The Great America Show - January 03, 2026


MADURO IN CUSTODY! Here's everything you NEED TO KNOW about the Raid in Venezuela

Topics
Operation Southern Sphere and Maduro's capture USS Gerald Ford raid on Venezuela
Hosted by
Lou Dobbs John Fawcett
Mentioned
Trump Nicolas Maduro Biden USS Gerald R. Ford Higuarte Airport Fuerte Tuada Hugo Chavez Air Base U.S.-Venezuela
Mid-Day Update： January 2, 2026 The Great America Sunday Show： January 4, 2026

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

161.7

Word count

2,084

Sentence count

140

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The dictator of Venezuela has been captured and is in U.S. custody on his way to New York as we speak. We ve got it all for you today, here on the Great America Show Update. First, a breakdown of what happened, and then we ll get into some of the granular details, the times, the locations, who was involved, and how did they extricate Maduro.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Well, folks, there you have it. The dictator of Venezuela has been captured and is in U.S. custody
00:00:05.700 on his way to New York right now. As we speak, we've got it all for you today here on this
00:00:11.260 Great America Show update. First, we're going to start with a little breakdown of what happened,
00:00:16.220 and then we'll get into some of the granular details, the times, the operation, who was
00:00:21.820 involved, how did they extricate Maduro, and what took place. So as we've all known now,
00:00:29.520 and it's been reported, the United States conducted a large-scale military operation
00:00:33.620 earlier this morning in Venezuela, dubbed Operation Southern Sphere, targeting multiple sites,
00:00:39.480 primarily in and around the capital of Caracas. The primary objective, of course, was to capture
00:00:43.860 Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife amid this long-standing battle between he and the
00:00:50.000 Trump administration on their criminal activity of sending drugs into this country. President
00:00:55.320 Trump has warned him multiple times on multiple occasions to cut it out. Enough is enough. Stop
00:01:01.200 sending these drugs into our country, and you won't be captured. Maduro didn't heed the warning, and
00:01:07.080 it's quite unfortunate on his part, but President Trump, as early as last week, warned Maduro to cut it
00:01:16.180 out. Well, this was going to happen. Do whatever he wants. I mean, we have a massive armada formed,
00:01:23.860 the biggest we've ever had, and by far the biggest we've ever had in South America. He could do whatever
00:01:32.020 he wants. It's all right. Whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough,
00:01:37.060 it'll be the last time he's ever able to play tough. But they sent their prisoners into us. They sent people
00:01:44.780 from jails and prisons. They sent people from mental institutions and insane asylums into the United
00:01:51.660 States, just walked right in, because Biden had an open border policy. What the Biden administration
00:01:57.980 did to our country can never be forgotten. And it surely won't be forgotten after these strikes
00:02:05.340 we've watched happen this morning. So the operation of all their strikes, special forces insertions,
00:02:10.540 naval support, marking a significant escalation in the U.S.-Venezuela tensions, lasted approximately
00:02:16.620 two and a half hours long. So how did we get to this point? Back in November, the U.S. deployed the U.S. air
00:02:25.740 carrier USS Gerald Ford to the region. By December, U.S. forces began intercepting Venezuelan oil tankers
00:02:32.140 and opposed a naval quarantine. Covert CIA operations were also reported in Venezuela during the same time
00:02:38.380 period. USS had previously designated Venezuelan groups as foreign terrorist organizations and
00:02:43.820 claimed an armed conflict with drug cartels that was allegedly supported by Maduro. So he had this
00:02:51.420 coming. President Trump, of course, approved this operation days in advance, maybe even weeks in
00:02:56.620 advance, without prior congressional consultation, as they would have probably leaked at the Democrats and
00:03:02.060 gave Maduro a fair warning. The U.S. framing it as a law enforcement operation in conjunction with the
00:03:08.220 military strikes and not a full-on invasion as simple operation was to extract Maduro from this. Now,
00:03:15.900 the interesting part about it was hours before these strikes, a Chinese envoy met with Maduro in Caracas
00:03:21.340 and no advance warning was given to allies like Colombia or anyone in the region. This was a
00:03:27.740 tight-lipped operation and it's why it was so successful. I believe that if congressional Democrats
