I just finished listening to President Trump's press conference down at mar A Lago describing the bombing and the kidnapping of President of the Venezuela Nicholas Maduro, and it was so much more insane than I even could have imagined that we had to do another breaking news segment to break down what was said and what was announced in this press conference. The TLDR here is that he announced we, as in the United States of America, are going to
be running Venezuela at least for a time. He did not rule out that that time period could be years, did not rule out that could involve direct boots on the ground. Additionally, threatened other countries to include Cuba and Colombia, just absolute insanity. Talked about the way that our oil companies are going to exploit the resources in Venezuela. Talked about how we are going to rebuild Venezuelan infrastructure. To go ahead and bring you a series of these clips.
Our friend from drop Site maybe joining us as well at some point if he's able, but let me go ahead and pull up these first couple where he is talking about how we are going to run Venezuela. Take a listen we're.
There now, but we're going to stay until such time as the proper transition can take place. So we're going to stay until such time as we're going to run it, essentially, until such time as a proper transition can take place.
And in case you didn't think that, you know, in case you thought, oh, maybe he's just speaking off the cuff, he doesn't really mean it. No, Kiri is repeating the same thing even more clearly, that we are going to run the country until some sort of power transition occurs. Here you go, we're going.
To run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transitions. We don't want to be involved with having somebody else get in and we have the same situation that we had for the last long period of years. So we are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
Now what does this actually mean? No one really knows. He was asked a series of questions about Okay, who what are we talking about? Who was going to be Are there going to be boots on the ground, what is this going to look like? Not a lot of answers were forthcoming, However, he did seem to indicate basically, Marco Rubio and Pete hag Seth and the US military are effectively going to be in charge of running Venezuela for the immediate future. Also, no India. I mean it's possible,
we still have assets on the ground there. I don't think that any of that is really clear. But here's what he had to say in response to the question of like, Okay, what do you mean we are going to be running Venezuela.
Country are designated.
It's all being done right now. We're designating people, We're talking to people. We're designating various people, and we're going to let you know who those people are that would run Venezuela. Well, it's largely going to be for a period of time. The people that are standing right behind me, we're going to be running it.
We're going to be bringing it back.
It's a it's a dead you know, I talk about a dead country. A year and a half ago, we were a dead country.
So people standing behind him being Marco Rubio and Pete hag Seth and military leader General Kine was that raising. Kine was there as well, So that seems to be who he is indicating would quote unquote run the country. There was also a question that was asked about, well, right now, Maduro's vice president has been sworn in as president. She is in charge, like you kidnapped Maduro, but his vice president and the rest of his administration is still
there and still in charge of the country. So what's going on with that? And he seemed to indicate that Marco Rubio had spoken with her and that she was open to working with the US and serving effectively as our puppet or easing the transition or something of that nature. Let me go ahead, and let me go ahead and pull this one up for you, because this is a significant piece. Let's see, uh here, here's the one.
Weren't going to back Machado to come back and get the opposition later in your Box and Friends interview and then you also mentioned.
By the way, at another point, he was asked about Machado, who was just giving them no belt piece prize unbelievably, and who was seen as a potential puppet leader. And he poured a lot of cold water on the idea as saying she didn't have support of the people. So now he's going to be asked about the vice president who's currently in charge.
Vice president of Venezuela.
Are you gonna work with vice president of Venezuela or how do you course.
See the relationship.
She was just sworn in, but she was, as you know, picked by Maduro, So Marco's working in that directly. He just had a conversation with her, and she's essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again, very simple.
So indicating that she's willing to collaborate with the Trump regime, with Marco Rubio and Hegseth and whoever else we're going to install there as transitioner transitional rulers of this country. I don't even know what to say, guys. I mean, this is actually even more insane than Iraq. And if you thought it was some kind of a weird leftist conspiracy theory, that what we're really after is the oil. Trump talked about that quite explicitly as well, which is
not a new thing. I mean, he and other administration officials and other Trump allies have been talking about the oil resources as a major motivator for this illegal offensive war, and he spoke to that as well. He talked about how our oil companies are going to go in and they're going to spend billions of dollars, and they're going to make all kinds of money here. So let's go ahead and take a listen to what he said about the oil companies and how they will profit from this action.
