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The Situation Room

Maduro to Make First Court Appearance in NY; Colombia Reinforces Border with Venezuela; Venezuelan National Assembly Meeting. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 05, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basically, saying this guy was bad news for the country and certainly bad news for the opposition. And as for some of the reasons that the United States has decided to apprehend him now, well, they've accused him, and the Trump team has been really kind of front and center on this, accusing him of being in league with drug traffickers. Of course, he denies this.

But he is alleged by the State Department, this is from last year, to have headed a group called Cartel de los Soles. And this is basically a group headed by him that is alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking in the United States. A member of Trend del Aragua, the Venezuelan gang, is allegedly part of this group.

So, again, lots of security concerns by the Trump team. That's one of the reasons that they, of course, captured him on Saturday.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And, of course, there's the oil aspect of this. Venezuela is an oil-rich nation, but it's been underperforming on that front. Tell us more about that.

TODD: Well, they really -- I mean, what's incredible, Pamela, is, yes, they've been underperforming for about two and a half decades now, since Chavez took power and Maduro succeeded him.

Take a look, they've got one-fifth of the world's oil, 303 billion barrels, according to OPEC. That's one-fifth of the world's global oil reserves, and they have mismanagement. Take a look. This is 2013. This is when Maduro takes power. Their oil production steadily decreases. Now, oil prices took a hit in 2014, so that was part of the reason for it. But, again, it's his alleged mismanagement of the oil industry there that has been a big part of it.

In 2019, President Donald Trump, in his first administration, banned Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S. So, they took a real hit there. They hit rock bottom in 2020 with the pandemic. Now, Maduro did start to get production ramped up in 2021. In 2022, then-President Joe Biden issued a permit for Chevron to operate in Venezuela. They're the only U.S.-based oil company that has been operating there ever since. They've since been able to ramp up production.

But today, Pamela, what's really still extraordinary is that they're underperforming. They produce just a little over one million barrels of oil a day. That is less than 1 percent of the total output throughout the world of oil production. So, if you look at their reserves, the biggest oil reserves in the world, they have a fifth of the world's oil reserves, and they have less than 1 percent of the production. That's how stark it is, the mismanagement.

Who do they export it to? Well, China's the big buyer. Almost 70 percent of Venezuela's oil goes to China. About a quarter of it goes to the United States, and that's produced by Chevron. Chevron's stocks have gone way up today. And -- but that's, again, you know, what the Trump administration wants the oil companies, the American oil companies, to go back in there, fix the infrastructure.

Our Kylie Atwood has been reporting that before the capture of Maduro, the Trump team engaged some oil companies in some discussions. Would you go back in a post-Maduro era? Some of those oil companies have been reluctant because of the political instability that was certainly to follow Maduro's ouster and will certainly follow his ouster.

All through it, just take a look at the hit on their economy, Pamela. Last October, their inflation in Venezuela was 270 percent. That's the highest in the world by leaps and bounds. And look at what it's projected to be by October of this year, over 680 percent. The toll on Venezuela's economy in the Chavez regime since 1999 than when Maduro took power from him in 2013, devastating for that country.

BROWN: Yes, and that's why there's a complex picture because there are a lot of Venezuelans who have been celebrating the fact that Maduro has been ousted. But at the same time, there's so much uncertainty right now about the future of Venezuela. Brian Todd, thank you for this. Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Pamela. Lots of dramatic developments focusing right now, focusing on policy and maintaining leverage, for one thing. That's the Trump administration's plans for the near future of Venezuela. But will the U.S. learn from recent history or will the U.S. be doomed to repeat it? We'll discuss that and more. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BROWN: We have breaking news. Colombia is making a massive move to secure its border with Venezuela following the U.S. military action there. And at the same time, President Trump again attacked Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Here's what he said aboard Air Force One.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Colombia is very sick too. Run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long. He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, there will be an operation by the U.S. in Colombia? TRUMP: It sounds good to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Colombia's president is warning that he would take up arms if the U.S. decides to attack his country. CNN's David Culver is in Colombia with the very latest. David.

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: A lot of traffic going both directions between Colombia, where we are, and Venezuela, which is that direction, just over this international bridge. And you can see the folks who are entering here into Colombia. A lot of them do this either daily or weekly. It's pretty common, in fact. They'll go visit family. They'll go run errands. They'll even go to doctor visits and then return back to Venezuela.

Now, what's interesting is in the past few days, obviously, the significant changes, the removal of Maduro has put folks in a different mindset, but no real sense of panic or expectation of immediate change. And some people are even hesitant to speak with us about it. People who are coming from Venezuela, who ultimately have to go back because that's where they live, tend to be a bit more restrained in what they vocalize, perhaps fearing some repercussions once they go back in.

