Speaker 1: All right, guys, woke up to some wild news this morning.
Speaker 1: Regime change in Venezuela. The President has announced that we
Speaker 1: have struck within Venezuela and abducted and kidnapped the president,
Speaker 1: Nicholas Maduro, along with his wife, who apparently set to
Speaker 1: face charges in the Southern District of New York. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this has been built up for some time, with all
Speaker 1: of these strikes on various boats and the rhetorical case
Speaker 1: being made that Meduro is the head of a drug
Speaker 1: trafficking ring. There is zero evidence to back this up,
Speaker 1: and at other times administration officials and their allies have
Speaker 1: made plain that their actual interest in Venezuela has to
Speaker 1: do with the natural resources there and specifically the oil.
Speaker 1: So here we go. Let me put up on the
Speaker 1: screen what the President posted initially to social media. To
Speaker 1: truth social he said, the United States of America has
Speaker 1: successfully carried down a large scale strike against Venezuela and
Speaker 1: its leader, President Nicholas Maduro, who has been along with
Speaker 1: his wife, captured and flown out of the country. This
Speaker 1: operation was done in conjunction with the US law enforcement.
Speaker 1: Details to follow. There will be a news conference today
Speaker 1: at eleven am. At mar A Lago. Let me go
Speaker 1: ahead and give you what Pam Bondi, the Attorney General,
Speaker 1: is saying about these charges. She says, Nicholas Maduro and
Speaker 1: his wife, Celia Flora, has been indicted in the Southern
Speaker 1: District of New York. Maduro has been charged with narco terrorism, conspiracy,
Speaker 1: cocaine importation, conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices,
Speaker 1: and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against
Speaker 1: the United States. They will soon face the full wrath
Speaker 1: of American justice on American soil and American courts, on
Speaker 1: behalf of the entire USDOJ. I'd like to thank President
Speaker 1: Trump for having the courage to demand accountability on behalf
Speaker 1: of the American people. A huge thank you to our
Speaker 1: brief military who conducted this incredible and highly successful mission
Speaker 1: to capture these two alleged international narco traffickers. I will
Speaker 1: remind you that just shortly short time ago, Trump pardoned
Speaker 1: an actual drug trafficker, one Orlando Hernandez, former president of Honduras,
Speaker 1: seemingly because some of Trump's tech oligarch buddies were mad
Speaker 1: about their prospero crypto fiefdom being undermined in that country.
Speaker 1: But in any case, if you had any illusion that
Speaker 1: Trump actually cares about the drugs, that should be thoroughly
Speaker 1: dismantled by the fact of his recent pardon of that
Speaker 1: former president of Honduras, one Orlando Hernandez, who actually was
Speaker 1: involved in drug smuggling and drug trafficking. Here we go
Speaker 1: Trump on Fox and Friends talking about the incredible raid
Speaker 1: as he describes it, that captured kidnapped Maduro and his
Speaker 1: wife's God and take a listen to this.
Speaker 2: A quite a busy heavening tell us about it. It
Speaker 2: was slightly busy. I would say it was very dark
Speaker 2: all over, especially in Venezuela. The team did an incredible job.
Speaker 2: They rehearsed and practiced like nobody's ever seen. And it
Speaker 2: was sold. And I was told by real military people
Speaker 2: that there's no other country on earth that could do
Speaker 2: such a maneuver. If you would have seen what happened,
Speaker 2: I mean I watched it literally like I was watching
Speaker 2: a television show. And if you would have seen the speed,
Speaker 2: the violence, you know they say that the speed the violence,
Speaker 2: they used that term just it was an amazing thing,
Speaker 2: an amazing job that these people did there's nobody else
Speaker 2: could have done anything like it.
Speaker 3: You're at mar A Lago right now. How were you able.
Speaker 2: To watch this? Well, we watched it from a room.
Speaker 2: We had a room and we watched it, and we
Speaker 2: watched every aspect of it. We were surrounded by lots
Speaker 2: of people, including generals. Then they knew everything that was happening.
