From the sidelines, Venezuela's opposition praises US intervention
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, has said the removal from power of President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces is a huge step for freedom despite being sidelined by Trump. We hear from inside the country amid a crackdown in Caracas.
Also on the programme, European leaders meet in Paris to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine, and a battle to save a historic monument to one of the great Antarctic explorers, Ernest Shackleton.
(Photo: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado looks on, outside the Grand Hotel after she was in the audience at the Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway, 12 December, 2025. Credit: NTB/Ole Berg-Rusten/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:10.1 | Hello there and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:13.8 | We're coming to live from London this Tuesday. I'm Sean Lay. |
| 0:18.7 | Just 18 months ago, there was an election in Venezuela, but situation after this |
| 0:24.5 | weekend looks dramatically different. Why has Donald Trump's administration ideologically opposed |
| 0:29.6 | to Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro when they governed Venezuela, now apparently thrown in its |
| 0:34.7 | lot with a successor who shares their philosophy. |
| 0:41.9 | Mike Johnson, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a Trump loyalist, |
| 0:49.0 | offered this explanation which captures the ambiguity of the new relationship between Venezuela and the United States. |
| 0:53.5 | I want to say that the way that this is being described, I think is accurate. |
| 0:55.3 | This is not a regime change. |
| 1:02.0 | This is a demand for change of behavior by a regime. The interim government is stood up now, and we are hopeful that they will be able to correct their action. They cannot participate with |
| 1:07.1 | narco-terrorists and very dangerous international criminal organizations that harm |
| 1:12.3 | and target Americans, frankly, and traffic all of these dangerous drugs into our country, |
| 1:16.7 | that do all this great harm to our country. They cannot continue that activity. |
| 1:20.0 | Well, that was Mike Johnson, U.S. Speaker. Just 18 months ago, in July of last, of 2024, |
| 1:27.3 | the United States, among many countries, condemned Nicholas Maduro's |
| 1:30.9 | declaration of victory in the presidential election as a fraud perpetrated against the people of |
| 1:36.0 | Venezuela. The victor, they said, was Edmondo Gonzalez, the candidate of the opposition. He stood after |
| 1:42.3 | Maria Corina Machado. the opposition leader, was forced |
| 1:45.1 | underground. Last month, she was smuggled out of the country to receive the Nobel Peace Prize |
| 1:51.0 | in Oslo in Norway. On Saturday morning, the rendering of President Maduro out of Venezuela |
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