Others are more vocal. They'll tell you candidly that they're quite happy that he's gone, but they're also realistic in that they don't think anything's going to be imminent as far as changes to their daily lives.

[10:40:00]

Particularly, people will mention the economy. They don't think that there's going to be some great change to the economy that'll allow them to find the opportunities that many of them have been seeking.

Now, entering into Colombia, there is a massive military presence that has built up, and a lot of this is a signal for Washington. In fact, the defense minister here in Colombia telling us a short time ago that he wants the U.S. to know that Colombia is focused on targeting those who are smuggling drugs and spreading violence through the region. He's really trying to hit that message hard, because obviously the rhetoric from the Trump administration and from Washington has been in many ways accusatory towards the Colombian government for not doing enough as Washington sees it.

Now, the troops are certainly spread out. We've spent a lot of time with military personnel over the past 24 hours as they've been patrolling along the 1,300 miles between Colombia and Venezuela. That's the stretch of the border. And they're trying to not only signal to Washington, but also to folks in Colombia that they're taking really large efforts and trying to make a clear stance that they're going to reinforce the border, they're going to prevent, as they see it, any further violence from trickling in should any sort of fracturing from within Venezuela cause spillover, especially with armed groups into Colombia. And ultimately, they say their first priority is protecting Colombians. So that explains what we're seeing here in Colombia as far as the reinforcement of troops. But the uncertainty, well, that certainly remains.

David Culver, CNN, Cucuta, Colombia.

BROWN: All right. Thanks, David, for that great reporting.

BLITZER: Yes. Excellent reporting indeed. And joining us now is CNN's Fareed Zakaria, the host of GPS, Global Public Square. Fareed, there's some mixed messaging coming in from the Trump administration. As we all know, drug charges are the pretext for the arrest. But the president, President Trump also says the U.S. will take control of Venezuela's massive oil reserves. Why did the president, you believe, launch this mission, and why now?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA GPS: I wish I could tell you that, because it is a mystery. Venezuela was not a major source of drugs into the United States. It has not really been, in geopolitical terms, destabilizing to the United States.

In a December poll, I think people were asked in America whether they thought Venezuela was a threat to the United States, and 85 percent of Americans said no, it is not. I think the American people were right. It seems to be that Trump has always had something of an obsession with Venezuela and Venezuelan oil. But it's largely a mirage, in my opinion.

First of all, Venezuela's claim that it has 300 million barrels of oil, which is the world's largest, was a number created by Hugo Chavez, as far as we can tell, out of thin air. He tripled the oil reserves of his country, claiming that they had discovered all this oil. They've never pumped anything close to that. They are the 21st largest producer of oil, even though they claim to have the largest reserves.

So, I suspect that any benefit from the oil is going to take tens of billions of dollars of investment that American companies would have to make. It will probably take a decade or a decade and a half, and even then, it will disappoint. And the best evidence for that, Wolf, is look at Iraq. Iraq is still not pumping the kinds of oil, the levels of oil that were predicted in the 2003 invasion. Twenty-three years later, they are still not at the levels that people had predicted.

BLITZER: There's also, as you know, Fareed, some confused messaging on the future of Venezuela coming in from the Trump administration. President Trump says the U.S. is now in charge, but his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has tried to downplay that. So, what is the administration's plan going forward?

ZAKARIA: I suspect that the plan and the hope is that they can make a deal with the current government, with the vice president, the interior minister, and the defense minister, who are the three most important people. And what they want is some of these concessions on the oil issue, and in return they'll let these people stay in power, continue to repress the country.

So, in a sense, there will be no regime change, no end to dictatorship in Venezuela, simply the arrest of Maduro, probably the most expensive arrest of a human being in history because you're leaving everything else intact.

[10:45:00]

Now, if you try to change things and if you try to make a transition, I suspect people will resist. The regime has a lot of arms, a lot of firepower. It has managed to thwart every coup attempt, including one in the first Trump administration. And Venezuela is full of armed groups, of armed militias, partly because of the chaos, partly because of the drugs, partly because of the oil.

So, either they make a deal with the devil, essentially keep the entire repressive apparatus in place and get some token concessions on oil, or they go for some kind of regime change, which will be mightily resisted.

BLITZER: As you know, Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, is now the interim president of Venezuela and is expected to be sworn in at any moment. President Trump says she is cooperating with the U.S. Is the Trump administration looking for a puppet regime in Venezuela and is it likely to get one?

ZAKARIA: Yes, it is definitely looking for a puppet regime. The question is, will it get one? My suspicion is that what Delcy Rodriguez is hoping is that they can stay in power, maintain, as I say, their vast repressive apparatus, maintain, you know, keep running Venezuela as their private, you know, domain. And in return, they make some token concessions that they believe won't be that important. Companies are going to be wary of going in anyway. The investments will be huge. It will take a long time.