Speaker 2: And it was very complex, extremely complex, the whole maneuver,
Speaker 2: the landings, a number of aircraft which were massive number,
Speaker 2: the number of helicopters, a different type of helicopters, different
Speaker 2: type of fighter jets. We had a fighter jets for
Speaker 2: every possible situation. And they just broke in and they
Speaker 2: broke into places that were not really able to be
Speaker 2: broke into, you know, steel doors that were put there
Speaker 2: for just this reason, and they got taken out in
Speaker 2: a matter of seconds. I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 3: And you were able to watch this in real time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't forget. I've done some pretty good ones
Speaker 2: in other parts of the world. Okay, I've done some
Speaker 2: pretty good ones, but I've never seen anything like this.
Speaker 2: I was. I was able to watch it in real time,
Speaker 2: and I watched every aspect of it, and I listened
Speaker 2: to the communication between you know where we were in
Speaker 2: Florida and out in the field in Venezuela, and it
Speaker 2: was amazing to see the professionalism, the quality of leadership,
Speaker 2: the professionalism general raising gain is fantastic. Don't forget. We
Speaker 2: did another one not so long ago. It was called
Speaker 2: the knocking out of the the Iranian nuclear threat, the
Speaker 2: nuclear power that was. That was unbelievable what they did there,
Speaker 2: and this is something that I don't know. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: And to have a few injuries but no death on
Speaker 2: our side is really amazing, mister President.
Speaker 1: So there you go. That is what the President is
Speaker 1: telling Fox and Friends this morning. I do have a
Speaker 1: guest who's going to join me momentarily, the head of
Speaker 1: the Latin American desk for Drop Site News, to break
Speaker 1: down what we know and what this means obviously incredibly
Speaker 1: significant geopolitical ramifications here. So definitely want to get to
Speaker 1: him in a moment, But first I just wanted to
Speaker 1: give you a little bit more this rundown from people's
Speaker 1: dispatch about what we know at this point. You know,
Speaker 1: we we have learned a little bit more since this
Speaker 1: was posted. But if I could go through here a
Speaker 1: little bit of their report. They talk about how explosions
Speaker 1: were reported at key military basis, civilian areas, and other
Speaker 1: sites across the Venezuelan capital of Gracus and surrounding areas.
Speaker 1: In the early hours, Venezuelan government sent an official statement
Speaker 1: the attack was perpetrated by the US and constitutes a
Speaker 1: grave military aggression against Venezuelan territory and population. They go
Speaker 1: on to talk about the Trump Truth social post. They
Speaker 1: say venezuel and Vice President Delca Rodriguez spoke to Teleisur
Speaker 1: shortly after confirmed that following this brutal situation, brutal attack,
Speaker 1: we are unaware of the whereabouts of the President, Nicholas
Speaker 1: Maduro and that of the first Lady, Celia Flores. Now,
Speaker 1: one thing that is worth noting here is that apparently
Speaker 1: the vice president is now in charge, so while Maduro
Speaker 1: has been kidnapped and removed to face charges in the US,
Speaker 1: which I mean, you guys can only imagine how the
Speaker 1: US would react if our president was kidnapped. But in
Speaker 1: any case, the rest of their administration appears to be
Speaker 1: intact and in control, so not the Nobel Peace Prize
Speaker 1: winning opposition leader, US puppet Machado but continues to be
Speaker 1: Delca Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro's administration so far
Speaker 1: appears to continue to be in control. So that is
Speaker 1: very significant. I also wanted to show you here they
Speaker 1: have a list of the sites that have been struck.
Speaker 1: According to sources in Venezuela, they say Tiona Fort, major
Speaker 1: military complex in the southwest of Caracas, La Carloda Base
Speaker 1: and air base in Caracas, and La Guera Port and
Speaker 1: Naval Command, forgive my lack of Spanish pronunciation, port facility
Speaker 1: and Naval Command located in Laguera state, higaror Rote Airport,
Speaker 1: airport in the coastal town in the state of Miranda.
Speaker 1: So those are the places that we know have been
Speaker 1: struck at this point. And with that, for additional reaction analysis,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and get to Jose Louis
Speaker 1: Granado Seja, who is the head of the Latin America
Speaker 1: desk for drop Site News. Jose luis great to have.
Speaker 3: You, welcome, Thank you much for having me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, so let me just get your reaction
Speaker 1: to the events as we understand them at this point.
