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What's next for Venezuela after the dramatic fall of Nicolás Maduro? FRONTLINE and The Associated Press investigate the legacy of corruption in Venezuela, the challenges to democracy, the conflict with the USA and the fight over who will control the oil-rich country.
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00:00.
00:05.
00:19.
00:20.
00:21I was woken up by an explosion.
00:40When I was looking out the window, it was the loudest noise I have ever heard.
00:56My building also shook.
01:04I had my phone in my hand and I sent a message and said, hi, I think we're under attack.
01:20Everybody was asking everybody what was going on.
01:25Fighter jets and bombers took out Venezuelan air defenses, paving the way for Delta Force
01:31commandos to close in on the compound.
01:35It involved months of planning, special forces, a sort of operation you would expect in a Hollywood
01:42movie, but not something that I expected the U.S. government to attempt.
01:49President Trump says Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores have been captured and flowed
01:53out of the country.
01:54Maduro faced charges of drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.
02:01My reaction to the capture of Maduro was just shock.
02:04I turned on my phone and there's like tons of messages from top editors at the AAP.
02:09I got straight to work.
02:11In the weeks since the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, teams from Frontline and
02:16the Associated Press have been on the ground in Venezuela and the United States.
02:24We got to find out what all this means.
02:27Oh, my God, that's huge.
02:30Okay.
02:31Sitting down with former U.S. officials, Venezuelan politicians and experts, charting President
02:39Trump's long campaign to topple Maduro.
02:41All options, always.
02:43All options are on the table.
02:45Maduro's lieutenants are all still running the country.
02:49Investigating the regime loyalists who've been left in charge.
02:52Dulce Rodriguez has been officially sworn in as interior president.
02:56We just had a great conversation today and she's a terrific person.
03:01And the Nobel Prize winning opposition leader who remains in exile.
03:06Mr. Trump appeared to sideline Maria Karina Machado.
03:09He downplayed her support.
03:11This is about a criminal structure that is the regime and the mandate of the Venezuelan
03:19people.
03:20Amid an uncertain future.
03:22Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to be on Capitol Hill today.
03:25This hearing is supposed to focus on the Trump administration's controversial actions
03:28in Venezuela.
03:29Now, for the first time in literally a decade, there is the opportunity that something could
03:35change.
03:36Nuestros hijos van a ser libres!
03:39What I really fear is some kind of deal in Washington that leaves this regime in place
03:46permanently as long as they're willing to do what we want on oil.
03:50I get it.
03:51We all want like something immediately.
03:52But this is not a frozen dinner you put in a microwave and in two and a half minutes
03:56it comes out ready to eat.
03:57FUKISIA!
03:58FUKISIA!
03:59FUKISIA!
04:00FUKISIA!
04:01FUKISIA!
04:02FUKISIA!
04:03It's 9 a.m. on the East Coast, and if you're just joining us this morning,
04:32we have major breaking news. Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro has been captured by U.S. forces.
04:49Within hours of the raid in Caracas, Venezuelan exiles celebrated in Miami.
05:01Around 8 million Venezuelans fled abroad during the rule of Nicolas Maduro, more than 700,000
05:13to the United States.
05:18Late last night and early today, at my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an
05:25extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela. It was a force against a heavily
05:31fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlawed dictator Nicolas Maduro
05:37to justice. This was one of the most stunning...
05:39AP reporter Joshua Goodman is based in Miami and has been reporting on Venezuela for over
05:44a decade.
05:45Initially, after the capture of Maduro, I was focused on who was in power in Caracas.
05:52Maduro ran the country so ruthlessly that his absence was going to immediately create a void.
06:04It was nominally filled by Delce Rodriguez, his vice president and loyal aide during many, many years.
06:20She's, I guess, the president. She was sworn as president just a little while ago.
06:27She had a long conversation with Marco and she said, we'll do whatever you need.
06:33I think she was quite gracious, but she really doesn't have a choice.
06:38Delce Rodriguez's reaction to Majora's capture kind of followed the script that you would expect.
06:53She denounced it as a kidnapping, violation of the United Nations Charter.
06:57But within a matter of hours, she sort of switched her discourse a little bit.
07:13And even though she continued to denounce Maduro's, quote, kidnapping,
07:17she also very clearly extended an olive branch to the Trump administration.
07:22Delce Rodriguez has been officially sworn in as interim president.
07:26She's indicated she'll cooperate with Washington, but described Maduro and his wife as hostages.
07:32In Caracas, AP's Venezuela correspondent, Regina Garcia Cano, was covering the impact and reactions on the ground.
07:39As the sun went up, the city remained in absolute silence.
07:46Slowly, the city remained in absolute silence.
07:53Slowly, we started to see some businesses open.
08:00And people began to line up outside.
08:01People looked stunned.
08:02People looked stunned.
08:03There were no celebrations.
08:05At least not publicly.
08:06At least not publicly.
08:10There was a lot of triumph.
08:11There was a lot of triumph when you walk in the country as it was.
08:12As it was.
08:13As it was.
08:14As it was.
08:15As it was.