00:03:34.940 were to be tipped off, that puts the lives of our special forces and our military members at grave danger
00:03:41.740 and great risk as these people bear no boundaries. As I said, they probably would have leaked this to
00:03:51.420 some person or another. Not good for our country and not good to protect our members of the military.
00:03:58.620 So what happened? At one o'clock this morning, the operation commenced with loud explosions and low-flying
00:04:03.260 aircraft reported across and around Caracas. Dozens of U.S. Army helicopters, including Chinooks and Apaches,
00:04:11.020 and the hundreds is being reported. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as SOAR,
00:04:17.260 spotted over the capital. Airstrikes targeted key military installations. Now, I'm going to try to pronounce
00:04:22.780 these for you folks. My Spanish isn't the best, but we're going to try to get through it and try to
00:04:29.900 pronounce some of these for you as we have the next view there up on the screen as they rain down.
00:04:36.620 Some of these installations that were hit, Fuerte Tuada, which is Venezuela's largest military
00:04:42.860 complex headquarters. The smoke were visible. The El Liberatore Air Base, Higuarte Airport in Miranda,
00:04:55.020 which was allegedly a weapons depot for Maduro where they were stashing out some of their weapons and
00:05:01.580 some of their artillery, quite honestly, could have been used against our men in this operation.
00:05:07.980 La Carlota Air Base, the Port of La Aguillara, Coastal Port Facility, Army General Command and
00:05:15.500 Strategic Operations Command Center. The 4F Barracks, which is the site of Hugo Chavez's body and his
00:05:21.020 mausoleum. The Defense Minister's residence. Additional strikes hit northern coastal areas
00:05:26.460 as well, including ports and vessels allegedly involved in drug trafficking. 35 boats were destroyed. I guess
00:05:32.860 that's probably just the icing on the cake as we've all watched these drug boats
00:05:40.780 be absolutely obliterated over the course of the last few months by the U.S. and by our U.S. drones.
00:05:48.780 So what happens after that? By about two o'clock in the morning Eastern time, U.S. Delta Forces,
00:05:54.700 of course, is the most elite special operations unit, conducted the ground raids to capture Maduro and his
00:06:00.700 wife from the presidential palace. They were reportedly dragged from their bedroom and
00:06:05.660 extracted via helicopter. Eight special forces helicopters were involved in this extrication of
00:06:11.100 Maduro and his wife. Venezuelan air defenses and bases were neutralized earlier, as we just told
00:06:15.740 you in those strikes, preventing significant retaliation. Power outages affected in parts of
00:06:21.580 Caracas near the targeted site. So brilliant and strategic on behalf of President Trump and his
00:06:28.460 administration to take out those those power sites and to neutralize any air defense systems that
00:06:35.100 could have taken out our Chinooks or Apaches. Now, President Trump in an interview with Fox News said
00:06:40.860 this had to be done. He also let out some news that Maduro apparently tried to run and hide in his safe
00:06:47.820 room, but he couldn't outrun the Delta Special Forces. This was the right time to do it. We had to do it 0.85
00:06:54.300 because it's a war. We're losing 300,000 people a year. We don't lose that much in a war.
00:07:01.180 OK, if you look and we had to do it. But he was in a in a house that was more like a fortress than a
00:07:09.260 house. It had steel doors. It had what they call a safety space where it's, you know, solid steel all
00:07:16.700 around. He didn't get that space close. He was trying to get into it, but he got bum rushed so
00:07:23.260 fast that he didn't get into that. We were prepared. We had, you know, massive blow torches
00:07:29.340 and everything else that you need to get through that steel. But we didn't need it. He didn't he
00:07:34.060 didn't make it to that area of the house. So as a true coward does, he tried to run and probably leave 0.94
00:07:41.180 his wife behind and hide. Didn't get too far because you can't outrun the the most elite of 0.97
00:07:47.020 the elite. So that was about it for Maduro at that point. The last explosions were reported around 330
00:07:56.060 in the morning following departures by helicopters. No further airstrikes were taken at that point now
00:08:02.620 to 430 around 430. Maduro and his wife were flown out of the country. President Trump reportedly watched
00:08:10.380 the entire operation from Mar-a-Lago monitor communications about everything that went on.
