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Maduro, Wife Plead Not Guilty to All Federal Charges; Delcy Rodriguez Sworn in as Venezuela's Acting President; Trump Administration to Brief Select Lawmakers on Venezuela Today; Trump Says We'll First Fix Venezuela's Oil Industry, Then Have Elections; Trial Begins for Former Officer Over Uvalde School Massacre. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired January 05, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:01:13]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": This is "CNN News Central." I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Erica Hill, and we begin with Breaking News on ousted Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro. Maduro just in the last hour leaving his first federal court appearance after pleading not guilty to drug and weapons charges. Maduro repeatedly calling himself the President of Venezuela, describing himself as a prisoner of war in front of the judge, saying that he is innocent.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Maduro's wife, Cilia Flores, was by his side. She also pleaded not guilty. She was seen in court with a bandage on her head. Her attorney says that she suffered significant injuries when U.S. elite forces captured her and her husband. We want to get straight to CNN's Evan Perez and Laura Coates.

Laura, you were actually inside the courthouse earlier. What more did you see? Bring us some of the color to what we heard from their attorneys.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: It was truly an amazing moment in history to watch Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who says she's the First Lady of the Republic of Venezuela, inside a United States courthouse facing four federal charges for Maduro alone, three for her. He stood self-assured, confident, speaking in Spanish, with having headphones on for interpreters who were speaking to them, translating their every word.

The very first opportunity that Maduro had to speak, he talked about being captured in his home, abducted, a prisoner of war. He also wanted to have his notes, he was taking copious notes, having held in his hand for the first time, he says, the indictment that was implemented towards him. He also was indicted by the judge who said, I don't want to talk about essentially the legality of you being removed from your home or any upcoming motions.

Are you Nicolas Maduro, which he said that he was. He also proclaimed his innocence and pled not guilty, along with his wife, who had visible injuries, at least bandages on her temple, also above her eye. Her attorney said she had severe bruising on her ribs. They exchanged glances at different moments in time. And at one point in time, Maduro sort of controlled the moment by having her attorney speaking with him, him talking to his own attorney.

This is a man used to being in control, undoubtedly. We also learned very significantly, Evan, that there was not going to be a bail request at this time. They were going to wait for the future. They still had the opportunity to do so. But right now, they just wanted the consulate.

SANCHEZ: And Evan, the next court date is March 17th. Maduro's lawyers decided to not discuss the potential for bail at this hearing. Do we know what life is going to be like for Maduro and his wife until March?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that bail hearing, that certainly bail request is certainly anticipated. They mentioned that they are going to make that request. And until then, they are now on their way back to the MDC, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which is a pretty grim place. I think, Boris, you and I have been talking about all of the problems that have been cataloged in that facility.

And you don't have to take my words or the words of some of the defense attorneys out there. Even the Justice Department's inspector general has repeatedly cited and cataloged the number of problems in there, including with the medical care that is provided to defendants, people who are held there. And given the fact that Cilia Flores is citing that she -- her attorney pointed out that she has some significant injuries, you can bet that that is going to be an issue going forward.

Now, the fact that he is still claiming to be the President of Venezuela, she has claimed to still be the First Lady of Venezuela, we can anticipate that there's going to be an effort to try to improve the conditions in which they're being held right now.

HILL: And to that point, Laura, how will all of that play out? As they try to determine that, as they look to push their case essentially for it, how do we expect the judge to handle all of this?

[14:05:00]

COATES: Two words important here raised in court, voluminous and complex. That's how the defense attorneys describe the anticipated motions in this. They're waiting until March 17th, even waiving their right to a speedy trial until that date, which is their constitutional right, to which Maduro actually said he was unaware of the right, including the right to counsel and having counsel paid for him if he could not pay for it himself, a man who has significant wealth.

The idea here being that they are going to be pushing for the defenses that are anticipated, including that he claims to be a head of state, wants to get immunity. Now, of course, there is some precedent in terms of Noriega and otherwise, the Office of Special Counsel back in 1989, led by Bill Barr at the time, and different memorandums describing the deference essentially given to the executive branch of government, the president of the United States, and declaring who actually would be a head of state to get that immunity.

