace Prize?

00:50:29.420 I think that he is definitely on the road to getting that and he wants it because he is fighting for peace.

00:50:38.320 I think he does deserve to be recognized as a president for peace.

00:50:42.160 Thank you so much.

00:50:43.140 We still have our full reports with a lot of testimony from Venezuelans themselves who fled their country,

00:50:53.400 not in search of job opportunity, but to save their life.

00:50:57.960 So if you want, you can go to venezuelaisfree.com to watch our previous reports.

00:51:05.900 And I invite everybody who is watching at the moment to go and watch.

00:51:10.220 And if you agree with us, just go and chip in a couple of bucks because it's because of you that we are able to show you the truth.

00:51:19.480 Because the mainstream media and legacy media are just trying, literally trying to portray Maduro as like a good person

00:51:27.920 and Trump as the bad one.

00:51:30.740 But the reality on the ground is different.

00:51:33.220 And the Venezuelans are happy, they are celebrating, and, you know, the mainstream media don't want you to see that.

00:51:40.820 So this is my whole recap of our trip.

00:51:45.800 I was with Efron Mocento, and I gave him a shout-out because he worked hard the whole entire time.

00:51:54.380 So our reports, you will see it's really raw emotion.

00:51:57.960 You will hear in Spanish and in English what the people have to say.

00:52:03.040 And I hope, like, you enjoy my small recap of our time here in Miami.

00:52:10.340 I'm so glad they went down there to capture that joy and the love of freedom.

00:52:15.880 There's something very special in my mind about, you know, Cuban exiles, Venezuelan exiles,

00:52:23.200 and there are people from other parts of the world who have fled communism, too, from Eastern Europe, from Vietnam.

00:52:28.600 Some of the best immigrants to America, by the way, are people who fled communism genuinely

00:52:33.860 and who love freedom and came to America with enormous gratitude.

00:52:38.000 It's a very different kind of immigrant than the types we see sometimes from other places.

00:52:42.040 And I'm really excited that Alexa went down there, and I think she had perfect timing, too.

00:52:46.860 Hey, stay with us.

00:52:48.000 After the break, your letters to me.

00:52:49.640 Hey, welcome back.

00:52:58.960 Your letters to me.

00:53:00.340 Island Girl says, great job, Alexa and Rebel News.

00:53:03.460 Of course, the mainstream media embraces the communist dictator because they must disagree with Trump on every point.

00:53:08.380 President Trump is changing the world for the better, and the globalists can't stand it.

00:53:11.900 Most Venezuelans are overjoyed, but the MSN must somehow twist it to fit their woke narrative.

00:53:15.860 Oh, yeah, I just couldn't believe this craziness I was watching on CTV.

00:53:20.800 I really think that talking to real Venezolanos is so important.

00:53:25.960 Just to see the joy, I mean, the word milagro, I think, means miracle.

00:53:30.840 I mean, they thought this was a miracle from God, that the tyrant who has ruled over their country for so long is gone.

00:53:36.240 I really got swept up in some of the interviews that Alexa did.

00:53:41.120 You can see them all, by the way, at venezuelaisfree.com.

00:53:44.480 They're all there.

00:53:46.100 Gordon Welcher says, right to jail, right away, he probably undercooks fish and overcooks chicken.

00:53:50.880 I know the joke you're referring to.

00:53:52.440 There's a comedian, Fred Armisen, that had a little cameo on the comedy Parks and Rec, and he was playing some Latin American dictators, sort of like Maduro.

00:54:01.280 And, I mean, it was really funny, but it's based on the terrifying reality.

00:54:06.100 Here he is talking about, you go right to jail for anything.

00:54:09.460 Take a look at this clip.

00:54:10.320 I thought it was funny.

00:54:11.060 This is outrageous.

00:54:12.620 Where are the armed men who come in to take the protesters away?

00:54:15.340 Where are they?

00:54:16.200 This kind of behavior is never tolerating in Barakwa.

00:54:19.320 You shout like that, they put you in jail right away.

00:54:23.300 No trial, no nothing.

00:54:25.080 Journalists, we have a special jail for journalists.

00:54:27.900 You're stealing, right to jail.

00:54:29.680 You're playing music too loud, right to jail, right away.

00:54:32.400 You're driving too fast, jail.

00:54:34.080 Slow, jail.

00:54:35.060 You're charging too high prices for sweaters, glasses.

00:54:39.480 You're right to jail.

00:54:40.440 You undercook fish, believe it or not, jail.

00:54:42.840 You overcook chicken, also jail.

00:54:45.800 Undercook, overcook.

00:54:46.940 You make an appointment with a dentist and you don't show up, believe it or not, jail, right away.

00:54:50.880 We have the best patients in the world because of jail.

00:54:53.960 That's a very funny clip for us in North America to laugh at.

00:54:57.540 And Fred Armisen is a comic genius.

00:55:00.260 But it's based on the horrific truth that in Venezuela, hundreds of people were murdered or imprisoned because they did something that offended the tyrant.

00:55:10.180 So it is, I get your joke and that's a funny clip that I love.