08:27As it was.
08:28At least not publicly.
08:31There's a lot of triumphs when it runs in all the country,
08:35what happens in the morning, what happens in half an hour.
08:38Nobody knows what's going on.
08:40It's an enigma of what's going on in this moment.
08:44This military operation, described as a hit on a large scale,
08:48marks the end of a turbulent chapter in the history of Venezuela,
08:51but opens an uncertain chapter.
08:53With Delcy becoming acting president,
08:59many, many questions were left unanswered.
09:04How long is she going to be acting president?
09:08Will there be elections soon or in a year or in two years?
09:15Venezuelans want answers to those questions.
09:19What's going to happen next?
09:23Well, there's a lot of operational details
09:25that can't be discussed publicly, obviously, for obvious reasons.
09:28So as we move forward, we'll describe our process.
09:31Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quickly promoting
09:34a three-phase plan for Venezuela.
09:37Step one is the stabilization of the country.
09:39We don't want it descending into chaos.
09:41The second phase will be a phase that we call recovery,
09:44and that is ensuring that American, Western, and other companies
09:47have access to the Venezuela market in a way that's fair,
09:50but also, at the same time, begin to create the process
09:53of reconciliation nationally within Venezuela,
09:55so that the opposition forces can be amnestied and released
09:59and from prisons or brought back to the country
10:01and begin to rebuild civil society.
10:03And then the third phase, of course, will be one of transition.
10:06Some of this will overlap.
10:07The people of Venezuela are waking up to the same regime.
10:11Do you not worry about that?
10:13Well, first of all, the bottom line is that there is a process
10:16now in place where we have tremendous control and leverage
10:20over what those interim authorities are doing and are able to do.
10:23I remember this.
10:35The origins of the U.S. effort to topple Nicolas Maduro
10:38go back more than a decade.
10:40This is it. This is it.
10:41This is the moment that Nicolas Maduro became president.
10:45In 2012, Maduro was anointed by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez,
10:50on live television.
10:52Chavez is dying of cancer, and he anoints his successor. Watch.
11:15Maduro shows no expression, but it was the moment that set him up
11:19to become president.
11:23Chavez saw the U.S. as his archenemy and had clashed with it
11:27over control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
11:31He'd seized the assets of American oil companies doing business there.
11:36Venezuela is a petrostate.
11:38It depends exclusively on the sale of oil for income.
11:43Hugo Chavez renegotiated oil contracts in Venezuela,
11:47and a lot of the companies didn't like the deal he was offering, and they sued.
11:51And they, to this day, are owed billions of dollars from that expropriation.
11:57When Maduro came to power after Chavez's death, the oil industry was in disarray,
12:02and the economy was collapsing.
12:05At the time, Juan Gonzalez was coordinating U.S. policy on Venezuela for the Obama administration.
12:11Nicolas Maduro was incredibly unpopular at the very beginning,
12:15and there were questions about whether he could endure and survive politically.
12:19The time that Hugo Chavez left coincided with the collapse in oil and gas prices.
12:24So, Nicolas Maduro no longer had this pocketbook.
12:27I think Maduro found himself in a position where he had to use increasing crackdowns,
12:33even manipulation of elections.
12:35The closure of the democratic space, and was characterized by increased corruption inside of the government,
12:47basically just to stay in power.
12:49I think he had to keep a lot of people happy, so he had to give a lot of money out.
12:53And yes, people started disappearing.
12:56Maduro banned political opponents and arrested and detained thousands of political prisoners.
13:02Many would end up incarcerated at Alicueta, the notorious headquarters of Venezuelan intelligence.
13:23By 2017, a mass exodus from Venezuela was underway that would continue through Maduro's rule.
13:31We have many options for Venezuela.
13:34And by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option.
13:37We have many options for Venezuela.
13:40In his first term, President Trump already had Maduro in his sights.
13:45The people are suffering, and they're dying.
13:48We have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option, if necessary.
13:55Elliott Abrams served as Trump's special representative for Venezuela.
14:00We said approximately five million times, all options are on the table.
14:06All options, always. All options are on the table.
14:09I think of all possibilities, all options are open.
14:12And that was true in the sense that it's always true.
14:15But there was no real military plan to do anything like this.
14:21Partly, I think, because I don't think at that point there would have been much support in the Pentagon, and there certainly wouldn't have been at CIA.
14:31Initially, President Trump imposed sanctions targeting the regime and its oil sector, part of a strategy known as maximum pressure.
14:40Today we are announcing additional sanctions against the repressive regime, targeting Maduro's inner circle and close advisors.
14:50We had sanctions, we isolated the regime diplomatically, but it didn't work.
14:55Donald Trump, with Venezuela, don't get into it.
14:59Ham off Venezuela.
15:03I think one of the pernicious effects of the maximum pressure campaign is it actually fueled more corruption.
15:13When Venezuela was restricted, for all intents and purposes, from trading with the rest of the world, they had to rely on these shadowy networks of oil tankers, relations with other countries like Iran, which were under sanctions.