So the judge will likely defer to those other precedential moments, but that's not a court saying that. That's the Office of Legal Counsel saying that instead. But more importantly here, you're going to have motions including discovery. We do not yet know all the information that this case has in terms of discovery for the defense who can mount one. Evan knows quite well, this is years in the making. Imagine the voluminous documents that are entailed here.

PEREZ: Right, absolutely. And look, one of the things that I think we can see from the indictment is the claim by the prosecutors, by the government, that they have all this evidence dating back more than 10 years to prove what they are alleging against these two defendants.

SANCHEZ: Evan Perez, Laura Coates, outside the courthouse in New York, thank you so much. Let's expand the conversation now with a former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro. Ambassador, thank you for being with us.

What do you think about what we're learning it was like in court for Maduro today, him repeating that he is the legitimate President of Venezuela?

CHARLES SHAPIRO, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA: Well, the Venezuelans have said that as well. Delcy Rodriguez said, I think it was yesterday, that she's only the Interim President, that Nicolas Maduro continues to be the President of Venezuela. If Maduro gets, which he should I mean under U.S. law, has his Consulate in touch with him and they can presumably hire private defense attorneys, I mean, this is going to go on for a while.

I'm not an attorney. I can't make a judgment on what's right and what's wrong. But you would think that with good defense attorneys that this is going to go on for a while.

HILL: In terms of how things are playing out in Venezuela, the fact that Delcy Rodriguez is now, right, the Acting President. There's been a little bit of back and forth, a little bit of a dance, if you will, between her and President Trump in terms of what we're hearing publicly. But as this is unfolding, essentially Maduro's people are still in charge there. And we even have this decree that's now been made public that orders the search -- that security forces search for and capture any person involved in the promotion or support of what is called an attack by the U.S. against the country.

Given how that is playing out in Venezuela, is there a timeline here that's concerning to you based on your experience there?

SHAPIRO: Look, what you heard from the president on Saturday and the secretary of state on all the talk shows on Sunday is, what the administration is doing is placing stability over democracy and the reinstitution of democracy in Venezuela. So that, ironically enough, the minister of interior -- in Latin America, the interior minister controls all the police. The Minister of interior is on those indictments with Cilia Flores and Nicolas Maduro.

I mean, he's a co-conspirator in all of the charges against those two. He's still in charge of the police in Venezuela. Think about that. The reason, in the lead-up to this, you showed people celebrating all over the world rejoicing, Venezuelans in the United States, in Spain, in Colombia celebrating. They're not celebrating in Caracas because they don't know what the police will do. So, the structure of Maduro minus Maduro continues in place.

SANCHEZ: What does that mean for freedom and democracy in Venezuela? I mean, are you anticipating that the U.S. at some point needs to outline details of a plan, needs to specify this is the plan moving forward?

SHAPIRO: I think we're in for, you know, a long and complicated developments in Venezuela. Look, Maduro stole the presidential election of July of 2024.

[14:10:00]

The president expressed no interest in bringing back to Venezuela the guy, Edmundo Gonzalez, who actually won the election. Right? The woman who is the most popular opposition figure in Venezuela, who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in early December in Oslo, Maria Corina Machado, the president in his press conference on Saturday dismissed her and said she's not respected in Venezuela.

So clearly, what we, the United States, is doing is putting stability over democracy by keeping the same people in place, the same oil people in place, the same police in place, the same military in place, with the hopes that if the two big U.S. oil multinationals get to work there, they'll increase the flow of oil, increase the flow of money to themselves, to the government, and money that can be used to help rebuild Venezuela.

But wow, that's a complicated set of how we're going to do this. And I think not putting a higher emphasis on democracy in Venezuela is going to be a huge mistake.

SANCHEZ: A complicated picture, no doubt. Ambassador Charles Shapiro, thank you so much.

Still to come, the Trump administration is briefing key members of Congress on the capture of Nicolas Maduro, as President Trump says the U.S. is now in charge of the country.

