Crisis in Venezuela (2026)

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I was woken up by an expl*si*n.

I was looking out the window.

It was the loudest noise I have ever heard.

My building was shook.

I had my phone in my hand, and I sent a message, and said,

"Hi, I think we're under attack."

Everybody was asking everybody what was going on.

Fighter jets and bombers took out Venezuelan air defenses,

paving the way for Delta Force commados

to close in on the compound.

It involved months of planning, special forces.

A sort of operation you would expect in a Hollywood movie,

but not something that I expected

the U.S. government to attempt.

President Trump says Nicolas Maduro and his wife,

Cilia Flores, have been captured and flown out of the country.

Maduro faced charges of drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and

conspiracy to import cocaine.

My reaction to the capture of Maduro was just shock.

I turned on my phone and there's like tons of messages

from top editors at the AP, and I got straight to work.

NARRATOR: In the weeks since the capture of

Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro,

teams from “Frontline” and the Associated Press

have been on the ground in Venezuela.

NARRATOR: And the United States.

We got to find out what all this means.

[whispering]: Oh my God. That's a huge...

Okay.

NARRATOR: Sitting down with former U.S.

officials, Venezuelan politicians, and experts

charting President Trump's long campaign to topple Maduro.

All options, always.

All options are on the table.

Maduro's lieutenants are all still running the country.

NARRATOR: Investigating the regime loyalists who've been

left in charge.

Delcy Rodriguez has been officially sworn in

as interim president.

We just had a great conversation today

and she's a terrific person.

NARRATOR: And the Nobel-prize winning opposition leader

who remains in exile.

Mr. Trump appeared to sideline Maria Corina Machado.

He downplayed her support.

This is about a criminal structure that is the regime and

the mandate of the Venezuelan people.

NARRATOR: Amid an uncertain future.

Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,

is going to be on Capitol Hill today.

This hearing is supposed to focus on the Trump

administration's controversial actions in Venezuela.

Now for the first time in literally a decade, there is the

opportunity that something could change.

What I really fear is some kind of deal in Washington that

leaves this regime in place permanently as long as they're

willing to do what we want on oil.

I get it, we all want something immediately, but this

is not a frozen dinner you put in a microwave

and in two and a half minutes it comes out ready to eat.

It's : a.m. on the East Coast,

and if you're just joining us this morning,

we have major breaking news.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro

has been captured by U.S. forces.

[crowd cheering]

[drumming]

[cheering continues]

NARRATOR: Within hours of the raid in Caracas,

Venezuelan exiles celebrated in Miami.

[crowd cheering]

NARRATOR: Around eight million Venezuelans fled abroad

during the rule of Nicolás Maduro--

more than seven hundred thousand to the United States.

Late last night

and early today,

at my direction,

the United States Armed Forces

conducted an extraordinary military operation

in the capital of Venezuela...

It was a force against

a heavily fortified military fortress

in the heart of Caracas

to bring outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro to justice.

This was one of the most stunning...

NARRATOR: AP reporter Joshua Goodman

is based in Miami and has been reporting on Venezuela

for over a decade.

Initially, after the capture of Maduro,

I was focused on who was in power in Caracas.

Maduro ran the country

so ruthlessly that his absence

was going to immediately create a void.

It was nominally filled by Delcy Rodríguez,

his vice president and loyal aide

during many, many years.

She's, I guess, the president.

She was sworn in as president

just a little while ago.

She had a long conversation with Marco,

and she said, "We'll do whatever you need."

She... I think she was quite gracious, but...

she really doesn't have a choice.

Delcy Rodriguez's reaction to Maduro's capture

kind of followed the script that you would expect.

She denounced it as a kidnapping,

a violation of the United Nations Charter.

But within a matter of hours,

she sort of switched her discourse a little bit.

And even though she continued to denounce

Maduro's, quote, "kidnapping," she also very clearly

extended an olive branch to the Trump administration.

Delcy Rodríguez has been officially sworn in

as interim president.

She's indicated she'll cooperate with Washington,

but described Maduro and his wife as hostages.

[wind howling, rooster crowing]

NARRATOR: In Caracas,

AP's Venezuela correspondent Regina Garcia Cano

was covering the impact and reactions on the ground.

As the sun went up,

the city remained in absolute silence.

[rooster crowing]

Slowly, we started to see

some businesses open,

and people began to line up outside.

People looked stunned.

There were no celebrations.