15:28And when you're dealing outside of traditional markets, the opportunity for graft, for corruption, for inflating prices on government contracts just grows exponentially.
15:45Maduro used a parallel economy to try to get around the sanctions.
15:50Central to the effort was his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez.
15:55Delcy Rodriguez makes herself indispensable to Maduro.
16:10She's sort of the chief operating officer who is coordinating oil sales despite U.S. sanctions.
16:18She is attracting investment from around the world.
16:23She is traveling the world as well to cement relations with places like Russia.
16:29And during this period, her power expands immensely.
16:34She's also given control over the intelligence services.
16:38The Sabine, the feared political police report to her as vice president.
16:44Maduro also relied on another powerful player, a Colombian businessman named Alex Saab.
16:56Alex Saab becomes a kind of personal emissary of Nicolas Maduro, a kind of minister in the shadow.
17:05Roberto Dennis is an exiled Venezuelan journalist whose reporting uncovered how Saab used a network of companies to get around U.S. sanctions, as well as cheat the state oil company, PDVSA.
17:18And the mission of these companies was to commercialize oil without knowing that it was like the Venezuelan oil oil.
17:27But there was a much bigger scandal behind all this operation.
17:31And it was that they never paid to Venezuela the money they were receiving for those oil exports.
17:37He's stolen enormous amounts of money for Maduro and his cronies.
17:51Alex Saab was prolific in the way that he created shell companies around the world.
17:58Marshall Billingsley was at the U.S. Treasury Department and helped lead an effort to investigate Alex Saab.
18:05It was my role in the Treasury to do everything that I could to help protect the U.S. financial system and to support our friends and our allies.
18:15In the case of Alex Saab, this is an individual who is abusing the international financial system.
18:20And the things he was doing on behalf of Maduro were unconscionable.
18:26In 2020, Saab was arrested while on a business trip and eventually extradited to the U.S. on money laundering charges.
18:34He pleaded not guilty and was held in federal custody awaiting trial.
18:38Custodiado y esposado. Así piso suelo estadounidense, el presunto testaferro del presidente de Venezuela.
18:44At the same time, the Trump administration was stepping up the pressure on Maduro, charging him and members of his government with crimes, including corruption and drug trafficking.
18:58The U.S. Justice Department announced indictments of Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, and his top allies on charges of narco-terrorism.
19:07Attorney General William Barr said they conspired to flood the U.S. with cocaine and to loot their own country of billions of dollars.
19:16Sandy Gonzalez was one of the key investigators on the case.
19:21I was assigned to a special unit of DEA whose sole focus is to investigate international drug traffickers, money launderers, narco-terrorists and corrupt officials.
19:33Venezuela has become, at least during the time that I worked there and was investigating the drug trafficking activity there,
19:41a really strategic location for cocaine trafficking organizations.
19:47All of these organizations essentially had a paradise where they could operate freely if they paid the right people.
19:57Prosecutors say for more than 20 years, Maduro led the Cartel of the Suns, using Venezuela's military, legislature and courts to traffic cocaine into the U.S.
20:08The Cartel de los Soles is a name we did not come up with.
20:11It was a name that we heard while we were working in Venezuela.
20:15So it's a little bit complicated.
20:18Certain people have different ways of describing it.
20:20It could be described as a mafia of sorts, but it's definitely a group of individuals in Venezuela involved in the government that participate in the drug trade,
20:31facilitate the drug trade, profit from the drug trade and allow the drug trade to flourish in their country.
20:37In the summer of 2025, the Trump administration began referring to the Cartel de los Soles as narco-terrorists
20:46and launched a wave of controversial strikes against alleged drug boats that would kill more than 100 people.
20:53Today in the Caribbean, another boat incinerated by a U.S. missile.
20:58The 10th U.S. strike since early September and what the administration calls drug boats, including three strikes this week alone.
21:05The U.S. military killed two people clinging to wreckage in the sea after they survived an initial airstrike on their boat.
21:13The U.S. government offered little to no information about those strikes.
21:20They claimed those on board were narco-terrorists.
21:25A foreign terrorist organization poisoning your people with drugs coming from a drug cartel is no different than al-Qaeda.
21:32They offered no evidence to back up those claims.
21:36Venezuela está enfrentando la más grande amenaza que se haya visto en nuestro continente en los últimos 100 años.
21:47It was very apparent early on that the goal here was to pressure Maduro into resigning.
21:54It was a fig leaf, the idea that this was a counter-narcotics mission, and it was really about forcing regime change in Venezuela.
22:04We reached the point at which there was too big a build-up in the Caribbean for the president to back off.
22:10It was clear to me there's going to be a winner and a loser.
22:14Is it going to be Trump or is it going to be Maduro?
22:24Once in U.S. custody, prosecutors unsealed a new indictment against Maduro.
22:30They accused him of involvement in a vast drug trafficking conspiracy with the Venezuelan military.
22:36As it states in the indictment, it is a conspiracy.
22:40So he had a role in that conspiracy.
22:42And according to our laws, everyone involved in the conspiracy is essentially as culpable as the next.