As everyone knows, the oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time. They were pumping almost nothing by comparison to what they could have been pumping and what could have taken place. We're going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.
And we are He was asked at one point also about how China and Russia would feel about this, given that they have interests in Venezuela, and he said, oh, well, we'll sell them oil. I think it'll be fine, no problem. He was also asked about what's going on with Russia and Ukraine and indicated that he was frustrated with Putin. But that's where we are. Trump has said, we are
running Venezuela. So this was a direct regime change operation, that we may well have boots on the ground, that this could last for years, That we are going to rebuild Venezuela's infrastructure and quote unquote make Venezuela great again. That we may take similar actions in other countries in
the region, specifically Cuba and Columbia. He spoke about, which no one should be surprised about, since not only is this about seizing the resources and exploding the resources of Venezuela, this is also a frankly multi decade project to destroy any sort of left wing government in the region, and Venezuela being a key part of that fantasy, which is now becoming reality with Marco Rubio there as Secretary of State. MI go ahead, Jose Luis Garnado Seja has joined now
from drop site. Let me go ahead and let him into the room and we can get his reaction as well. Jose louis great to have you again. Welcome, Thank you
very much. Yeah, so I played some of the clips of Trump saying We're going to run Venezuela, seeming to indicate specifically like Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth apparently saying we may have boots on the ground, saying that this could last years, saying also that Rubio had reached out to the vice president, Doro's vice president, who has now been sworn in as president of the country, and that she seemed open to some sort of collaboration. I mean, what is your reaction to all of this?
The first one is quite a surprise there. I had speculated earlier that they would use this as an opportunity to kind of move away from this engagement with Venezuela, to finally put an end to this most recent round of escalations. But those words from Trump and this press conference, I think are very very clear. They intend to occupy the country of Venezuela. That's obviously going to require a
huge mobilization of troops. I think Trump is being deliberately vague or even misleading, and his response is suggesting that it wouldn't take a lot, that it's just about protecting oil infrastructure. I don't think that's the case whatsoever. I think they're in for a conundrum. The Venezuelan armed forces have talked about Venezuela becoming a new Vietnam for the
United States if they chose to invade. If they try, if they're going to do what Trump just said in his press conference to try to administer the country as an buying power, it's going to require an extraordinary amount of US forces. This is going to be a very serious, major US operation right here in the Western Hemisphere. I imagine his comments around oil are a bit of an echo of their strategy that they've used in Iraq and in Syria to try to take control of the oil
fields directly. But these are not similar situations when we think about Venezuela. Like I said earlier, Venezuela is a country that has undergone a very long political process. And even if there are elements of the existing state that maybe break away or align themselves with the US administration occupation, which I find hard to believe given that essentially you're a trader to your homeland, there are still going to be guerrilla struggles, sabotage. This is not going to be
an easy ride whatsoever. I think the United States and the people of the United States need to be aware of what he's actually talking about, A very serious military mobilization to occupy a sizable country, far larger than what we in Panama. You know, there's been some military analyst speculating that at least one hundred thousand troops at least to be able to try to actually invade and occupy Venezueline. Of course, it's going to be a huge conundrum for them because there it won't be easy.
I mean, is this just cope on my part? Is it possible? This is just some sort of a weird, you know, chest move threat bluster kind of a situation, because I mean, and do we know are there assets on the ground right now that have remained in country? You know, do we have any any sense of that right now?
It doesn't appear that there are US troops on the ground right now. He talked about in the past tense there were boots on the ground in order to carry out this kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro. But we do know that there are at least twenty thousand troops nearby, either in Puerto Rico or and then all those ships
that are stationed off the coast. So I don't think that's enough to invade the country, but that is a say up sizable amount of manpower there that could easily be mobilized and used as part of another Asian Trump talked specifically about a second round of attacks, that they were actually prepared for a second one, that they actually didn't carry it out, but they were.
Willing to do it.
