Maduro defends Trump: John Bolton, Mike Pence, John Kelly and Mike Pompeo gave him bad advice
Maduro reveals he's a Sephardic Jew by ancestry and a Christian by faith
BRENO ALTMAN: President Nicolás Maduro, I want to begin our interview here with a question that is on many people's minds. Some foreign governments, such as that of the United States, did not recognize your victory on July 28, and even announced that they recognized Edmundo González as president-elect. Do you think that your inauguration on January 10 and the weakening of the extreme right will put an end to this controversy?
PRESIDENT MADURO: The weakening and defeat of the fascist extreme right in Venezuela, which has poisoned and contaminated the right and center-right of all Latin America and the Caribbean for more than 20 years, is the expression that everything they did with them on the social networks, in the media, the entire operation around this candidacy, was an operation mounted by the United States government, the outgoing government, who took advantage of negotiations with deceitful diplomacy, making offers, and did not converse cleanly, seriously. Really, all the agreements we made were totally violated and mocked by them. They were never fulfilled. They only used that as a cover to set up the destabilization scenario in Venezuela again.
After 2017, we managed to consolidate a peace process of political stability. In 2017, 2018, we suffered a bombardment of sanctions. They caused us great economic damage.
Then in 2019, the government of that time, the officials of that time—we should remember John Bolton, Mike Pence, John Kelly, Mike Pompeo—designed Project Guaidó. And they convinced the president—then Donald Trump—that it was very easy to appoint, recognize a president named Guaidó whom nobody knew, and that would immediately mean the takeover of Venezuela, an international coup d'état. We knew how to denounce it. We knew how to confront it. We knew how to defeat it. And in the midst of that fray, we knew how to recover our society, the economy.
And in the midst of this hard-won stability, Joe Biden's government, unfortunately, lost a golden opportunity to come to an understanding with us, to respect the agreements that were discussed and signed, and designed a Guaidó 2.0, they call it, Guaidó Part Two, which has gone very wrong. Guaidó Part Two [Edmundo González] has gone very wrong.
So they knew the move a long time ago. They went all-out here in Venezuela, investing no less than a billion dollars. The oligarchy that is now called technological [technocrats], the owners of the big networks, all the networks, came against us—Facebook, Instagram, X, formerly Twitter, Tiktok—and created a national and international situation that they believed was infallible. We suffered it on July 28, what I immediately denounced on July 29: the first cyber-fascist coup in the modern history of Latin America, and I might say of humanity. And we defeated it in 48 hours.
And we have been consolidating the victory: the country is at peace, the institutions are functioning, the five public powers are functioning, the economy is growing, recovering. And the vast majority of Venezuelans— as all the polls say, more than 80% repudiate these coup attempts, and 80% of Venezuelans want to turn the page on this destabilization and take a clear path of growth and recovery, of respect for Venezuela.
BRENO ALTMAN: President, what do you say to those who say that there was fraud on July 28?
PRESIDENT MADURO: It isn’t the first time; there is nothing new. Since the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution, they have accused the revolution of doing something that is impossible to do. Because in Venezuela an absolutely auditable electoral system has been built. Tell me, where in the world is there an electoral system that is audited 15 times? Fifteen audits, before, during and after the process. Only in Venezuela. So, simply, our people know, the institutions know.
The Supreme Court has made a tremendous assessment of the process, and it has been demonstrated, as in the 31 previous elections that we have held— we have held 31 elections in 25 years: a world record. It has been demonstrated, as in the 31 previous elections, that it is a process where popular sovereignty prevailed.
BRENO ALTMAN: What happened on January 9 and 10? Was it a new coup attempt by the opposition that failed?
PRESIDENT MADURO: Much earlier. There are many things that are still in process; they cannot be said. I would like to give you those scoops. You have to come back to give them to you, but in November and December here we captured more than 200 mercenaries of more than 25 nationalities who came to place bombs, carry out attacks, assassins, etc., etc. And we also managed to dismantle groups that intended to light the country on fire. Especially in the month of December they wanted to ruin Christmas for the people of Venezuela. Fortunately, we had the best and longest Christmas in our history, because I also declared Christmas in October, November, December. I’m a Christian, even though my ancestors are Jews, like yours.