00:08:16.780 President Trump also on his interview with Fox News said that Maduro and his wife were currently
00:08:25.820 in route to New York. Their first method of transportation is aboard the USS Irojima, which we
00:08:32.940 have on the screen for you there. That's how they were they were extricated. So I guess one of the
00:08:38.060 helicopters the Apache of the Chinooks landed and they're being transported out via that carrier 0.99
00:08:45.740 until they can be taken somewhere to get on a plane. Also released by the US government,
00:08:53.500 you see the DEA agents there guiding out Maduro probably to one of the helicopters to
00:08:58.620 to get him out of the country. Great work by these patriots. Now the people in Venezuela are
00:09:05.500 absolutely rejoicing. As you can see, American flags in the streets. These people,
00:09:11.260 their country will now be liberated.
00:09:13.900 I think we should all be happy for the folks of Venezuela in this
00:09:21.980 very crucial time for them. Now President Trump in that interview with Fox and Friends was asked,
00:09:34.620 what's next for Venezuela? Venezuelan people now that you have removed Maduro so that he can face American justice.
00:09:42.300 Well, we're making that decision now. We can't take a chance on letting somebody else run and just take over where he left or left off.
00:09:48.300 So we're making that decision now. We'll be involved in it very much. And we want to do liberty for the people. We want to, you know, have a great relationship.
00:09:56.300 I think the people of Venezuela are very, very happy because they love the United States. You know, they were run by
00:10:02.300 essentially a dictatorship or worse. It couldn't have been worse. It was, it was, uh, it was a terrible thing that was taking place in Venezuela. But look, uh, tremendous numbers of people were being killed through drugs.
00:10:14.300 And we were, you know, it was, uh, it was a terrible thing that was taking place in Venezuela. But look, uh, tremendous numbers of people were being killed through drugs.
00:10:26.300 And what they did to our country in sending, uh, prisoners and mental people from mental institutions and, uh, drug lords and everything. They sent it by the hundreds of thousands of people into our country. And that is just unforgivable.
00:10:48.300 There you have it from, uh, from president Trump, uh, himself had to do it, had to be done. Uh, it was just unforgivable.
00:10:55.300 There you have to be done. Um, and there should be a wake up call to, uh, every other, uh, rogue nation, uh, across the world. Um, this was probably president Trump's last, uh, uh, choice.
00:11:08.300 You know, we've seen now not very, not a very aggressive president, uh, when it comes to, to war and bombings, but very strategic operation.
00:11:17.300 Now I'm sure you could expect who's condemning, uh, the extraction of Maduro, Russia, Belarus, and the United Nations calling it a civil rights and human rights abuses and armed aggression.
00:11:29.300 And they're demanding investigations.
00:11:31.300 Columbia condemned the action prepared for refugees, uh, to go. But, uh, I think this is going to also help fix some of the immigration problems. Now, uh, I don't want to go out on the whim and say it, but. 0.68
00:11:44.300 Uh, it's been reported that, uh, this is more than just a drug operation, uh, that Maduro was running there. It's been reported by multiple people and, um, high level sources that, uh, Venezuela was running.
00:11:56.300 It was running a massive voter, uh, scheming operation, not just in their own country, but, uh, in other countries around the world.
00:12:03.300 So we'll have to see, uh, president Trump actually, uh, hinted at it in part of his interview today with Fox and friends.
00:12:08.400 So I guess we'll have to wait and see, uh, what plays out here, but the, uh, Venezuelan vice president who now takes over is, uh, demanding, uh, proof of life of Maduro demanding.
00:12:18.240 Imagine that you just watched your president of your country who thought he was, uh, on top of the world, be carried out like a dog.
00:12:26.300 And you're going to sit there as brazen as possible. Folks, if you enjoyed this video, if you enjoyed this little breakdown, we did, please be sure to hit that like subscribe and follow button, uh, for more content, uh, for more, um, videos like this and join us each and every day at 6.
00:12:40.580 PM Eastern time for the great America show and follow us all across all social media at John Fawcett and why, or at the great America show, uh, where you can get all the updates and much, much more.
00:12:50.260 Thanks so much for joining us, uh, for this great America show up.