At least not publicly.

With Delcy becoming acting president,

many, many questions

were left unanswered.

How long is she going to be acting president?

Will there be elections soon,

or in a year,

or in two years?

Venezuelans want answers to those questions.

What's going to happen next?

Well, there's a lot of operational details

that can't be discussed publicly,

obviously, for obvious reasons,

so... as we move forward we'll describe our process.

NARRATOR: Secretary of State Marco Rubio

was quickly promoting a three-phase plan for Venezuela.

Step one is the stabilization of the country.

We don't want it descending into chaos...

The second phase will be a phase that we call recovery,

and that is ensuring that American, Western,

and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market,

a way that's fair.

Also, at the same time,

begin to create the process of reconciliation

nationally within Venezuela

so that the opposition forces can be amnestied

and released and... from prisons

or brought back to the country

and begin to rebuild civil society.

And then the third phase, of course,

will be one of transition. Some of this will overlap...

The people of Venezuela are waking up to the same regime.

Do you not worry about that?

Well, first of all, the bottom line is

that there is a process now in place,

where we have tremendous control and leverage

over what those interim authorities

are doing and are able to do.

I remember this.

NARRATOR: The origins of the U.S. effort

to topple Nicolás Maduro go back more than a decade.

This is it, this is it.

This is the moment

that Nicolás Maduro became president.

NARRATOR: In ,

Maduro was anointed by his predecessor,

Hugo Chavez, on live television.

Chavez is dying of cancer,

and he anoints his successor. Watch.

Maduro shows no expression,

but it was the moment that set him up to become president.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Chavez saw the U.S. as his arch enemy

and had clashed with it

over control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.

He'd seized the assets of American oil companies

doing business there.

Venezuela is a petrostate.

It depends exclusively on the sale of oil for income.

Hugo Chavez renegotiated oil contracts in Venezuela,

and a lot of the companies didn't like

the deal he was offering, and they sued.

And they, to this day,

are owed billions of dollars from that expropriation.

NARRATOR: When Maduro came to power

after Chavez's death,

the oil industry was in disarray,

and the economy was collapsing.

At the time,

Juan Gonzalez was coordinating U.S. policy on Venezuela

for the Obama administration.

Nicolás Maduro

was incredibly unpopular at the very beginning,

and there were questions about whether he could

endure and survive politically.

The time that Hugo Chávez left

coincided with the collapse in oil and gas prices.

So Nicolás Maduro no longer had this pocketbook.

I think Maduro found himself in a position

where he had to use increasing crackdowns,

even manipulation of elections.

The closure of the democratic space,

and was characterized by increased corruption

inside of the government, basically just to stay in power.

I think he had to keep a lot of people happy,

so he had to give a lot of money out.

And yes, people started disappearing.

[weapons firing]

NARRATOR: Maduro banned political opponents

and arrested and detained

thousands of political prisoners.

♪

NARRATOR: Many would end up incarcerated

at Helicoide-- the notorious headquarters

of Venezuelan intelligence.

♪ ♪

By ,

a mass exodus from Venezuela was underway

that would continue through Maduro's rule.

We have many options for Venezuela.

And by the way, I'm not going to rule out a military option.

We have many options for Venezuela.

NARRATOR: In his first term,

President Trump already had Maduro in his sights.

The people are suffering, and they're dying.

We have many options for Venezuela,

including a possible military option, if necessary.

NARRATOR: Elliott Abrams served as

Trump's special representative for Venezuela.

We said approximately five million times

all options are on the table.

All options, always. All options are on the table.

I think of all possibilities, all options are open.

And that was true in the sense that it's always true.

But there was no real military plan

to do anything like this.

Partly, I think, because,

I don't think at that point

there would've been much support

in the Pentagon,

and there certainly wouldn't have been at C.I.A.

NARRATOR: Initially, President Trump

imposed sanctions targeting the regime and its oil sector,

part of a strategy known as "maximum pressure."

Today, we are announcing additional sanctions

against...

the repressive regime,

targeting Maduro's inner circle and close advisors.

We had sanctions.

We isolated the regime diplomatically.

But it didn't work.

Donald Trump, con Venezuela no te metas.

Hands off Venezuela.

[applause]

I think one of the pernicious effects

of the maximum pressure campaign is

that it actually fueled more corruption.

When 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.

And, when you're dealing outside of traditional markets,

the opportunity for graft, for corruption,

for inflating prices

on government contracts just grows exponentially.