00:55:14.120 But imagine the reality of that.

00:55:15.820 Robert Dow says, Trump is basically doing the job that the UN is unwilling to do.

00:55:21.440 How is the UN going to help any country since they've allowed China and Russia to be part of the UN Security Council?

00:55:26.620 Well, see, you've nailed it right there because China and Russia are on the Security Council of the UN.

00:55:33.180 It used to, you know, the countries were slightly different.

00:55:37.220 It was the Soviet Union originally.

00:55:38.660 The whole point of the UN was to be a talk shop.

00:55:42.320 You wanted the bad guys there because you have to talk to them.

00:55:46.800 Maybe by talking to them, you can fix problems.

00:55:49.400 The UN was supposed to be a meeting place, a diplomatic place.

00:55:54.200 It was not a government of itself.

00:55:56.380 It doesn't have an army of itself.

00:55:58.120 It's not, you know, I said earlier, where's this international law?

00:56:01.740 Where's this international police?

00:56:03.240 Where's this international judge?

00:56:04.800 That's not what the UN is meant to do.

00:56:06.360 The UN is supposed to have the bad guys there because you have to talk to the bad guys sometimes.

00:56:11.740 But it's not meant to be a government.

00:56:13.320 It's not meant to have an executive or to have a military of its own.

00:56:20.960 I don't think the United States should be Globocop, but it should promote its interests.

00:56:26.540 And by the way, thank goodness, America's interests are largely Canadian interests.

00:56:30.840 There's some problems right now with our trade, but we benefit from their military deterrent.

00:56:36.220 Don't we?

00:56:37.760 Last letter, Jojo Pickett says, I didn't watch mainstream media.

00:56:41.000 I watched conservative geopolitics who also all agree that this is USA's thirst for oil and not a liberation campaign.

00:56:47.300 We will see in six months to a year who is as to who benefited.

00:56:51.260 Well, so far, nothing's changed other than Maduro was snatched out of the country.

00:56:56.660 Now, Trump did say he wants oil, but he referred to the fact that there were large U.S. companies, Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, if I remember them by name, who were all operating in Venezuela and then who were expropriated, nationalized by Hugo Chavez.

00:57:11.020 So they had billions of dollars taken from them.

00:57:14.380 And you might say, oh, so that enriched the Venezuelans.

00:57:16.480 No, it didn't.

00:57:17.720 Venezuela used to pump three million barrels of oil a day.

00:57:20.420 Now it pumps one million.

00:57:22.780 Funny thing is, if you punish and drive away the people who actually know how to work an oil rig, it's like it's killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

00:57:31.300 So Trump wants to get the oil fields going again.

00:57:36.300 And, yeah, he wants those American companies to profit, but no one would profit more than the Venezuelans themselves.

00:57:42.820 A generation ago, Venezuela had a very high standard of living.

00:57:46.760 Not now.

00:57:48.140 So, I mean, and I'm going to dispute one more thing you say.

00:57:51.780 Trump has not brought in like there's not a single American in Venezuela today.

00:57:56.240 There's not one soldier there.

00:57:57.560 They were there for two hours to grab the boss.

00:57:59.820 They're going to try to steer the country, I don't know if towards freedom, but I hope so, towards democracy and yet a prosperity and to take it out of the orbit of Russia, China, Iran.

00:58:13.020 I don't think that America could or should or should even try to colonize Venezuela.

00:58:20.960 They're not doing what America did in Afghanistan or Iraq.

00:58:25.820 You cannot civilize Afghanistan into a modern, liberal, safe, pluralistic democracy. 1.00

00:58:31.980 You can't do it. 0.99

00:58:33.260 And it's foolish to try. 0.98

00:58:35.320 Venezuela is more Western oriented. 0.98

00:58:37.120 It's a Catholic nation.

00:58:38.180 It's more part of the Americas.

00:58:40.540 But it's not America's job to socially engineer it.

00:58:43.880 What Trump is trying to do is align Venezuela to the West without deep social engineering.

00:58:49.260 He wants to get rid of the foreign actors with the Monroe Doctrine. 0.74

00:58:53.420 He wants to stop the drugs.

00:58:55.180 And yeah, he wants the oil.

00:58:56.760 No less so and no more so than the Chinese and the Russians did, except for he'll actually build it and benefit some of the locals. 0.86

00:59:03.900 Well, we'll keep watching.

00:59:05.340 And I think that we still have a few more videos to come that Alexa and Efron filmed down in Miami.

00:59:09.900 So keep your eyes filled for that.

00:59:12.120 Thanks for watching, as you always do.

00:59:13.660 And thanks for your support.

00:59:14.740 I was really excited that Efron and Lex went down.

00:59:17.220 I sort of wish I did because it's so snowy here in Toronto and it looked so nice in Miami.

00:59:21.740 But they were working the whole time they were there.

00:59:24.120 It wasn't a vacation for them, as you can see.

00:59:26.420 That's our show for the day.

00:59:27.640 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.

00:59:32.420 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:59:33.480 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - January 06, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Daring U.S. raid on Venezuelan dictator shows President Trump's commitment to prosperity

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