22:49The country is now being led by Delce Rodriguez.
22:51In your view, is she someone who can dismantle those criminal networks that have blossomed under Maduro?
22:58That's going to be interesting to see.
23:00I don't think that you could just remove Nicolas Maduro from that equation and leave everything else status quo and expect things to change.
23:18Within days of Maduro's capture, the AP got a tip about Delce Rodriguez's own connections to drug trafficking allegations.
23:25Wow.
23:30My colleague, Jim Mustian from New York.
23:33He got some information about possible criminal investigations in the United States to Delce Rodriguez.
23:38Let me take a look.
23:40Okay, let's see what this is.
23:46What does this mean?
23:47Oh, she's got a Natus number.
23:52A Natus number is a big deal.
23:55I have to understand this better.
23:57We got to call Jim.
23:59We got to find out what all this means.
24:02Oh my God, that's a huge.
24:04Okay.
24:08Wow.
24:09Okay.
24:10I mean, this 11 cases.
24:12Great work.
24:13Great work.
24:14Okay.
24:15Let's find a place to work.
24:16I need to work.
24:17Are you here?
24:18Oh, thanks.
24:23I'm going to tell, I'm going to call my editor.
24:28Oh my gosh.
24:29Hey, can I patch in Jim?
24:31Good afternoon.
24:32That's it.
24:34Her entry in the DOJ's and DEA's file on her says, quote, involved in drug trafficking and gold smuggling projects.
24:45The language this source described Delce as a priority target.
24:49But the quote that we could probably use if we needed to, I mean, this is, I'm just going through my messages with the source, is listed as a priority target.
24:59Um, that doesn't mean that, um, for example, Jim mentioned earlier, drug trafficking and gold, you know, that doesn't mean that she herself was, was doing that.
25:09It could just mean that she was mentioned in connection to that drug trafficking and gold trafficking investigation.
25:15Now, what her role is, if any, you know, would be, you know, something that you would only learn in an indictment and she has not been indicted as far as we know.
25:24This is a major surprise because even though I think Venezuela is long been a target rich environment for the DEA and other agencies, you know, she somehow, somewhat uniquely had escaped, um, being criminally charged herself.
25:39The AP obtains documents claiming, quote, the DEA has amassed a detailed intelligence file on Rodriguez cataloging her known associates and allegations ranging from drug trafficking to gold smuggling.
25:56La gobernante interina de Venezuela, Delcey Rodriguez, lleva años en la mira de la DEA.
26:01Según AP, Rodriguez incluso fue calificada en 2022 como objetivo prioritario.
26:06The Venezuelan government dismissed the story as fake.
26:10Nobody from the Trump administration would agree to an interview.
26:13But Secretary of State Rubio was questioned about the allegations in a Senate hearing.
26:19The DEA has reportedly identified Delcey Rodriguez as a significant actor in the drug trade. Do you agree with that?
26:27Well, first of all, on the first point, I would say she's not indicted the way Maduro and his wife were.
26:31I understand.
26:32So I'm not going to speculate about newspaper articles and what law enforcement is working on.
26:35If, in fact, there were such an investigation, you know, I mean, that's something that we would speculate on.
26:39Suffice it to say that this was not a normal system.
26:42We all should stipulate to that.
26:44Okay.
26:45That regime, as everyone understood, was held together by corruption.
26:48The glue that kept people together was not loyalty to Maduro.
26:50It was the fact that these five guys had five separate oil fields that were assigned to them.
26:54These people had drug rounds.
26:55No, I understand that.
26:56But that's going to be clear.
26:57I'm not defending the regime.
26:59In fact, I'm concerned that we haven't really changed the regime enough.
27:03I acknowledge that we are dealing with, I told you, with individuals that have been involved in things that in our system would not be acceptable to us in the long term.
27:10By no means is our policy to leave in place something permanent that's as corrupt as you've described.
27:16We are in the transition and stabilization phase.
27:19We are just acknowledging reality.
27:20And that is, you have to work with the people that are in charge of the elements of government.
27:25One of those people was Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdaro Cabello, who was charged with drug trafficking in the same indictment as Maduro.
27:34Diosdaro Cabello, who is the Minister of the Interior and Control of Police, secret police, intelligence, is a criminal.
27:42He's under indictment for drug trafficking.
27:44He's the chief thug of the regime.
27:47He's the guy who's really in charge of these prisons and their torture chambers.
27:55And if there is a democratic Venezuela, he will have no place in it except maybe in prison.
28:01So he could be a spoiler.
28:04He could be a break.
28:11Despite Cabello still being in place,
28:13Venezuelans were looking for signs the regime would ease its repressive rule and take steps towards democracy.
28:23Five days after Maduro's capture, the government made a dramatic announcement.
28:28The Venezuelan regime announced Thursday it would release a significant number of political prisoners in the coming hours.
28:34Caracas announced it would release a large number of detainees in what officials referred to as a goodwill gesture.
28:41But on the ground, there was no sign of a large number of releases.
28:46Libertad! Libertad!
28:49On the night of the announcement, relatives gathered outside El Rodeo prison.