There are many things that are still in process; they cannot be said.
BRENO ALTMAN: Yes.
PRESIDENT MADURO: Maduro is German Sephardic.
BRENO ALTMAN: Where are they from?
PRESIDENT MADURO: Sephardic from the places of Portugal. They were expelled in 1492 from Portugal and Spain, with Capriles as well—all those people. And they were expelled.
BRENO ALTMAN: I am an Ashkenazi from Poland.
PRESIDENT MADURO: Like d'Artagnan.
BRENO ALTMAN: Well, nobody’s perfect.
PRESIDENT MADURO: So, in the course of December we dismantled all of the violent plots. Then in the month of January, a psychological operation was set up again, where they incorporated some former presidents—men and women that I called the Cartel of Sodom and Gomorrah because there was everything there: pedophiles, corrupt ones, terrorists, bandits, thieves. All those former presidents, all from the Cartel of Sodom and Gomorrah, all have been involved in serious crimes within their countries. The least of them, Andrés Pastrana, a pederast from Epstein's gang, the one who was captured and died in a U.S. prison.
Now, how on Earth does President Maduro know that Pastrana was involved with Jeffrey Epstein?
Andrés Pastrana Arango (b. 1954) was president of Colombia 1998 - 2002, as was his father, Misael Pastrana. In 1999, he and Clinton launched Plan Colombia to fight communist guerrillas, with the U.S. paying $1.6 billion over three years. An amendment quickly revealed the plan's real goal: to encourage foreign investment by “insisting that the Colombian government open its economy completely to foreign investment and trade” [neoliberalism]. Military counterguerrilla operations caused the forced displacement of a million people in four years. Cocaine production increased by 47% during that same period. - Wikipedia
And they and some governments—like the cowardly government of Panama that is going to hand over the Panama Canal because the government of Panama are cowards—from there they launched, “Venezuela is going to be shaken; Venezuela is going to burn.” They created all the conditions of psychological warfare to affect the people of Venezuela. But the people of Venezuela don’t allow a single coconut to get in, as we say here. I don’t know if that has a translation into Portuguese.
BRENO ALTMAN: In Portuguese we say, “Not even a fly enters here.”
PRESIDENT MADURO: Not even a fly. Here it’s a coconut. And the people of Venezuela remained calm, full of faith. The visible head of extremist fascism, the criminal that in Venezuela they call La Sayona, believing herself and overestimating herself in her leadership, and also asking for money from the north, called for large marches. Altogether, throughout the entire country, we now know they did not exceed 6,000 people. In the main rally in Caracas, they had perhaps around 800 people.
I gave the order to protect them: the National Guard protected them, the National Police protected them. The protection that was given to them is public and well known. And they did their activity. At an international level, they considered it a failure; at a national level as well. The group of extremist opponents who support her felt it was a total failure because their intention on the ninth [the day before the inauguration] was to delegitimize the inauguration, beginning on the ninth.
And they had a card up their sleeve: a self-kidnapping, a self-disappearance of this lady, Machado, who in Venezuela is called La Sayona. La Sayona, a fascist, a criminal— a woman who is to the right of Bolsonaro—or of Bolsonaro’s children, who are worse than Bolsonaro.
Venezuela vents its anger at Brazil's BRICS veto
“The Brazilian foreign ministry has decided to maintain the veto that [former Brazilian president] Jair Bolsonaro has applied against Venezuela for years, reproducing the hatred, exclusion and intolerance promoted from the centres of power in the West,” the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The Venezuelan people feel indignation and shame at this inexplicable and immoral aggression,” it added.
Venezuela had lobbied hard to join the Brics, with Maduro even making a surprise appearance at the summit in the city of Kazan and declaring that his country was “part of the Brics family”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hosted the summit, said he agreed with Venezuela's position.
“We know Brazil's position; we don’t agree [with it]. Venezuela is fighting for its survival,” Putin said at a news conference on Thursday.
He said he discussed the issue with Lula when they spoke on the phone this week. Lula was scheduled to travel to Russia for the summit, but cancelled the trip after injuring his head in an accident at home on Saturday.