NARRATOR: Maduro used a parallel economy

to try to get around the sanctions.

Central to the effort

was his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez.

Delcy Rodríguez makes herself

indispensable to Maduro.

She's sort of the chief operating officer

who is coordinating oil sales

despite U.S. sanctions.

She is attracting investment from around the world.

She is traveling the world as well,

to cement relations with places like Russia.

And during this period, her power

expands immensely.

She's also given control over the intelligence services,

the SEBIN, the feared political police,

report to her as vice president.

NARRATOR: Maduro also relied on another powerful player--

a Colombian businessman named Alex Saab.

Alex Saab se convierte en una especie de emisario

personal del propio Nicolás Maduro,

en una especie de ministro en la sombra.

NARRATOR: Roberto Deniz

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.

He's stolen enormous amounts of money

for Maduro and his cronies.

Alex Saab was prolific

in the way that he created shell companies around the world.

NARRATOR: Marshall Billingslea

was at the U.S. Treasury Department

and helped lead an effort to investigate Alex Saab.

It 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.

In the case of Alex Saab, this is an individual

who was abusing the international financial system,

and the things he was doing on behalf of Maduro

were unconscionable.

NARRATOR: In ,

Saab was arrested while on a business trip,

and eventually extradited to the U.S.

on money laundering charges.

He pleaded not guilty,

and was held in federal custody awaiting trial.

NARRATOR: At 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.

The U.S. Justice Department announced indictments

of Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro

and his top allies

on charges of narco-terrorism.

Attorney General William Barr

said they conspired to flood the U.S. with cocaine

and to loot their own country of billions of dollars.

NARRATOR: Sandy Gonzalez

was one of the key investigators on the case.

I was assigned to a special unit of D.E.A.

whose sole focus is to investigate

international drug traffickers, money launderers,

narco-t*rrorists, and corrupt officials.

Venezuela has become--

at least during the time that I worked there

and was investigating the drug trafficking activity there--

a really strategic location

for cocaine trafficking organizations.

All of these organizations essentially had a...

a paradise, where they could operate freely

if they paid the right people.

Prosecutors say for more than years,

Maduro led the Cartel of the Suns,

using Venezuela's military, legislature, and courts

to traffic cocaine into the U.S.

The Cartel de los Soles

is a name we did not come up with.

It was a name that we heard

while we were working in Venezuela.

So, it's... it's a little bit complicated.

Certain people have different ways of describing it.

It could be described as a mafia of sorts...

Um...

but it's definitely a group of individuals in Venezuela,

involved in the government,

that participate in the drug trade,

facilitate the drug trade, profit from the drug trade,

and allow the drug trade to flourish in their country.

NARRATOR: In the summer of ,

the Trump administration

began referring to the Cartel de los Soles

as narco-t*rrorists,

and launched a wave of controversial strikes

against alleged drug boats

that would k*ll more than people.

Today in the Caribbean,

another boat incinerated by U.S. m*ssile,

the tenth U.S. strike

since early September on what the administrations calls

"drug boats," including three strikes this week alone.

The U.S. military k*lled

two people clinging to wreckage in the sea

after they survived an initial air strike

on their boat.

The U.S. government offered

little to no information

about those strikes.

They claimed those on board were narco-t*rrorists.

If foreign t*rror1st organizations

poisoning people with drugs, coming from a drug cartel,

is no different than Al-Qaeda.

They offered no evidence

to back up those claims.

It was very apparent early on

that the goal here was to

pressure Maduro into resigning.

It was a fig leaf,

the idea that this was

a counter-narcotics mission,

and it was really about forcing regime change in Venezuela.

We had reached the point at which

there was too big a buildup in the Caribbean

for the president to back off.

It was clear to me

there's going to be a winner and a loser.

Is it going to be Trump or is it going to be Maduro?

[camera clicking]

NARRATOR: Once in U.S. custody,

prosecutors unsealed a new indictment

against Maduro,

They accused him of involvement in a vast

drug trafficking conspiracy with the Venezuelan military.

As it states

in the indictment, it is a conspiracy.

So he had a role in that conspiracy.

And according to our laws,

everyone involved in the conspiracy is...

essentially as culpable as the next.

The country is now being led by Delcy Rodriguez.

In your view, is she someone who can

dismantle those criminal networks

that have blossomed under Maduro?

That's going to be interesting to see.