28:56El Rodeo, which is outside Caracas, is significant because it holds the largest number of prisoners considered to be detained for their political beliefs.
29:08Just four prisoners had been freed so far. The families were praying for more.
29:14Libertad!
29:16Libertad!
29:17Libertad!
29:18Libertad!
29:19Libertad!
29:20Nor
29:24Tcase
29:33Hey there! We are outside El Rodeo...We know that...
29:37They have been moving political prisoners from one facility to another to another to another...
29:41So at this point, you know, it's a bit of a guess... um, you know, who...who's where?
29:47Well, I mean, it seems well short of hundreds of people, right?
29:51I mean, this doesn't seem, at least for now, much of a gesture of reconciliation.
29:57It is possible that more people than we know of have been released.
30:01We just haven't seen them.
30:08Hello?
30:10Bien, ¿cómo le va?
30:11Venezuelan lawyer Alfredo Romero, who works from a secret location,
30:16was also monitoring the releases.
30:29His human rights group tracks the numbers of political prisoners.
30:33Something that worries me is that in the past,
30:36they have released like 100 political prisoners,
30:39and then in one month or two months,
30:41they have actually incarcerated other 100 political prisoners.
30:46That's what I've been calling the revolving door effect,
30:51or the revolving door of repression,
30:53using political prisoners as a way to intimidate the population.
30:57From the start, President Trump was pressed on the issue of Venezuela's political prisoners.
31:25Are you going to demand that Del C. Rodriguez let opposition figures return
31:30or free any political prisoners?
31:32We haven't gotten to that yet.
31:33Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil, fix up the country,
31:37bring the country back, and then have elections.
31:41In those early days, the president's focus was on oil.
31:44President Trump invited a group of oil businessmen to the White House,
31:52a variety of profiles.
31:53The large players like Exxon, Conoco, and Chevron were there.
31:56So we're going to discuss how these great American companies can help
32:00rapidly rebuild Venezuela's dilapidated oil industry
32:04and bring millions of barrels of oil production
32:07to benefit the United States, the people of Venezuela, and the entire world.
32:12If you're talking about the massive projects that need to be invested in
32:17to rebuild the Venezuelan oil industry,
32:20we're talking about $100 billion in investment in a decade.
32:24These type of investors, they want long-term horizons.
32:29Francisco Monaldi is an expert on the Venezuelan oil industry.
32:33Exxon was not enthusiastic at all
32:37and basically said that the country was uninvestable
32:40under the current circumstances.
32:43We first got into Venezuela back in the 1940s.
32:46We've had our assets seized there twice.
32:50And so you can imagine to reenter a third time
32:53would require some pretty significant changes
32:56from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state.
33:00Companies do not care if a country is democratic or not.
33:03They care about the rule of law
33:04and respect over their contracts and stability.
33:08The issue in the case of Venezuela
33:10is that I think it's unlikely
33:12that they will get all those conditions without democracy.
33:19Trump pushed Delcey Rodriguez
33:21to relax state control over the oil sector
33:24and make it more attractive to U.S. investment.
33:27She signaled a willingness to comply.
33:30Delcey Rodriguez has been portrayed as someone eager, for example,
33:51to work with American oil companies.
33:53So what, in your view, is her long game?
33:56I think we should ask ourselves,
33:59what would I do or you do if you were Delcey Rodriguez?
34:04What can I get away with?
34:06Do the Americans want me out immediately?
34:08No.
34:09What do they seem to want most of all?
34:11Oil.
34:12OK, I can deal with that.
34:14That doesn't undermine my staying power in office.
34:17They want some prisoners out.
34:19But we can start doing that.
34:21We'll do it slowly.
34:23Maybe we can get away with that.
34:25Maybe we survive all of this.
34:31A week after the capture of Maduro,
34:34the vast majority of political prisoners remained behind bars.
34:38Regina Garcia-Cano and AP photojournalist Ariana Cubillos
34:44were heading to a prison in San Francisco de Llare,
34:48an hour south of Caracas.
34:49So we are waiting for the third day in a row outside a prison.
34:57But so far, they've released no more than 20.
35:00After hours of waiting, a car pulls out of the prison gates.
35:12They were honking their horn.
35:15People were applauding.
35:17So we follow the car.
35:19The car stopped about a half a mile away from the prison.
35:28And we found Diogenes and three relatives,
35:34including his mother, right at the intersection.
35:37His family believes he was detained
35:48because he shared a video on social media.
35:52He was 17 at the time.
35:55The news about Maduro's capture
36:17hadn't yet reached Diogenes and his fellow inmates.
36:20Johannes had been arrested in 2024,
36:47along with many others from the political opposition.
36:50Maduro had been under pressure
36:53from the Biden administration
36:55to allow free and fair elections.
36:57I think what Biden saw was an opportunity
37:00to try something new in Venezuela,
37:03to re-engage with Maduro,
37:05to talk about elections,
37:06to talk about sanctions,
37:07to talk about immigration.
37:09Both sides would make concessions.
37:12Maduro agreed to release Americans
37:14being held in Venezuelan jails
37:16and promised to hold democratic elections.