So, the strange thing is what Trump is asking for is actually relatively easy for them to give, because the benefits such as they are, as I say, will take a long time to accrue, will require a lot of money. So, there's a there's a scenario in which, yes, they get some kind of a puppet government because they don't have to the puppet. The puppets don't have to do that much. The puppeteer is not asking for democracy, human rights, sharing of the wealth, any of that. And so, maybe Delcy Rodriguez and most importantly, the interior and defense ministers will think we can make this deal. We can live with it.

And then what the United States will have gotten, as I say, is at enormous cost, the arrest of two people who will be put on a kind of trial. And I'm not sure how it serves the interests of the United States and the American people to have had this massive, enormous expenditure of American military power to just get Maduro if the regime stays in place.

BLITZER: Fareed Zakaria, excellent analysis as usual. Thank you very, very much, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Wolf, coming up in just about an hour from now, deposed President Nicholas Maduro is expected to make his first U.S. federal court appearance. What that will look like up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BLITZER: The breaking news this morning, the deposed president of Venezuela will soon appear in a Manhattan federal court. Nicolas Maduro will face drug and weapons charges.

BROWN: And joining us now is Elie Honig, CNN's senior legal analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, where these Maduro charges will play out. Elie, walk us through the charges here.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK AND FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, Pam, so we don't often see an indictment like this one against Nicolas Maduro, who three days ago was the leader of a foreign nation. Now he is in an American criminal court.

The crux of the indictment, boiled down to a sentence taken from the indictment, is that Maduro and his co-conspirators have for decades partnered with some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world and relied on corrupt officials throughout the region to distribute tons of cocaine to the United States.

Now, Maduro faces four federal charges. First of all, narco-terrorism, the charges that he committed a series of crimes with a group of designated foreign terrorist organizations, including the Trinitarios out of Mexico, Tren de Aragua out of Venezuela, and the FARC out of Colombia.

He also is charged with cocaine importation. The indictment alleges 200 to 250 tons of cocaine into the United States every year over a 20-year period. And then two counts, which gets us to four, of machine guns and destructive devices.

And, Pam and Wolf, if he's convicted, Maduro is looking at a minimum of 30 years in prison. He's 63 years old and a maximum of life.

BLITZER: Who are the key players, Elie, to watch today?

HONIG: Yes. So, first of all, this prosecution, Wolf, will be handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, as you said before, my former office. The U.S. attorney is Jay Clayton. He may be in the courtroom today. He will not handle this case, though, directly. That will fall to prosecutors in the International Narcotics and Terrorism Units.

I just want to pull everyone's attention back to Saturday night. You saw this airplane landing with Maduro on board at the Stuart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York. That was intentional, because federal law tells us that any person who's arrested in a foreign country can be tried in whatever district they first touchdown on in the United States. That plane was brought to Newburgh because it's in the Southern District of New York. Of course, the actual trial itself will happen right down there in the southern tip of Manhattan.

Other key players, of course, both Nicolas Maduro and his wife will be in court today. Importantly, who will their lawyers be? Have they yet been able to hire private counsel, or will they have temporary appointed counsel? We'll find out today.

And finally, the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein. He's been on the bench since 1998. Wolf, he's very experienced. He's now actually 92 years old. He's handled all sorts of high-profile cases. I've appeared in front of him. He is a solid, fair judge. And he will be handling this case.

[10:55:00]

BROWN: So, tell us --

BLITZER: 92 years old, that's pretty old.

BROWN: Yes. Quite a big case, right? But as you say, he has a lot of experience. Though this is unique, it is significant. Help us better understand that and what exactly will play out today in court.

HONIG: As unique as this is, Pam, you're right. Today's proceeding will be fairly routine. Hundreds of these happen every day across the United States. First, there will be an arraignment. Maduro will be advised of the charges against him. He may enter a plea. If he does, it will be not guilty. They will make sure he has defense lawyers. And then they will consider the issue of bail. No way he's getting bail.

Finally, watch for this. The judge will set a schedule. We'll get a sense of how quickly is this case going to move? How much time will the parties have to file motions? Perhaps set a trial date. Unlikely but possible. But, Pam and Wolf, we will get a sense of how quickly this case is going to move to its ultimate trial.

BROWN: All right. Elie Honig, thank you so much.

HONIG: Thanks, guys.

BROWN: Appreciate you breaking it down for us.

BLITZER: As he always does. Also happening now, the first meeting of the Venezuelan National Assembly after Maduro's ouster. The meeting is now in session. We're live in Caracas with the latest.

[11:00:00]