HILL: Plus, the trial begins for a former officer who responded to the Uvalde school massacre. We're live at the Texas courthouse, where jurors are now being selected. And a little later, we now know how the Pentagon plans to punish Senator Mark Kelly for participating in a video to U.S. troops. These important stories and many more ahead, right here, this hour, on "CNN News Central."

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[14:16:09] SANCHEZ: Breaking News to CNN. Delcy Rodriguez has formally been sworn in as Venezuela's Acting President. This is video taken just moments ago. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in court today is facing drugs and weapons charges as this is going on. We are waiting to hear more information about exactly how Rodriguez plans to work with the United States as Donald Trump says that the U.S. will run that country.

Meantime, the U.S. is alleging that Maduro, again, is a drug trafficker, among other charges, something that will ultimately be decided by jurors. Here's what we know about the illicit drug trade out of Venezuela. The first drug trafficking accusations came against Nicolas Maduro back in 2020, during the first Trump administration. And at the time, the former Attorney General, Bill Barr said the Venezuelan government facilitated the transport of up to 250 tons of cocaine annually.

Experts believe that most of that cocaine, though, is bound for Europe, not the United States. And also, for context, that total falls far, far short of what we see in many other countries. For instance, according to U.S. data, Guatemala, a much smaller nation, saw 1,400- plus metric tons pass through 2018 alone, which we know did wind up flowing into the United States.

Cocaine is obviously dangerous and lethal. It is not, though, the drug causing most overdose deaths in the United States. That dubious distinction belongs, of course, to fentanyl. In 2024, the CDC says that drug killed more than 48,000 people here in the United States, more than half the total number of overdose deaths nationwide that year.

Cocaine accounted for just about 22,000 deaths. And despite claims by the Trump administration that Maduro's capture will impede the flow of fentanyl, the D.A.'s own assessment for 2025 doesn't even list Venezuela as a foreign illicit drug actor. Instead, it cites trafficking from Mexico, China, Colombia, and India as well.

Fentanyl is almost entirely produced in Mexico using chemicals that come from China, according to U.S. authorities. How all this shakes out in the courtroom? We'll see what evidence the U.S. presents. Erica?

HILL: Well, Boris, Trump officials are set to brief key lawmakers today on Venezuela, and this will be the first time since Saturday's operation that captured President Nicolas Maduro. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio argues the administration did not have to notify Congress because the U.S. is not occupying Venezuela. He said, of course, this is a law enforcement action.

It's a claim Ambassador Mike Waltz echoed at the U.N. this morning.

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MICHAEL WALTZ, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: There is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: President Trump insists the U.S. is running Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Don't ask me who's in charge, because I'll give you an answer, and it'll be very controversial.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that mean?

TRUMP: We are in charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now to discuss Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida, who is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee. Sir, appreciate your time this afternoon. The leadership of the House Armed Services Committee is set to be briefed tonight by Trump administration officials. What questions do you have today, sir?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ, (R-FL) HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, the questions that I would have is just how brilliantly they carried out the operation. I thought that it's textbook. It's probably something that will be studied for years on end, how they were able to go into Venezuela and arrest somebody that's been wanted by the United States justice system.

And so, those are the questions that I really have about it. Most of the answers are going to be classified, so I can't share that with you.

HILL: So your questions are logistical?

(CROSSTALK)

GIMENEZ: But, interested to see how they just did it. Yeah, logistical. That's exactly right, because I'm fine with what they did.

[14:20:00]

I'm absolutely 100 percent fine with capturing a fugitive from American justice in Nicolas Maduro.

HILL: When we look at where things stand now, I know you told my colleague, Boris Sanchez, yesterday that Delcy Rodriguez is part of the Maduro regime, and in your words, you're "not looking to deal with her for too long." You stressed the need for free and fair elections, you said, within the year. I want to play something that President Trump said on Air Force One last night about elections.

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TRUMP: We're going to have the big oil companies go in, and they're going to fix the infrastructure, and they're going to invest money. Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country, bring the country back, and then have elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: President Trump -- I've gone back and played that a number of times, just to make sure that I heard it correctly. President Trump wants oil companies to go in, fix the infrastructure, invest, before there will be elections. Do you believe that's the right order?