That they're willing to kidnap any Venezuelan leader who rises to fill the power vacuum.
We could say that is situation.
Right now, given that we now know that Nicolas Maduro is indeed in US custody, a board that Yuajima and Trump also said that he would be sent to New York to face these federal indictments. So that means that obviously there has to be at least for the time being, some kind of transition inside of Venezuela, given that the president cannot.
Rule if he's detained.
It looks like that's going to be Delsi Rodriguez, the executive vice president. But it's very very odd comments from him saying that she's essentially going to play along, which is very surprising with people who are familiar with on his own politics. Desid Rodriguez is a very powerful figure inside of Venezuela, a close ally of confidant of Maduro. For there's a reason why she was named directly by him.
The vice president is not elected in Venezuela to be the executive vice president, that she would allow herself to this, to lend herself to this, I don't find very credible that aspect.
Oh absolutely yeah. And not to mention, I mean what.
She may have said on the flone to Marco Rubio exact moment versus what the actual.
Void another strike from her location, because it's clear that they do have some intelligence terms of where people are moving. You know, Trump even mentioned that they had images of Doodle making it to the door of a safer room but unable to actually be able to seal himself in. I mean, this is this is pretty serious in terms
of what we're talking about. What the amount of forces, the amount of resources that the US appears to have used in this in this operation quite quite well could have been her just trying to protect herself, to try to ensure that there is a succession. I don't think that she's going to play US imperialism's game. Not to mention the fact that she has been on the air all day talking about the need to resist this. So
I don't think that's the case. But even if she did, she would be pushed out by the revolutionary forces.
No, no one died of Venezuela is.
Going to tolerate anybody who's going to be a traitor to her homeland, and somebody else would rise to fill her shoes if that is the case. So it's a very unpredictable, unstable situation as of now, and really really quite surprising. But I will say I think at the point but I want to emphasize, is that what Trump is talking about is a large scale military operation or mission.
In South America.
I guess you know, I heard that one of the the reporters asked, how is this America first? I mean, it's apparently that word can that phrase can be used for anything, because in no way is this America first. This is another US military adventure without a clear outcome in terms of how they're actually going to be able to get out of this.
Let me play a little bit of this where Trump is talking about the Monroe doctrine and they now call it the Donro doctrine. American dominance in the Western hemisphere will never be questioned. Again. Let's listen to this.
All of these actions were in gross violation of the corporate incibals of American foreign policy dating back more than two centuries and not anymore, all the way back dated to the Monroe doctrines. And the Monroe doctrine is a big deal, but we've superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the donro Document. I don't know, it's Monroe doctrine. We sort of forgot about it. It was very important, but we forgot about it.
We don't forget about it anymore. Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again, won't happen.
What do you make of those comments? And it's consistent with some of the things that have been laid out in his national security strategy previously.
Now listening to him talk, I'm not sure he actually understands what the Monroe Doctrine was or how it could be applied in twenty twenty six. You know, the Monroe Doctrine was a policy of the United States that was aimed at Europe of the law to dissuade them from engaging in any champ of colonization or recolonization here in the Western hemisphere. He seems to understand it as the United States can do whatever it wants in the Western hemisphere,
that this is its exclusive sphere of influence. Obviously, in practice, that is what the Monroe Doctrine ultimately became. But that's not really what it was intended as. And certainly, even if we accept the you know, the principles behind the Monroe Doctrine, what the United States did is not about, you know, containing the influence of foreign powers inside of
the Western hemisphere. This is US military adventurism. It's the US imperialist policy of imposing its will on countries through might. You know, it's interesting we heard the comments there from US officials about how peace through strength. There's nothing peaceful about what just happened. You know, this is a very
violent act. You know, there's already reports of casualties as a result, and of course, you know, the kidnaping of a sitting president is it's just absolutely extraordinary, extraordinarily violent act. And so this is not piece whatsoever. And I hope that there's pushback from US policy makers, from lawmakers, from the US public around this. That's not what's happening here. The US once again has reminded us because this is something that the peoples of Latin America are very much
aware of that. They are willing to engage in these kinds of illegal actions to impose its will. And like I said in the other segment that we talked about, you know, I hope this is a wake up call because we really have to.
