Maduro Stole the Election in Venezuela, Says Author

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00:00What is your thought on what you just heard from the congressman?

00:03And how often do you hear the phrase blood for oil in Venezuela?

00:09Joe, thank you for that question, because it's a question that we absolutely need to reframe here.

00:15And I am certain that every Venezuelan will support what I'm about to say.

00:19This is not blood for oil, and this is not about regime change.

00:23We voted these people out legitimately last year.

00:27We voted for Maria Corina Machado and her running mate Edmundo González Urrutia,

00:32and Nicolás Maduro stole the election, didn't have proof for it, so he's essentially a dictator.

00:38For 25 years, he has been torturing, imprisoning people,

00:42leading to the largest refugee crisis practically in the world, definitely in our hemisphere.

00:49Eight million Venezuelans have left, which has provoked refugee crisis and immigration crises

00:55all over the Americas, including in the United States.

00:59This provoked a humanitarian crisis where, in a country with so many barrels of oil,

01:04you didn't even have medicine or food.

01:06And if I may, I know it firsthand because I lost my father during that humanitarian crisis

01:12because of the lack of medicine.

01:13So this is a catastrophe that is happening.

01:16A two-and-a-half-hour flight from Miami in our hemisphere,

01:20continuous human rights abuses that is also, by the way, spreading influence to places like Colombia,

01:27like Mexico, like Peru, and destabilizing the entire region.

01:32So this is absolutely not about oil.

01:34This is about us as a nation wanting to come back to the fold of Western democratic nations

01:41and to the values that those nations represent.

01:44And I believe it's in the interest of the United States and every single American citizen

01:48to want that as well.

01:50We have tried by every means necessary, including democratic means, to get rid of this regime.

01:55But again, as I mentioned before, Nicolás Maduro was a puppet.

02:00And you saw in his foolish, embarrassing, almost buffoonish behavior in the way that he reacted

02:07to President Trump's threats and to the buildup in the Southern Caribbean that he's clearly

02:12not calling the shots here.

02:13I am worried about, right now, these two power brokers that have already on the ground reacted

02:22to the news and seem to be vying for this power vacuum.

02:26Padrino Lopez and Diosdado Cabello, way more powerful and way more fearsome than Nicolás Maduro.

02:33Mariana, I'm so sorry to hear about your father.

02:37I know that life in Caracas and Venezuela has been incredibly difficult over the last

02:41couple of years.

02:42But I do want to follow up on what you just said about these other power brokers who are

02:46in position and already vying for the job.

02:49How possible, how realistic is it for these democratic opposition leaders like Mariana

02:54Machado to even, we're not even sure she's in the country, to get back into the country,

02:58to get back into power.

02:59The population of Venezuela has shown over and over again they want democracy.

03:03They are voting for other people.

03:05But those elections have not held.

03:07And there's a reason for that.

03:08It's because they don't hold the military.

03:09They don't hold the seat of power.

03:11What do you do from here?

03:13How do these people get back into the country and take hold of the reins of democracy if

03:18they are even existing at this moment?

03:21I'm going to be very, very blunt, Christina.

03:23I think that it is not possible without the pressure and the help of the United States.

03:27So I think the most logical next step for Maria Corina Machado, and she is believed to still

03:33be outside of Venezuela, is to now meet with President Trump and to gain his full support

03:39in terms of trying to get back to Venezuelan oil so that she can truly lead a transition.

03:44This is not about regime change.

03:45This is about what we Venezuelans voted for and restoring the constitutional order.

03:50But she has no money.

03:52She has no army.

03:53She doesn't have access to the oil reserves.

03:56And this is a population that is terrified of these people that have been ruling Venezuela

04:01for two decades.

04:02And I may add, who do they have the full support of in terms of knowing how to do this and how

04:09to truly subjugate a populace?

04:11Cuba.

04:11You cannot underestimate the interest of the Cuban regime in maintaining these power brokers

04:18in Venezuela so they can keep getting barrels of oil and keep functioning as well.

04:24If Venezuela falls, Maria Machado has said it, it is a possibility.

04:29And I believe that's what Marco Rubio wants.

04:32It is a possibility that Cuba may fall as well.

04:34And then you have, of course, Nicaragua.

04:36So it could be a domino effect, very much like the Soviet Union, if in fact Venezuela falls.

04:43So you have other countries that are also interested in keeping these people in power and that have

04:49been controlling.

04:50I mean, Cubans are heavily involved in the security of this inner circle in daily ways

04:56of life in Venezuela for over two decades, as we know.

05:01You talked earlier about Padrino Lopez, who's the head of the military.

05:04Is there any wiggle room there?

05:07Is there any world in which, I know he's a Maduro loyalist, is there any world in which

05:11he's pragmatic enough to look at the power of the United States, to look at where the

05:16winds are going and switch sides and support the will of the people?

05:20It's not unheard of in power vacuums like this to see the military take charge and at least

05:27nominally say they're going to call for elections.

05:30Does that seem like the logical next step, even if he doesn't really want democracy,

05:35that the military steps up and say, we will support the will of the people?

05:38Or do you think they're going to stay with the line that they support Maduro and they're

05:43waiting for him to come back or to find out what happened to him?

05:46No, I think they already made their move and their move was for Maduro to be removed.

05:52Their whole structure has remained.

05:54So I do believe that this could be, as I mentioned before, a negotiated exit and maybe they're

05:59going to call for elections.

06:00But I think the main takeaway here for our listeners who are trying to understand Venezuela

06:05is that if any of these four people remain in the country, and I'm sorry, my light just

06:12went out, if any of these four people remain in the country, Padrino Lopez, Diosdado Cabello,

06:17Delcy Rodriguez, or Jorge Rodriguez, it is not going to be a removal of this regime.

06:23It is going to be a reshuffling.

06:25These people are much more brutal.

06:27These people now know what the United States is capable of.

06:30So they are likely to be way more repressive with the population.

06:33So we absolutely, in order for this to be a victory for the United States and for the

06:39Trump administration, these four power brokers need to be removed as well.

06:43And I wouldn't believe their word for it at all if they say that they are going to play

06:48by the rules, et cetera, et cetera.

06:50These people, again, have committed heinous human rights abuses in Venezuela for decades.

06:56And if they remain, it's just going to be worse for the population.

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