I don't think that

you could just remove Nicolás Maduro

from that equation

and leave everything else status quo

and expect things to change.

♪

NARRATOR: Within days of Maduro's capture,

the AP got a tip about

Delcy Rodriguez's own connections

to drug trafficking allegations.

[whispering]: [Bleep]. Wow.

My colleague, Jim Mustian from New York,

he got some information about possible criminal investigations

in the United States to Delcy Rodríguez.

Let me take a look.

Okay, let's see what this is.

[keyboard clacking]

What does this mean?

Oh, she's got a NADDIS number. [Bleep].

A NADDIS number is a big deal.

I have to understand this better.

I gotta call Jim.

We gotta-- we gotta find out what all this means.

[whispering]: Oh my God. That's a huge...

Okay.

[inhales]

Wow. Okay.

I mean, this-- cases.

Great work, great work.

Okay, um...

let's find a place to work. I need to work.

Perrier. Oh, thanks.

I'm gonna tell-- I'm gonna call my editor.

[phone ringing out]

[on phone]: Hi, Josh.

Hey, can I patch in, uh, Jim?

[on phone]: Good afternoon.

Her entry in the D.O.J.'s...

the D.E.A.'s file on her says,

"Involved in drug trafficking

and gold smuggling projects."

The language this source

described Delcy as a priority target.

But the quote

that we could probably use if we,

if we needed to...

I mean, this is-- I'm just going through

my messages with the source,

is listed as a priority target.

Um...

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.

It could just mean that she was mentioned

in connection to that drug trafficking,

gold trafficking investigation.

Now, 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.

This is a major surprise because even though I think

Venezuela has long been a target-rich environment

for the DEA and other agencies, she somehow, somewhat uniquely

had escaped being criminally charged herself.

The 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."

NARRATOR: The Venezuelan government

dismissed the story as fake.

Nobody from the Trump administration

would agree to an interview.

But Secretary of State Rubio

was questioned about the allegations

in a Senate hearing.

The DEA has reportedly identified Delcy Rodriguez

as a significant actor in the drug trade.

Do you agree with that?

...Well, first of all, on the first point,

I would say she's not indicted the way Maduro

and his wife were. I understand.

So I'm not going to speculate about

newspaper articles and what law enforcement is working on.

If in fact there were such an investigation, you know,

I mean, that's something that we would speculate on.

Suffice it to say that this was not a normal system.

We all should... stipulate to that, okay?

That regime, as everyone understood,

was held together by corruption.

The glue that kept people together

was not loyalty to Maduro.

It was the fact that these five guys

had five separate oil fields

that were assigned to them. These people are drug runners.

No, I understand-- I understand that.

But that's going to be...

I'm not defending the regime.

In fact, I'm concerned that

we haven't really changed the regime enough...

...I 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--

would not be acceptable to us in the long term.

By no means is our policy to leave in place

something permanent that's as corrupt as you've described.

We are in the tran... in the transition

and stabilization phase.

We are just acknowledging reality,

and that is you have to work with the people

that are in charge of the elements of government.

NARRATOR: One of those people was

Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello,

who was charged with drug trafficking

in the same indictment as Maduro.

Diosdado Cabello, who is the Minister of the Interior,

control of police, secret police, intelligence,

is a criminal.

He's under indictment for drug trafficking.

He's the chief thug of the regime.

He's the guy who's really in charge

of these prisons and their t*rture chambers.

And if there is a Democratic Venezuela,

he will have no place in it, except maybe in prison.

So, he could be a spoiler. He could be a break.

♪ ♪

[cars passing, horn honks]

NARRATOR: Despite Cabello still being in place,

Venezuelans were looking for signs

the regime would ease its repressive rule

and take steps towards democracy.

[dog barking]

Five days after Maduro's capture,

the government made a dramatic announcement:

The Venezuelan regime announced Thursday

it would release a significant number

of political prisoners in the coming hours.

Caracas announced it would release

a large number of detainees

in what officials refer to as a goodwill gesture.

NARRATOR: But on the ground,

there was no sign of a large number of releases.

NARRATOR: On the night of the announcement,

relatives gathered outside El Rodeo prison.

[dog barking]

El Rodeo, which is outside Caracas,

is significant because it holds the largest number of prisoners

considered to be detained for their political beliefs.

NARRATOR: Just four prisoners had been freed so far.

The families were praying for more.

Hey, there.