37:19Our focus was on getting the Americans out
37:23to create an opening for us to have a dialogue,
37:26but making clear that U.S.-Venezuela relations
37:29would only improve
37:30after there was actually a free and fair election.
37:33Biden promised to ease sanctions
37:35and even agreed to free the undated Maduro money man,
37:39Alex Saab.
37:40I want you to see him,
37:42saludando un estrecho y fraterno brazo,
37:45también al presidente de Venezuela.
37:48It was a hard decision.
37:57The Department of Justice did not like
37:59the release of Alex Saab.
38:01I wish that we hadn't had to release Alex Saab,
38:05but I think the president of the United States
38:07has to make really tough calls,
38:08and his number one priority
38:09is the safety of Americans.
38:11You know, one of the things that happened
38:12in the Biden administration
38:13that I was unhappiest with
38:17was the release of Alex Saab.
38:19Now, that's an example of taking pressure
38:21off the regime.
38:23Has Maduro committed to you
38:25that he will allow all candidates to run
38:28in the next presidential election?
38:31I've not spoken to Maduro.
38:32He's committed to our...
38:34We've laid down specific requirements
38:37for a democratic election.
38:39He's agreed to all of them.
38:49Maduro's commitment
38:50would quickly be put to the test.
38:53In the election,
38:54he was being challenged
38:55by the popular opposition leader,
38:57Maria Corina Machado.
38:59No tenemos miedo.
39:01No tenemos miedo.
39:03In Venezuela,
39:05voters took to the polls Sunday
39:06for a presidential primary election
39:08to decide who will challenge
39:10President Nicolas Maduro next year.
39:14Maria Corina Machado
39:15decided to run
39:16for the Democratic Opposition primary.
39:21Almost 2 million went to vote.
39:23Maria Corina Machado
39:24got 92% of the vote.
39:27David Smolanski
39:28is one of Machado's advisors.
39:30People were not only
39:33electing a candidate.
39:35People were electing a leader.
39:38But Maduro's government
39:39banned her from running
39:40in the presidential election.
39:42So she endorsed someone else
39:44as her proxy.
39:46Edmundo González
39:47was a diplomat
39:49during the democratic years
39:50of Venezuela.
39:52But he was not known.
39:54And when Maria Corina Machado
39:55did the rally
39:55with Edmundo González
39:57poster,
39:58everyone knew
39:59in that moment
40:00who Edmundo González
40:01was.
40:01It was happening
40:01in a matter of weeks.
40:06The authoritarian regime
40:08of Nicolas Maduro
40:08is facing one of its
40:09toughest challenges
40:10in years.
40:12If the polls are correct,
40:13the vote could mark
40:14the end of President
40:15Nicolas Maduro's
40:1611-year grip on power
40:18of the crisis-stricken country.
40:20Vamos a ganar!
40:23Vamos a ganar!
40:28On the 28th of July of 2024,
40:32the 28th of July of 2024,
40:37a sort of silent hope
40:39was manifesting,
40:40to feel that that was
40:41the definitive,
40:43decisive day
40:44to propice
40:45a political change
40:46in Venezuela.
40:47And I think that
40:48reflected in the minute
40:50one of that day
40:50from that day.
40:51We saw people
40:52from the morning
40:53to the electoral centers.
40:55It was an indication
40:56of where things were going.
41:01In the midnight
41:02of July 28th,
41:04the President
41:05of the National
41:05Electoral
41:06gives a result
41:07where he announced
41:08as a winner
41:09to Nicolas Maduro.
41:10Nicolas Maduro Moro
41:1351.20%
41:17un resultado
41:19que no coincide
41:20con la evidencia
41:21que recolectó
41:21la oposición
41:22de las actas
41:23de las máquinas
41:24de votación
41:25que se usaron
41:25ese día.
41:27Hubo protestas
41:28prácticamente
41:29en todo el país.
41:31Hugo Chávez's
41:32statues
41:33were taken down
41:34by the people.
41:37Maduro knew
41:37he lost.
41:39They reacted
41:39with the
41:40most brutal
41:41repression.
41:42More than 2,000
41:46innocentes Venezuelans
41:47were kidnapped,
41:48illegally detained,
41:49disappeared.
41:54Some of Machado's
41:55allies were arrested
41:56and would end up
41:58in El Icoide prison.
42:00I think Maduro
42:01did cross the Rubicom
42:02after the election
42:03because nobody
42:04could argue
42:04that he was
42:05a legitimate leader
42:06at that point.
42:07What you're learning
42:08from this is
42:09there is no possible way
42:11through peaceful protests
42:15or through elections
42:17to get rid
42:18of this criminal gang.
42:20Maria Karina Machado
42:22went into hiding.
42:24In late 2025,
42:26she was awarded
42:27the Nobel Peace Prize
42:28and escaped
42:29from Venezuela.
42:30The Nobel Committee
42:32says that they
42:32awarded the prize
42:33based on Machado's
42:34leadership and promotion
42:35of democratic rights
42:36for Venezuelans.