Speaker 3: Well, what we just saw was absolutely extraordinary. I think
Speaker 3: this was always a possibility. I talked about the potential
Speaker 3: for decapitation moves trying to go after the Venezuelan leadership,
Speaker 3: and it seems that that's precisely what happened last night
Speaker 3: in the morning, early morning of Saturday, where US forces
Speaker 3: you latterly attacked Venezuela. Should be understood as such. This
Speaker 3: is yet another active aggression, the other another act of
Speaker 3: war against Venezuela in particular, but I think against Latin
Speaker 3: America in general. Kidnapping the president, I think that's the
Speaker 3: accurate term. You know, let's talk about him being captured.
Speaker 3: I believe he's being held prisoner as a captive on
Speaker 3: the Ewojima, which is one of the many boats that
Speaker 3: was stationed just off the coast of Venezuela. With this
Speaker 3: massive mobilization of the US Navy, a fourth of the
Speaker 3: Navy is still in Caribbean waters. This situation is what
Speaker 3: we always feared what would happen, And it appears that
Speaker 3: the US has successfully kidnapped Nicolas Maduro and set in
Speaker 3: a terrible precedent for the region, for the country. I
Speaker 3: think we are in a new day here in Latin
Speaker 3: America as a result of what happened.
Speaker 1: What do you see as the motivation for this attack
Speaker 1: in kidnapping.
Speaker 3: So we have a lot of important actors inside of Washington,
Speaker 3: in the White House right now who are dead set
Speaker 3: on finishing off any leftist progressive government in the region. Obviously,
Speaker 3: their biggest targets were Venezuela, Cuban, Nicaragua, who have always
Speaker 3: been a thorn in the side of the US and
Speaker 3: been a force against US imperialism here in the region.
Speaker 3: And so all of that response to that, everything that
Speaker 3: we've seen over the last few months is a response
Speaker 3: to that drive by these actors, including Trump as well,
Speaker 3: of course, who were seeking to oust by any means necessary,
Speaker 3: these leftist, progressive revolutionary governments in the region, and and
Speaker 3: you know the attacks on the extrajudicial executions that were happening,
Speaker 3: This land strike that happened a few weeks ago, and
Speaker 3: now obviously with the kidnapping of the president is just
Speaker 3: the latest iteration of a very long, a decades long
Speaker 3: regime change effort. Venezuela's now a country that has seen
Speaker 3: two of its president's kidnapped. To remember, in two thousand
Speaker 3: and two, the US bakkup against Ugo Chavas that briefly
Speaker 3: deposed him. He was held prisoner for two days as well,
Speaker 3: although he eventually was returned thanks to the uprising of
Speaker 3: the people. We're already seeing the population mobilizing in Venezuela.
Speaker 3: But this is what it is. It's regime change. It's
Speaker 3: regime change using violent, deadly methods. Where As already reports
Speaker 3: of civilians being killed as a result of these US
Speaker 3: strikes inside of Venezuela and this effort to kidnap Nicolasma Duro,
Speaker 3: and so all of that is because, on the one hand,
Speaker 3: as I said, the Bowlervarion revolution, this process that started
Speaker 3: with the election of Ugo chava Is back in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety eight, is always something that represented a threat to
Speaker 3: US elites, to U segeminy in the region. But it's
Speaker 3: also about resources. I mean Trump has said as much
Speaker 3: in those words that it's about the oil. It's about
Speaker 3: the oil, it's about the golds, about the national resources.
Speaker 3: Right now, it looks like the revolutionary regime is still
Speaker 3: in control of the country, doesn't appear that the opposition
Speaker 3: is in a position to be able to try to
Speaker 3: seize power, which means that they actually won't have access
Speaker 3: to these resources. The situations dramatically change. I find it
Speaker 3: difficult to imagine any kind of negotiations happening with the
Speaker 3: US now except for the release of the president. And
Speaker 3: so there will probably still be that impulse in Washington,
Speaker 3: in the White House to continue to try to find
Speaker 3: a way to have access to those resources. That's what
Speaker 3: this is really from.