We're outside of Rodeo. We know that

they have been moving political prisoners

from one facility to another, to another, to another.

So at this point, you know, it's a bit of a guess, um, you know,

who, who's where.

Well, I mean it seems well short

of hundreds of people, right?

I mean, this doesn't seem, at least for now,

much of a gesture of reconciliation.

It is possible that more people than we know of

have been released,

we just haven't seen them.

[indistinct chatter]

[phone dialing out]

NARRATOR: Venezuelan lawyer Alfredo Romero,

who works from a secret location,

was also monitoring the releases.

NARRATOR: His human rights group tracks the numbers

of political prisoners.

Something that worries me is that in the past,

they have released like political prisoners,

and then in one month or two months,

they have actually incarcerated other political prisoners.

That's what I've been calling

the revolving door effect,

or the revolving door of repression.

Using political prisoners

as a way to intimidate the population.

[Potestors speaking Spanish]

NARRATOR: From the start,

President Trump was pressed on the issue

of Venezuela's political prisoners.

Are you going to demand that Delcy Rodriguez

let opposition figures return or free any political prisoners?

We haven't gotten to that yet.

Right now, what we want to do is fix up the oil,

fix up the country, bring the country back,

and then have elections.

NARRATOR: In those early days,

the president's focus was on oil.

President Trump invited a group

of oil businessmen to the White House,

a variety of profiles-- the large players like

Exxon, Conoco and Chevron were there.

So we're going to discuss how these great American companies

can help rapidly

rebuild Venezuela's dilapidated oil industry

and bring millions of barrels

of oil production

to benefit the United States,

the people of Venezuela, and the entire world.

If you're talking about the massive projects that need

to be invested in to rebuild the Venezuelan oil industry,

we're talking about

$ billion in investment in a decade.

These type of investors, they want long-term horizons.

NARRATOR: Francisco Monaldi

is an expert on the Venezuelan oil industry.

Exxon was not enthusiastic

at all and basically said that the country was

un-investable under the current circumstances.

We first got into Venezuela back in ... the s.

We've had our assets seized there twice.

And so you can imagine to reenter a third time

would require some pretty significant changes from what

we've historically seen here in what is currently the state.

Companies do not care if a country is democratic or not.

They care about the rule of law and respect

over their contracts and its stability.

The issue in the case of Venezuela

is that I think it's unlikely that they will get

all those conditions without democracy.

[birds chirping]

NARRATOR: Trump pushed Delcy Rodriguez

to relax state control over the oil sector

and make it more attractive to U.S. investment.

She signaled a willingness to comply.

Delcy Rodriguez has been portrayed

as someone eager, for example,

to work with American oil companies.

So what, in your view, is her long game?

I think we should ask ourselves,

what would I do or you do

if you were Delcy Rodriguez?

What can I get away with?

Do the Americans want me out immediately? No.

What do they seem to want, most of all? Oil.

Okay, I can deal with that.

That doesn't undermine my staying power in office.

They want some prisoners out. We can start doing that.

We'll do it slowly.

Maybe we can get away with that.

Maybe we survive all of this.

NARRATOR: A week after the capture of Maduro,

the vast majority of political prisoners remained behind bars.

Regina Garcia Cano and AP photojournalist

Ariana Cubillos were heading to a prison

in San Francisco de Yare, an hour south of Caracas.

So we are waiting

for the third day in a row

outside a prison.

But so far, they've released no more than .

NARRATOR: After hours of waiting,

a car pulls out of the prison gates.

They were honking their horn.

People were applauding.

[car honking]

So we follow the car...

The car stopped about a half a mile away

from the prison and we found

Diogenes

and three relatives, including

his mother, right at the intersection.

His family believes he was detained

because he shared a video on social media.

He was at the time.

NARRATOR: The news about Maduro's capture

hadn't yet reached Diogenes

and his fellow inmates.

[laughter]

Diogenes had been arrested in ,

along with many others from the political opposition.

Maduro had been under pressure

from the Biden administration to allow

free and fair elections.

I think what Biden saw was an opportunity

to try something new in Venezuela.

To reengage with Maduro,

to talk about elections,

to talk about sanctions, talk about immigration,

NARRATOR: Both sides would make concessions.

Maduro agreed to release

Americans being held in Venezuelan jails

and promised to hold democratic elections.

Our focus was on getting

the Americans out to create

an opening for us to have a dialogue,

but making clear that U.S.-Venezuela relations

will only improve

after there was actually a free and fair election.