Understand who we're dealing with here.
And there's already as I mentioned earlier, there's already him talk of him talking about something.
Similar in Mexico. Now he was asked directly about this.
Yeah, and you know this is the problem is that you know, this could lead to a sort of domino effect where the US says, look what we're.
Willing to do. You want us to do that to you do exactly as we say.
Let me go ahead and play to bolster your point portion where he's talking about Cuba and Columbia, I believe in this particular response, let's listen to that.
Go ahead as a messagere for Cuba and Canal Well, Cuba is an interesting case. Cuba is, you know, not doing very well right now. That system has not been a very good one for Cuba. The people there have suffered for many, many years. And I think Cuba is going to be something we'll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, very badly failing nation,
and we want to help the people. It's very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba, but we want to also help the people that were forced out of Cuba and living in this country. Do you want to say something about that?
In markup, I'm sure Marco does want to say something about that, doesn't he? And another part though he did, he was asked about Columbia as well. You talked about Mexico. I mean, that's just a whole other, wild level of insanity. It's hard for me to wrap my head around all of this. And you know, I mean, I guess the best case scenario is this is all like blustering threats and him acting like a mad man to try to
coerce these various countries and leaders. But I mean, part of this is incredibly deadly real, not only the regime change in Venezuela, but now the promise that we are directly going to govern in even if it takes boots on the ground, even if it takes years. And I think this also just improcess upon everyone and for you know, those who had any doubt that this is part of a long time project to destroy any sort of left wing governance in the region.
Absolutely. You know.
One of the terms that I've been using more recently is the strategic retreat of the United States, you know, and I think it's actually the national security strategy as a confession that they are very much willing to admit that the struggle for total spectral dominance, which is what they used to talk about of the end of the Cold War, has largely been lost. That they do have a pure rival in China, and I think there is an acknowledgement that they need.
To kind of rebuild their forces.
The United States is not in a position today to be able to dispute hegemony at a global level, you know, and actually be able to kind of keep up with this pure rival.
And so that's why we see.
This pivot toward traditional spheres of influence and why we're seeing what's happening here in Latin America. This attempt to try to secure access to cheap resources, cheap labor, to client governments that are willing to do whatever the United States is willing to do, and those that aren't are going to face these kinds of threats, and that helps us understand what he's talking about when they talk about
Cuba and Colombia and Mexico. And like I said, this is pretty serious because of the precedent it sets, you know, and that they are willing to put boots on the ground. Now, can the US really engage in military conflicts in several countries at once? I think that's quite difficult. So if they really do intend to occupy Venezuela, that's going to be a very long distraction and could ultimately define the Donald Trump presidency.
Oh, absolutely, no doubt about it. Yeah, I mean, it's it's absolutely wild to see. And to your point about hoping that some media outlets and some you know, political leaders stand up, there have been some, but the Washington Post editorial board has come out in support. I just was reading Haquem Jeffrey's statement, which was incredibly weak and just basically, you know, did some handwringing about the process.
So why didn't you go to Congress before doing this completely insane thing, which like, okay, that's yes, we want you to follow the process, but also let's talk about the meat and potatoes of what was done here. You know, I think that the Democratic Party will be somewhat split, and the leaders of the party, Keem Jeffreys and Chuck Schumer in particular, will be somewhat supportive.
You know.
I think the base of the Democratic Party is going to be very opposed. And we'll see. There's so much propaganda already on all the cable news nets that it's just I mean, I can barely listen to it. It's so disturbing and so insane.
That's why we need alternative meet and that's why we need to be able to hear from voices on the.
Ground inside of Venezuela.