42:37This is a blow
42:38for President Trump.
42:39He's been pressuring
42:40leaders in Norway
42:41to award him the prize.
42:45Hours after Maduro
42:46was captured,
42:48President Trump
42:48was asked about Machado.
42:50Yes?
42:51Are you aware
42:52of the location
42:53of opposition
42:53near Machado
42:54and have you been
42:55in contact with her?
42:56No.
42:57We haven't.
42:58I think it would be
42:59very tough for her
42:59to be the leader.
43:00She doesn't have
43:01the support within
43:02or the respect
43:03within the country.
43:04She's a very nice woman,
43:05but she doesn't have
43:05the respect to be the leader.
43:06Is it possible
43:07if you were...
43:08I thought in that moment
43:09that when transitions
43:11begins,
43:12they are complicated.
43:13And again,
43:14especially the beginning
43:15could be messy.
43:17Who are we?
43:18Venezuela!
43:19We want them!
43:20Libertad!
43:21Libertad!
43:22Libertad!
43:23Twelve days later,
43:24Maria Corina Machado
43:26came to Washington.
43:27We're at the White House
43:29where right now
43:30Maria Corina Machado,
43:31the opposition leader,
43:32is meeting
43:33with President Trump.
43:35It's a hugely important
43:37meeting for her
43:38and the Venezuelan opposition.
43:40They are completely marginalized
43:41from the negotiations
43:42over Venezuela's future.
43:44I think no one
43:45has any doubt
43:46that the legitimacy,
43:49the credibility,
43:50and the popularity
43:51is on Maria Corina Machado.
43:54If you had elections
43:56right now in Venezuela,
43:58she would win overwhelmingly.
44:01After a private meeting
44:02with the president,
44:04Machado emerged
44:06to crowds of supporters.
44:08I presented
44:09the president
44:10of the United States
44:11the medal,
44:14the Nobel Peace Prize.
44:17Machado calling the gesture
44:19a recognition
44:20for his unique commitment
44:22with Venezuela's freedom.
44:28The next morning,
44:29she met with reporters.
44:31What's your message
44:32to the president
44:33and to the United States
44:35when U.S. policy
44:37is still to support
44:38the Chavismo government
44:40that still exists
44:41in Caracas?
44:41This has nothing to do
44:44with a tension
44:48or decision
44:49between Delcy Rodriguez
44:51and myself.
44:53This is about
44:54a criminal structure
44:56that is the regime
44:57and the mandate
44:59of the Venezuelan people.
45:01I have no doubt
45:03that President Trump,
45:05his administration,
45:06and the people
45:06of the United States
45:08support democracy,
45:10justice, freedom,
45:12and the mandate
45:13of the people
45:14of Venezuela.
45:17Why align Delcy Rodriguez
45:19and the remnants
45:20of the Maduro regime
45:21and not with Machado
45:22who has the support
45:23of the Venezuelan people?
45:24Well, if you ever remember
45:26a place called Iraq
45:28where everybody was fired,
45:29every single person,
45:31the police,
45:32the generals,
45:33everybody was fired,
45:35and they ended up
45:35being ISIS.
45:37Instead of just getting
45:38down to business,
45:39they ended up being ISIS.
45:40So I remember that.
45:41But I'll tell you,
45:42I had a great meeting yesterday
45:44by a person
45:45who I have a lot
45:46of respect for,
45:47and she has respect,
45:49obviously, for me
45:50and our country.
45:51And she gave me
45:52her Nobel Prize,
45:53but I'll tell you what,
45:55I got to know her.
45:57I never met her before,
45:58and I was very,
45:59very impressed.
46:00She's a really,
46:01this is a fine woman.
46:03But for now,
46:04Trump would leave Machado
46:05on the sidelines
46:06without a commitment
46:08about a future role
46:10for her in Venezuela.
46:11Meanwhile,
46:22on the ground in Caracas,
46:24Delce Rodriguez
46:25continued trying to shore up
46:27her own precarious position.
46:29Delce Rodriguez
46:29is walking a tightrope.
46:32On one hand,
46:33she needs to rally her base,
46:35remind them that
46:39they're still trying
46:40to bring Maduro back.
46:44On the other,
46:45she's facing the U.S.,
46:47and she knows
46:48that she must meet
46:50many demands.
46:52She's in a tough position
46:53for sure.
46:56In late January,
46:58she signed a law
46:59giving foreign oil companies
47:00greater freedom
47:01to operate in Venezuela.
47:03President Trump quickly
47:05eased sanctions
47:06on the country's oil sector.
47:21This is an absolute betrayal
47:23of what Hugo Chavez
47:24wanted for the
47:25Venezuelan oil sector.
47:27He will be absolutely shocked.
47:29This is absolutely dismantling
47:30all the oil framework
47:33that he created
47:34that gave full control
47:36over the oil sector
47:38to the government.
47:39It was a win
47:43for the Trump administration.
47:45The thing I worry about
47:47most regarding Venezuela
47:48is today, us.