NARRATOR: Biden promised to ease sanctions,

and even agreed to free

the indicted Maduro money man, Alex Saab.

It was a hard decision.

The Department of Justice did not like

the release of Alex Saab.

I wish that we hadn't had to release Alex Saab, but,

I think the president of the United States

has to make really tough calls and his number one priority

is the safety of Americans.

You know, one of the things that happened

in the Biden administration that

I was unhappiest with was the release of Alex Saab.

Now, that's an example of taking pressure off the regime.

Has Maduro committed to you

that he will allow all candidates to run

in the next presidential election?

I've not spoken to Maduro. He's committed to our...

...we've laid down specific requirements

for a democratic election. He's agreed to all of them.

Thank you.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Maduro's commitment would quickly

be put to the test.

In the election,

he was being challenged by the popular opposition leader

Maria Corina Machado.

In Venezuela, voters took to the polls Sunday

for a presidential primary election

to decide who will challenge

President Nicolás Maduro next year.

[cheers and applause]

María Corina Machado decided to run

for the democratic opposition primary.

[cheers and applause]

Almost two million went to vote.

María Corina Machado got % of the vote.

NARRATOR: David Smolansky is one of Machado's top advisors.

People were not only electing a candidate,

people were electing a leader.

NARRATOR: But Maduro's government banned her

from running in the presidential election,

so she endorsed someone else as her proxy.

Edmundo González was a diplomat

during the democratic years of Venezuela,

but he was not known.

And when María Corina Machado

did the rally with the Edmundo González poster,

everyone knew in that moment

who Edmundo González was.

But that happened in a matter of weeks.

The authoritarian regime of Nicolas Maduro is facing

one of its toughest challenges in years.

If the polls are correct, the vote could mark the end

of President Nicolas Maduro's -year grip on power

of the crisis-stricken country.

♪

Hugo Chávez's statues were taken down by the people.

Maduro knew he lost-- they reacted

with the most brutal repression.

[g*nf*re]

More than , innocent Venezuelans were kidnapped,

illegally detained, disappear.

[car horns honking]

NARRATOR: Some of Machado's allies were arrested

and would end up in Helicoide prison.

I think Maduro

did cross the Rubicon after the election,

because nobody could argue that he was

a legitimate leader at that point.

What you're learning from this is there is no possible way

through peaceful protests or through elections,

to get rid of this criminal g*ng.

NARRATOR: Maria Corina Machado went into hiding.

[applause]

In late ,

she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,

and escaped from Venezuela.

The Nobel committee says

that they awarded the prize based on Machado's leadership

and promotion of democratic rights for Venezuelans.

And this is a blow for President Trump,

he's been pressuring leaders in Norway to award him the prize.

[crowd cheering]

NARRATOR: Hours after Maduro was captured,

President Trump was asked about Machado.

Yes?

Is the U.S. aware of the location

of opposition leader Machado,

and have you been in contact with her?

No, we haven't, really. No, we haven't.

I think it'd be very tough for her to be the leader.

She doesn't have the support within

or the respect within the country.

She's a very nice woman,

but she doesn't have the respect to be their leader.

Mr. President, is it possible...

I thought in that moment that when

transitions begins,

they are complicated.

And again, especially at the beginning could be messy.

NARRATOR: Twelve days later, Maria Corina Machado

came to Washington.

We're at the White House,

where right now, María Corina Machado,

the opposition leader, is meeting with President Trump.

It's a hugely important meeting for her

and the Venezuelan opposition.

They are completely marginalized

from the negotiations over Venezuela's future.

I think no one has

any doubt that the legitimacy,

the credibility, and the popularity

is on Maria Corina Machado.

If you had elections right now in Venezuela,

she would win overwhelmingly.

NARRATOR: After a private meeting with the president...

Maria!

NARRATOR: ...Machado emerged to crowds of supporters.

I presented the president of the United States

the medal of the Peace... the Nobel Peace Prize,

Machado calling the gesture a recognition

for his unique commitment with Venezuela's freedom.

♪

NARRATOR: The next morning, she met with reporters.

What's your message to the president

and, and to the United States when

U.S. policy is still to support

the Chavismo government that still exists in Caracas?

This has nothing to do...

...with a tension

or decision between Delcy Rodríguez and myself.

...this is about a criminal structure that is the regime

and the mandate of the Venezuelan people.