Did Lula’s brain chip malfunction? (See The Great Replacement) And if it did malfunction, has he been repaired?
Fortunately, the National Police complied their orders to protect the march, complied with their orders to protect this person, and took her fully escorted and protected to her house, and we managed to dispel what was an impressive campaign.
At 3:30 in the afternoon that day it was already evident that it had failed, and that our victory was immense. We managed to mobilize more than two-and-a-half million people in the streets of Caracas, of greater Caracas, and of all the cities of the country—people supporting peace and tranquility in the country.
Opposition: 6,000 - Government: 2.5 million
Suddenly, the news portals began to appear—Voice of America, Reuters, AP, AFP—“Breaking: Mrs. Machado captured and disappeared.” And within five minutes, no less than 50 messages: the president of Panama, the foreign minister of Panama, the president of Costa Rica, the foreign minister over there, the foreign minister over here, the other one, the other one—statements. Impressive, all written by the same pen. They all said the same thing: “Disappeared; She must appear; The Maduro regime.” And after 10 minutes the truth came out, the video where she said she was fine, that she was going home, that she had no problems.
José Raúl Mulino Quintero is a Panamanian politician, diplomat and lawyer serving as president since 2024. - Wikipedia
Mulino served as Minister of Government and Justice from 2009 to 2010 and Minister of Public Security from 2010 to 2014 during the government of President Martinelli. In 2015 he was imprisoned for allegedly committing crimes against the public administration, but in the end his case in 2016 was annulled due to procedural errors. Mulino was Martinelli's vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 election; after Martinelli was disqualified from running amid corruption scandals, he endorsed Mulino.
Mulino has called the Panama Papers, which documented money laundering, corruption and tax evasion, “an international hoax to undermine the image and competitiveness of our country.” He applauded a Panamanian court verdict that cleared 26 defendants in a corruption investigation related to the Panama Papers.
And do you think that those who accused us, who issued a statement, published a tweet, then withdrew their statement, apologized? No. They had the pot set up [for what they were brewing]. They had a public opinion coup set up to tarnish January 10th. Can you imagine what would they would have said there in the north, in Europe, here, there, if she had gotten away with this self-kidnapping and it had continued? Well, the criminal paramilitary, Alvaro Uribe, ex-president of Colombia, published a tweet calling for an invasion of Venezuela with UN blue helmets.
Therefore, you come to the conclusion that they had ambushes. In November and December they couldn't carry it off: we unmasked them, we neutralized them. And they have been weakened in the extreme, and not even a perverse wickedness like a self-kidnapping could be pulled off, thanks to the intelligence and protection services of Venezuela.
And in Venezuela on January 10th there was a swearing in such as I had never seen before—an inauguration with people in the streets. The presidential sash with the tricolor and the eight stars, people made sashes in their homes; they sewed sashes. A group of women from the Caracas neighborhoods, from the popular neighborhoods, gave me the sash that I am using now.
So it was a wonderful inauguration. I say it was a blessed day. I, who am a Christian man, a man who always commends himself to our Lord Jesus Christ, who believes in the power of God, I say it was a blessed day, a day of God that begins a presidential period that will be one of blessings and prosperity for Venezuela.
BRENO ALTMAN: President, the government of President Lula of Brazil, my country, did not recognize your victory on July 28, but sent a diplomatic representation to your inauguration. Do you think that the crisis with Brazil can be overcome in the short term?
PRESIDENT MADURO: There has not been a crisis with Brazil, there is no crisis, and there will not be a crisis. There are simply differences between the foreign ministries, differences with advisors, there, here. And, well, the obligation of President Lula and President Nicolás Maduro is to understand each other for the good of our country and turn the page, see the new scenario of world geopolitics, the situation of our America, and prioritize relations between Brazil and Venezuela—peaceful relations, of cooperation, of brotherhood, of economic progress. If you only knew the number of investors who are coming to Venezuela from Brazil in oil, gas, petrochemicals, energy, tourism. We have that path mapped out, and if there are differences of opinion, the only way is to talk, to communicate.
Good to see you back!
Yes bedroom eyes. Lol