Speaker 1: The South Florida contingent, I mean, that is one of
Speaker 1: the things that is puzzling here is you know, reportedly
Speaker 1: Menduro had offered, hey, if you want access to our resources,
Speaker 1: no problem. Now you're going to have a much more hostile,
Speaker 1: you know, head of the regime in place after you
Speaker 1: you know, took these aggressive illegal acts and kidnap their president.
Speaker 1: So what do you make of the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: as of right now, Medoro's vice president is in charge
Speaker 1: of the country. So, yes, it's a regime change in
Speaker 1: the sense that the president has been you know, kidnapped
Speaker 1: in deposed, but the rest of the regime is still
Speaker 1: intact and in place.
Speaker 3: Well, the United States had been escalating and escalating, first
Speaker 3: with the deployment of these ships into the Caribbean, then
Speaker 3: with the extra judicial executions, the strikes in the Eastern
Speaker 3: Pacific as well. You know, clearly we're trying to send
Speaker 3: a message, but they had kind of painted themselves into
Speaker 3: a corner because, as we well have seen, Maduda wasn't
Speaker 3: willing to go. The only reason he's not in charge
Speaker 3: today is because he's been kidnapped, and so that put
Speaker 3: you know, basically two unstoppable forces that eventually ran into
Speaker 3: each other. And this appears to be the sort of
Speaker 3: action where Trump can try to walk away from the
Speaker 3: conundrum that he has created in South America to say, well,
Speaker 3: we took out Madudo, that's what we wanted. This is
Speaker 3: a law enforcement action, but there are still very important forces.
Speaker 3: They're going to continue to push for the end of
Speaker 3: the Braverian revolution in Venezuela. That's what is also going
Speaker 3: to be on the table in the coming days and
Speaker 3: weeks or maybe perhaps longer in terms of what is
Speaker 3: going to happen next. I imagine that they're going to
Speaker 3: try to use this as an end point for them,
Speaker 3: but I don't really think that that's going to be successful,
Speaker 3: because we have to understand that the initially these strikes
Speaker 3: on these alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, these
Speaker 3: all started as an effort to appease the Florida Gusano
Speaker 3: labby to try to get them on board. Actually, way
Speaker 3: back when they were negotiations around the Big Beautiful Bill,
Speaker 3: these lawmakers, these representatives were seeking for Trump to end
Speaker 3: the Chevron license, to end Chevron's activities in Venezuela, to
Speaker 3: send a single to their allies in the hard right
Speaker 3: reactionary opposition in Venezuela that the US was still there
Speaker 3: for them. Because Trump wasn't willing to do that, he
Speaker 3: turned to this this so called drug operation, which really,
Speaker 3: as we said earlier, is really about regime change in
Speaker 3: order to win their support, and he did. But they're
Speaker 3: going to keep pushing for that. They're not going to
Speaker 3: be okay with Delci Rodriguez or the Odeldo gave O
Speaker 3: key figures in Venezuela politics in power, and so I
Speaker 3: don't think this is actually going to represent it. And
Speaker 3: of course we have to think about the Venezuelan response
Speaker 3: and the broader response from Latin America. I really do
Speaker 3: think that there are a lot of elected leaders in
Speaker 3: this region who are wondering what this means for their
Speaker 3: relationship with the United States. I mean I think about Mexico.
Speaker 3: For example, he has used similar language to describe Modena,
Speaker 3: the ruling party here in Mexico, saying that they're tied
Speaker 3: to drugs, that the drugs cartels run Mexico, you know,
Speaker 3: classifying fentanela as a weapon of mass destruction. How do
Speaker 3: we know he won't use the same arguments against Mexico.
Speaker 3: He's already tried to use them against Betro in Columbia.
Speaker 3: So this is really a major crisis in the Western hemisphere.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit more about these drug
Speaker 1: trafficking allegations, just to kind of put this to bed,
Speaker 1: because you know, Susie Wilds, who's Trump's chief of staff,
Speaker 1: told Vanity Fair magazine that it would be illegal to
Speaker 1: strike in Venezuela, to have some sort of land strikes
Speaker 1: in Venezuela without congressional authorization. Well, no congressional authorization was
Speaker 1: sought or received. So they are using this pretext of, oh, well,
Speaker 1: we've indicted him and he's, you know, a drug trafficker,
Speaker 1: and this was all in self defense and that's why
Speaker 1: we're able to do it without congressional authorization, which I
Speaker 1: think is told in complete bullshit. But in any case.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about this flimsy pretext of claiming that
Speaker 1: Maduro is some sort of drug trafficker and that being
Speaker 1: the justification here and the rationale for why they kidnapped him.