47:51I think that if
47:53American policy
47:54is to push
47:56in a reasonable,
47:58sensible manner
47:58toward a restoration
48:00of democracy,
48:01they will be able
48:02to do it.
48:03And what I really fear
48:05is some kind of deal
48:06in Washington
48:07that leaves this regime
48:08in place
48:09permanently
48:11as long as they're
48:12willing to do
48:13what we want
48:13on oil.
48:15This hour,
48:16Secretary of State
48:17Marco Rubio
48:18set to answer questions
48:19from senators
48:19on the Foreign Relations Committee.
48:22Testifying in the Senate,
48:24Marco Rubio
48:24acknowledged
48:25the regime's actions.
48:26The authorities there
48:28deserve some credit.
48:29They have passed
48:29a new hydrocarbon law
48:30that basically eradicates
48:32many of the Chavez-era
48:34restrictions
48:34on private investment
48:35in the oil industry.
48:37It probably doesn't go far enough
48:39to attract sufficient investment,
48:40but it's a big step
48:41from where they were
48:42three weeks ago.
48:43So that's a major change.
48:44He continued to urge
48:46patience with the transition.
48:47One of parts
48:48of the transition phase,
48:50or the recovery phase,
48:51is beginning to create space
48:53for different voices
48:54inside of Venezuelan politics
48:56to have an ability
48:57to speak out.
48:58Part of that
48:58is the release
48:59of political prisoners.
49:00They're releasing them
49:01probably slower
49:02than I would like them to,
49:03but they are releasing them.
49:08I think there's a chance
49:09that Marco Rubio
49:10pulls this off.
49:10I want to recognize that,
49:11that he may be able
49:12to actually get this
49:13where a year from now
49:14there's a democratic transition,
49:15but I think there are also
49:16many more scenarios
49:18in which this can go
49:19horribly sideways.
49:20The end state here
49:21is we want to reach
49:23a phase of transition
49:24where we are left
49:25with a friendly,
49:26stable,
49:27prosperous Venezuela,
49:29and democratic,
49:30in which all elements
49:31of society are represented
49:32in free and fair elections.
49:34We're not going to get there
49:35in three weeks.
49:36It's going to take some time.
49:39As of now,
49:40Nicolas Maduro
49:41and his wife
49:42have pleaded not guilty
49:43and remain in U.S. custody,
49:45awaiting trial.
49:47And there are reports
49:49that his former operative,
49:50Alex Saab,
49:51may be joining them.
49:52In the last few hours,
49:54it's been said
49:54that Alex Saab
49:56has been detained
49:57in Venezuela.
49:58The news has not been
49:59officially confirmed
50:00by the government
50:01of Venezuela.
50:02Eventually,
50:03he could have
50:04a request of extradition.
50:07And this does mark
50:08a new level
50:09of collaboration
50:10between President Trump
50:11and Interim President
50:12Delcy Rodriguez.
50:13At the same time,
50:36there is growing hope
50:37for Venezuela's
50:38political prisoners.
50:39Around 400 have been
50:45released so far.
50:47And at the end of January,
50:49Delcy Rodriguez
50:50made an historic promise.
51:04Outside Helicoide,
51:06the regime's notorious prison,
51:07friends and relatives
51:09of those detained
51:10listened in.
51:11I want to make
51:12an announcement
51:13for Venezuela
51:14that we have decided
51:17to implement
51:18a general amnesty law
51:20that covers
51:21the entire political period
51:23of political violence
51:25from 1999
51:26to the present.
51:29And in the end,
51:30freedom!
51:30Freedom!
51:30Freedom!
51:31Freedom!
51:31Freedom!
51:32Freedom!
51:32Freedom!
51:32Freedom!
51:33Freedom!
51:33Freedom!
51:33Freedom!
51:34Freedom!
51:34Freedom!
51:35Freedom!
51:36Freedom!
51:36Delcy Rodriguez
51:37had once helped
51:38Maduro suppress
51:39and imprison opponents.
51:40Now she was promising
51:42a general amnesty
51:43that could free
51:44opposition leaders,
51:45journalists,
51:46and activists.
51:47And to close,
51:52Helicorda.
51:53The death toll
51:54of the people
51:54of the money
51:54in the battle
51:55and peace
51:55of the people
51:56are trying to
51:56be free.
51:57Venezuela is free!
51:58Oh!
52:05Just this week,
52:06more than 30 political prisoners
52:08were released,
52:09including allies
52:10of Maria Corina Machado.
52:13But one was quickly
52:17rearrested,
52:18and many
52:19are still being held.
52:21It remains to be seen how far the remnants of Maduro's regime will go.
52:25No tenemos miedo! No tenemos miedo!
52:29No tenemos miedo!
52:50...in violation of the United Nations Charter...
52:52...and see more of our coverage of Venezuela.
52:55Connect with Frontline on Facebook and Instagram and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube or PBS.org slash Frontline.
53:20For more on this and other Frontline programs, visit our website at PBS.org slash Frontline.
53:50Frontline's Crisis in Venezuela is available on Amazon Prime Video.
54:20Frontline's Crisis in Venezuela
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