GIMENEZ: I think that a lot of this stuff can happen concurrently. Obviously, the infrastructure in Venezuela needs to be fixed. We have a lot of assets in Venezuela and I believe that the right, let's say, environment for those oil companies to invest in Venezuela also runs hand-in-hand with having a free and democratic Venezuela. And so, my argument would be, yes, we do need to fix the infrastructure; yes, oil companies do need to go in there. But in order to have an environment for them to do that, they're going to need some guarantees.

This particular regime is not the regime I want to deal with, obviously. It's an illegitimate regime. They stole the elections and so, we need to have this regime -- look, the reason I guess we're dealing with the regime is to have calm and not have civil war, et cetera, in Venezuela, but this regime knows that they must build this bridge towards free and fair elections, and then the smooth transition of -- transfer of power to the duly elected representatives of Venezuela, and then we will have a free and democratic Venezuela, and then I'm sure that's much more conducive to U.S. investment to fixing the infrastructure than dealing with this regime.

HILL: We have seen so much of the celebration in the United States, around the world from the Venezuelan diaspora as they see that Maduro was removed, and yet it is fairly quiet in the streets of Venezuela, and we now have this decree that has come to light that was actually signed by Maduro apparently back in September, but has now gone into effect, that is basically ordering security forces to go after anybody who is celebrating this moment, who is in any way approving of this attack and the capture of Maduro.

So if this is still the regime that we're dealing with, I understand your hesitation in dealing with this regime, but it seems like the administration is looking to play ball with Delcy Rodriguez and all of Maduro's people who are left in power. So, how do you find that stability for the people of Venezuela and even to encourage that investment from foreign companies if you're still dealing with the same regime?

GIMENEZ: Well, it's not the Trump administration playing ball with them, or they playing ball with us? And so the president has also made very clear that they don't play ball with us, something worse is going to happen to Delcy Rodriguez. The fact that I don't find it pleasant to deal with these folks, I don't. I don't find it pleasant. Do I see the logic to dealing with these folks for a certain amount of time? Yeah, I can see that logic, but it is not going to -- it can't be for a long term because the people of Venezuela deserve to be free.

And look, what you just stated is the reasons why we must have a free and democratic Venezuela. There are thousands of political prisoners that need to be freed, and we have to have an open campaign, so we can find -- the people of Venezuela can find their rightful representatives and have a free and democratic Venezuela. They are scared to death of going out on the streets today. That's why they're not celebrating, because Maduro knew that once he was captured, there was going to be mass demonstrations, et cetera, in support of his capture. He didn't want to see that. His apparatus is still in place.

We need to transition out of that regime. It's illegitimate, and we need to get to a legitimate government in Venezuela.

HILL: Real quickly, we're about out of time. But are these things that you'll be raising with the administration, namely a timeline that you have in your mind for free and fair elections, the release of political prisoners, and also, if I believe it's at least five Americans who have been detained? Will you be raising those issues with the administration?

GIMENEZ: I think the release of political prisoners should be something that we need to see right away, so that we see a good faith from the regime in place. As far as a timeline, I'm not an expert in how we do this, so I'm going to rely on the secretary of state and other experts that say, hey, this is the way we need to proceed. We need to proceed carefully. But our end goal, and make no mistake about it, our end goal is to have a free and democratic Venezuela.

HILL: Congressman Carlos Gimenez, appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you.

GIMENEZ: Thank you.

HILL: Much more ahead on Venezuela this hour.

[14:25:00]

First though, we are following a number of other stories, including the trial of a former Uvalde officer getting underway, and there is new information now about what he was allegedly told when he first arrived at Robb Elementary.

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SANCHEZ: Jury selection is underway in the first criminal trial over the 2022 Uvalde School Massacre of nineteen 4th graders and two teachers. You'll recall the shooter was killed on scene, 77 minutes after he entered Robb Elementary School.

Now, a former school officer, Adrian Gonzales is accused of abandoning and endangering children. In an exclusive analysis, CNN has learned that Adrian Gonzales, the first officer to arrive, was on scene for more than a minute before the gunman entered the building. For years now, the community has accused law enforcement of failing to intervene sooner.