We actually just published right now a report on drop site News featuring some commentary from a young man who an Afro Venezuelan man who immediately mobilized. He spoke of how both his siblings and his mom we're scared and crying, and he said, no, we need to get together and we need to resist us, because then we know what's
happening and we have to push back against this. And those are the kinds of attitudes that people need to be aware of when Trump talks about an occupying force, about an invasion of their so called administration of Venezuela is that you're talking about millions of people who are
not going to stand for it. And that's really, I think something that we need to drive home, particularly amongst those who are listening to this program and who want to push back against this narrative, because you're right, that's what we're going to hear. We're going to hear about
how this is necessary. The bipartisan imperialist consensus is going to suggest that, well, we didn't like the methods, but we like the ends, and so we're going to continue to support this or probably be billions of dollars spent on this effort now, and those are billions of dollars that could be going to healthcare, for example, inside of the United States. These are all things that I think put into really clear picture the contradictions that define us
political life here. And it's tragic that once again the peoples of a global South country like Venezuela are going to have to pay the price. But I hope it serves to wake up a lot of people inside the United States.
Yeah, where we are is as of the new year, you have I don't know how many Americans who have seen their healthcare premiums, millions of Americans who've seen their healthcare premiums spike. You've seen the Epstein scandal continue to spin out a control. I recorded a segment earlier this week the Wall Street Journal reporting that mar A Laco was a key hunting ground for Glaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. So you have that, you have plunging approval rating and
scandal and incompetence on all fronts. I do think the timing of that has to do, you know, in part with wanting to distract from some of those scandals. But yeah, I have to think as the American people and even some people, some people who are in the Trump coalition listen to him talk about We're going to rebuild Venezuela's infrastructure, that they may feel like, hey, you know, we could do with some nation building and some infrastructure here at home.
So look, I'm not under any illusions. Partisanship runs very deep. The Trump MAGA coalition was more actually adversarial towards his strikes in Iran and potential war with Iran. There have been you know, pretty widespread I think acceptance in the right wing influencer class, at least of potential war with Venezuela. I did see Marjorie Taylor Green put out a good statement, but you know she's she's about to resign and she's on the ounce with the MAGA coalition. So you know
that is that is where we are. And the last thing, and I'll say to your point about how it almost feels you're sort of like watching the that you are watching the end of an empire in real time, and that this action and the National Security Doctrine all is
reflective of that decline in stature and stance globally. You know, the imagery from this press conference when he wasn't speaking, Trump was there falling asleep, like announcing this insane regime change war with dire immediate consequences, and he can't even at you know, almost eighty years old. He can't even stay awake for the whole thing. Talk about an image of a declining empire. That's it right there.
Although you as other officials, you know, Rubio Vans, they're much younger and they're very much on board with this same plant, so that.
Part is really weird.
We're ready to go.
Yeah, after we finished recording the early one, we talked about how I injured my hand in yesterday's earthquake here, and I think it's worth mentioning this crisis that the United States is living in right now, especially when it comes to issues like health care.
It doesn't have to.
Be that way. The United States is still the richest country in the history of the world. There's plenty of resources there to give a better quality of life to the US population, and they don't get it because they spend money doing this instead. Just as a quick anecdote, you know, as I mentioned to you, I went to my clinic, I went to the trauma hospital, I was served in the emerge in less than four hours, and
had my injury attended. That's all of that in a middle income country like Mexico, which has decided to invest in its welfare of the population. That's what you could have if you're able to push back against you know, these imperialist designs of the US.
Really class I want people to release it with this. You know, here you are in Mexico, a country with a lot less wealth and resources than the US, and you're able after you your hand is injured, you're able to go in get it treated less than four hours, receive quality care for zero cost, zero cost, and then you know, it's no wonder that Claudia Scheinbaum has one of the highest aproval ratings in the entire one now
that she is entirely responsible for that. But you know that has been the direction of leadership in Mexico is to actually, you know, put the care for their people first and foremost, which I think is what some people thought when they were voting for America first.
Yeah, it's certainly also what the Bolivarin Revolution was about. It was about redistributing that country's wealth to those who had never been able to access to it. But apparently that was too much for the US ruling class to tolerate, and that's why we've seen action after action after action culminating and what we're witnessing today.
Well, thank you so much for joining me again. I've taken up much more of your day than I originally intended, but I'm really grateful for it, and your analysis has been absolutely invaluable. So thank you so much.
Thank you so much for giving me this space to talk about this