...I have no doubt that President Trump,

his administration, and the people

of the United States support democracy, justice, freedom,

and the mandate of the people of Venezuela...

[applause]

Why align with Delcy Rodriguez and the remnants

of the Maduro regime and not with Machado

who has the support of the Venezuelan people?

Well, if you ever remember a place called Iraq

where everybody was fired-- every single person,

the police, the generals-- everybody was fired

and they ended up being !sis.

Instead of just getting down to business

they ended up being !sis.

So I remember that.

But I tell you, I had a great meeting yesterday

by a person I who I have a lot of respect for.

And she has respect obviously for me and our country.

And she gave me her Nobel Prize,

but I'll tell you what, I got to know her.

I never met her before, and I was very, very impressed.

She's a really... this is a fine woman.

[reporters clamoring]

NARRATOR: But for now, Trump would leave Machado

on the sidelines,

without a commitment about a future role for her

in Venezuela.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, on the ground in Caracas,

Delcy Rodriguez continued trying to shore up

her own precarious position.

Delcy Rodriguez is walking a tightrope.

On one hand,

she needs to rally her base.

♪ ¡Liberen a Nicolas! ♪

Remind them that they're

still trying to bring Maduro back.

On the other,

she's facing the U.S.,

and she knows that she must meet

many demands-- she's in a tough position for sure.

[cheers and applause]

NARRATOR: In late January,

she signed the law giving foreign oil companies

greater freedom to operate in Venezuela.

[cheers and applause]

President Trump quickly eased sanctions

on the country's oil sector.

This is an absolute betrayal of what Hugo Chávez wanted

for the Venezuelan oil sector.

He would be absolutely shocked.

This is absolutely dismantling

all the oil framework that he created

that gave full control over the oil sector to the government.

NARRATOR: It was a win for the Trump administration.

The thing I worry about most regarding Venezuela is,

today, us.

I think that if American policy

is to push in a reasonable, sensible manner

toward a restoration of democracy,

they will be able to do it.

And what I really fear is some kind of deal in Washington

that leaves this regime in place permanently,

as long as they're willing to do what we want on oil.

This hour, Secretary of State Marco Rubio

is set to answer questions from senators

on the Foreign Relations Committee.

NARRATOR: Testifying in the Senate,

Marco Rubio acknowledged the regime's actions.

The authorities there deserve some credit.

They have passed a new hydrocarbon law that

basically eradicates many of the Chavez-era restrictions

on private investment in the oil industry.

It probably doesn't go far enough to attract

sufficient investment, but it's a big step

from where they were three weeks ago.

So that's a major change.

NARRATOR: He continued to urge patience

with the transition.

One of the parts of the transition phase

or the recovery phase is beginning to create space

for different voices inside of Venezuelan politics

to have an ability to, to speak out.

Part of that is the release

of political prisoners...

They are releasing them probably slower

than I would like them to, but they are releasing them.

I think there's a chance that Marco Rubio pulls this off.

I want to recognize that, that he may be able

to actually get this where in a year from now

there's a democratic transition.

But I think there are also

many more scenarios in which this can go horribly sideways.

The end state here is we want a, a...

we want to reach a phase of transition where we are left

with a friendly, stable,

prosperous Venezuela-- and democratic--

in which all elements of society

are represented in free and fair elections...

We're not going to get there in three weeks.

It's going to take some time.

NARRATOR: As of now, Nicholas Maduro

and his wife have pleaded not guilty

and remain in U.S. custody, awaiting trial.

And there are reports that his former operative,

Alex Saab, may be joining them.

And this does mark a new level of collaboration between

President Trump and interim president Delcy Rodríguez.

NARRATOR: At the same time,

there is growing hope for Venezuela's

political prisoners.

NARRATOR: Around have been released so far

and at the end of January,

Delcy Rodriguez made an historic promise.

NARRATOR: Outside Helicoide,

the regime's notorious prison, friends and relatives

of those detained listened in.

NARRATOR: Delcy Rodriguez had once helped Maduro

suppress and imprison opponents.

Now she was promising a general amnesty that could free

opposition leaders, journalists, and activists.

NARRATOR: And to close Helicoide.

NARRATOR: Just this week,

more than political prisoners were released,

including allies of Maria Corina Machado.

NARRATOR: But one was quickly rearrested,

and many are still being held.

It remains to be seen

how far the remnants of Maduro's regime will go.

♪