I'm John Batchel with my colleague Professor Evan Ellis, and we're looking at the Americas

anticipating a new leadership in Washington in 2025. Venezuela is a major threat to the whole region

because the Maduro regime is not only illegitimate, but also

there's reason to believe it looks to undermine the credibility of the U.S. and other actors in

the region, deliberately using migration and narcoterrorism and a posse of gangsters known as Trendy Aragua in order to undermine

credibility of local governments, including the United States. So, Professor, we first deal with

Caracas, and then we mentioned Managua and Havana are Sympatigo with Caracas's plan.

In fact, I've been told for years that Maduro stays in power because of the Cuban secret police. So, Trendy Aragua, deporting seems

the first thing that can be done. Is Venezuela going to cooperate in? I don't see this. I'm just asking,

where are we going to deport them to?

It's a great question, John. And the issue of Venezuela and Venezuelan immigrants

create a lot of interesting counterpressures with the incoming Trump administration. It was

interesting, Maduro was kind of whistling in the wind when he issued a greeting to President-elect Trump, wanting to

re-boot the relationship, talking about let's make the Americas great again.

But at the end of the day, on the one hand, you have not only the thinking of President Trump,

who certainly was no friend of Maduro during the first administration, but with the support

of also people like Marco Rubio, who, you know, have, you know, with the support of also people like Marco Rubio,

who, you know, have, you know, no illusions about the nature of Maduro and his, you know,

Tevista regime, that it's likely to see a lot of a hard pressure. But as you also point out,

you have the question of Venezuelans, at least a million

Venezuelans already in the United States, and not only the Venezuelans who have fled

the authoritarianism, but also the gang members, gangs like Train de Aragua, born in

...