Speaker 3: Flimsy is the right word. There is no real justification
Speaker 3: for this. Any legal analysts worth their salt would tell
Speaker 3: you as such. What the United States did is clearly illegal.
Speaker 3: It's yet another example of the United States trying to
Speaker 3: apply its laws extra territorially. Within the United States, of course,
Speaker 3: it's their freedom to do what they want in terms
Speaker 3: of exercising legal authority inside of their borders, side of
Speaker 3: their territorial waters. But this is clearly an action outside
Speaker 3: of that, trying to enforce US law in this way.
Speaker 3: We've seen it before. There are historic presidents for this, obviously,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about Monuento Rea and Panama. But no, there's
Speaker 3: no legality to this, nor is there any legality to
Speaker 3: the extra judicial executions. And yet, unfortunately, because I think
Speaker 3: there wasn't enough pushback against those, you know, policymakers felt
Speaker 3: emboldened to do something like this to continue to flo
Speaker 3: out international humanitarian law, as we also saw in the
Speaker 3: genocide against the Palestinian people. We live in a very
Speaker 3: very dangerous world where it really doesn't carry any weight
Speaker 3: anymore and its might makes right apparently, and that's what
Speaker 3: we saw here. There is no in terms of the
Speaker 3: actual allegations of narco trafficking. They're all in an invention. The
Speaker 3: Cartel of the Suns, which is the one that they
Speaker 3: claim that Madudo is the head of, does not even exist.
Speaker 3: And it's the UN that says it. It's DA reports
Speaker 3: that say the Cartel of the Suns is not an
Speaker 3: actual cartel in the way that we usually understand that term.
Speaker 3: There may be individual elements within the Venezuelan state who
Speaker 3: are engaged in drug trafficking, as there is in a
Speaker 3: lot of states of Latin America because of the massive
Speaker 3: demand from the United States for drugs to come into
Speaker 3: their territory. But that doesn't mean that Madudo is the
Speaker 3: head of our cartel or even the trend that I
Speaker 3: was you know, this has been overstated. It's a criminal organization,
Speaker 3: but it's not a cartel in that you know, when
Speaker 3: you think about you know, the ones that operate in
Speaker 3: Mexico for example, right button for example, this is a
Speaker 3: criminal group that kind of uses this name as branding
Speaker 3: in order to intimidate and to exercise influence over certain
Speaker 3: Venezuelans in particular, but Latin American migrants who are in
Speaker 3: the region, They're not at an organization the way that they've
Speaker 3: been depicted. It is like we saw, you know, in
Speaker 3: the early two thousands rhetoric, a campaign to try to
Speaker 3: manufacture consent for what are clearly illegal actions.
Speaker 1: I've heard this Panama comparison quite frequently, so maybe you
Speaker 1: could lay out for people what we did there and
Speaker 1: why people. I mean, obviously, the Iraq war example is
Speaker 1: not necessarily one that this administration wants to replicate, So
Speaker 1: the Panama example is the one that I see the
Speaker 1: Trump regime's allies sort of putting forward as the model here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I've seen other reports online. I forget
Speaker 3: what the source was, but basically Panama is viewed as
Speaker 3: a excess inside of the Pentagon, whereas Iraq is a
Speaker 3: conundrum of failure in a lot of ways. The thing
Speaker 3: to focus on here, I think is, you know, that
Speaker 3: brazen attitude, that unhindered way that the US operates in
Speaker 3: the region of thinking it has the authority to do this.
Speaker 3: The difference with Panama beyond the size of the country
Speaker 3: and its geopolitical importance, you know, with respect to oil.
Speaker 3: For the example when it comes to Venezuela, is also
Speaker 3: that the US already had thousands of troops inside of
Speaker 3: Panama because of the canal zone and the rest of it.
Speaker 3: And so you know, the ability to quickly affect regime
Speaker 3: change in Panama did happen, right, They were able to
Speaker 3: put in, you know, a puppet regime that kind of
Speaker 3: you know, dissolved everything that that Noriega had done previously.
Speaker 3: Nodiero was obviously captured, taken to the United States and
Speaker 3: is still in prison or was in prison in the
Speaker 3: United States because of that operation. This one's different because
Speaker 3: there's no troops in the United States of the United States.
Speaker 3: It appears inside of Venezuela at this point appears it
Speaker 3: was strictly focused on finding, capturing and kidnapping Maduro. Apparently,
Speaker 3: according to New York Times, it was CIA in formant
Speaker 3: inside of Madudo's in a circle that actually allowed them
Speaker 3: to know his location. And so that probably is the
Speaker 3: reason why facilitated the quick operation that we saw last night,
Speaker 3: as well as you know, overwhelming attack on Venezuela's defense capabilities.
Speaker 3: There was a report from the Basil La Carlotta where
Speaker 3: they had anti aircraft missile batteries there that were destroyed
Speaker 3: before the actual helicopters, the Chinook helicopters started flying in
Speaker 3: So in that sense, there is the parallel of capturing
Speaker 3: and kidnapping and detaining a sitting president, but it's very
Speaker 3: different in the sense that if they think that this
Speaker 3: is been going to lead to regime change, I don't
Speaker 3: think that's actually on the table, given the fact that
Speaker 3: there's probably going to be a lot of detentions in
Speaker 3: the coming hours and days. You know, the Venezuelan hardline
Speaker 3: opposition is probably celebrating what just happened here. That is
Speaker 3: a counter patriotic sentiment is obviously illegal, especially in the
Speaker 3: context of an external threat that has been declared in Venezuela.
Speaker 3: So it's unlikely they'll even have the Cadre attempt a
Speaker 3: regime change effort led by the Venezuelan O position.
Speaker 1: Can you talk a little bit more about what you
Speaker 1: expect the response within Venezuela to be and what are
Speaker 1: the early things that we're seeing right now.
Speaker 3: We published a really important piece in drop Site News
Speaker 3: written by Mi Collei Andrina Chaves, where she talked with
Speaker 3: a lot of the Venezuela and grassroots, the commune ards.
Speaker 3: People have to remember, and this is not often reported
Speaker 3: in the bourgeois media, is that Venezuela is a country
Speaker 3: that has undergone a decades long revolutionary process and there
Speaker 3: are organizations and individuals who are really and willing to
Speaker 3: go to the ultimate end in terms of defense of
Speaker 3: their territory. We're talking about armed self defense groups that
Speaker 3: do exist here. They've talked about a war of all
Speaker 3: the people. Now, if there is boots on the ground
Speaker 3: by the United States, if this does escalate even further,
Speaker 3: you're going to see a very, very complicated situation of
Speaker 3: un armed resistance not just by the state but non
Speaker 3: state actors inside of Anezuela to expel these invasing forces
Speaker 3: and send them back home in coffins. That's what's going
Speaker 3: to happen if there is an invasion. Right now, we're
Speaker 3: seeing mobilization by the grassroots, by the Tavista supporters, by
Speaker 3: these revolutionary organizations into the streets. Now, my colleagues are
Speaker 3: in the streets now, you know, at these spontaneous demonstrations.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of questions in the air. Ultimately, right
Speaker 3: now the demand is give us proof of life. We
Speaker 3: want to know he's still alive. And we'll see what
Speaker 3: the demand becomes in the coming days in terms of
Speaker 3: what the population wants to see. But I would imagine
Speaker 3: that in addition to that is an immediate return of
Speaker 3: the kidnapped president. He is the president of Venezuela. He
Speaker 3: is the president recognized by countries throughout the hemisphere and
Speaker 3: the world with important allies. The special envoy from China
Speaker 3: for Latin America was just in Venezuela yesterday. Russia obviously
Speaker 3: has very clear ties and so this can very quickly
Speaker 3: become a broad geopolitical issue for the entire globe. But domestically,
Speaker 3: you can count on the Venezuelan people to resist. They
Speaker 3: will be on the streets as they are already in
Speaker 3: this very moment.
Speaker 1: Do you have any thoughts about the broader geopolitical implications here.
Speaker 1: You mentioned there were Chinese officials that were just meeting
Speaker 1: with Maduro. You know, Trump also just threatened to get
Speaker 1: involved in Iran again, especially if they crack down further
Speaker 1: on the protests that are occurring. There when net Yahoo
Speaker 1: was here just days ago, Trump said, Hey, if Faran
Speaker 1: goes back to building nuclear weapons, we're going to strike
Speaker 1: them again, or we would green light Israel striking them again.
Speaker 1: What sort of broader geopolitical implications do you see of
Speaker 1: this brazenly lawless might make the right sort of law
Speaker 1: of the jungle action.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's time for the world to realize
Speaker 3: that these are the camps that we are dividing ourselves into.
Speaker 3: It's either you're with the imperialists or with the counter
Speaker 3: hegemonic forces. And they are clearly willing to do just
Speaker 3: about anything in order to enforce that logic of might
Speaker 3: makes right. And I think it's really time that we
Speaker 3: have the emergence of the kinds of things we saw,
Speaker 3: you know, like the Nine Aligned movement, you know, these
Speaker 3: groups within the nations to take much firmer positions. I think,
Speaker 3: in particular in Latin America, this has to be a
Speaker 3: wake up call. There was a lot of pressure for
Speaker 3: there to be at least a statement some kind of pushback.
Speaker 3: I had called for an ad hoc group. If the
Speaker 3: regional organizations are not willing or able to push back
Speaker 3: against all of this, illegality. Then whoever is willing to
Speaker 3: sign on to the statement should do so because the evidence,
Speaker 3: I think is very clear to just about anybody at
Speaker 3: this point that the United States is just willing to
Speaker 3: do anything, and that has to guide our decision our
Speaker 3: relations with the United States, because how can we possibly
Speaker 3: trust someone who's willing to do this kind of thing
Speaker 3: to kidnap a president? What's to stop him? That could
Speaker 3: be the argument used anywhere, just to raise an allegation
Speaker 3: and get any rid of anybody who's inconvenient, And it
Speaker 3: really is dangerous. It's dangerous for the world. You know,
Speaker 3: the United States has a pure rival in China. Do
Speaker 3: they really want to provoke this kind of conflict with
Speaker 3: important allies of China in Latin America. I mean, this
Speaker 3: is the question that I think people in Washington also
Speaker 3: need to add themselves, and as well the people of
Speaker 3: the United States. Is this the world they want to
Speaker 3: live in? Some of Donald Trump's support is due to
Speaker 3: his declaration of being a so called peace president, of
Speaker 3: not seeking new forever wars. This is hardly any different.
Speaker 3: Just because you're not invading the country doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: this isn't an act of war. Is this really what
Speaker 3: the United States population was? And if this continues, if
Speaker 3: this has momentum, if they start doing this throughout the world,
Speaker 3: of course it's eventually going to produce an armed conflict
Speaker 3: directly with US forces, and that means that your children
Speaker 3: are going to be sent to be killed for wars
Speaker 3: for oil. We've been down this road before, and I
Speaker 3: think it's really time for us to shape up. This
Speaker 3: is the new reality. This is what it means to
Speaker 3: have Donald Trump and his like in the White House
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: I saw someone joke on Twitter or that they're beginning
Speaker 1: to doubt the legitimacy of the FIFA Peace Prize that
Speaker 1: Trump was just awarded. Jose Luis Granado Saiha, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. This was extraordinary analysis and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3: No, absolutely anytime, and of course as things develop, you
Speaker 3: can count on me to provide some analysis and share
Speaker 3: information for my colleagues there on the ground as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody, I'm sure already listening to this channel. Big
Speaker 1: Ryan Grim fans, Big Drop Site fans will be following
Speaker 1: your coverage closely. And for everybody out there listening to this,
Speaker 1: we will continue to monitor, you know, we may do
Speaker 1: another breaking news segment over the course of the weekend.
Speaker 1: We've got this mar A Logo press conference coming up,
Speaker 1: so we'll see what comes out of that, and otherwise
Speaker 1: we will be back to our regular schedule. On Monday,
Speaker 1: Soger and I will be in studios, so we will
Speaker 1: see you then