The Fall of Maduro and the Rise of an “Unconstrained” Trump
Latino USA
My Cultura, Futuro and iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 3.8K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro marks yet another chapter in a long history of U.S. interventionism across Latin America.
We talk to an expert on democracy to make sense of the incursion, how it could destabilize the entire rules-based international order, and why Americans should be concerned about the rise of an “unconstrained and autocratic” Trump.
Plus, we get a glimpse of what it was like to be a journalist covering corruption under the Maduro regime, and what Venezuelans might hope for the future.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Dear Latino USA listener, before we start, you should know that if you want to listen to this episode, add free. |
| 0:15.2 | Just join Futuro Plus, and you can join for as little as $7 a month. |
| 0:20.7 | Joining also gets you behind the scenes,, and yes, some chisement. |
| 0:26.4 | So click the link in the episode description. |
| 0:29.9 | And after you do that, then click play. |
| 0:32.5 | Let's go to the show. Last Saturday, January 3rd in Caracas, Venezuela, a woman we're going to call Adela, was peacefully asleep when suddenly she was woken up at around 2 a.m. |
| 0:52.9 | By a strange rumbling in the sky. |
| 0:58.1 | There were airplanes flying overhead. |
| 1:04.4 | She tells her husband, something's happening. |
| 1:07.2 | And then she hears an explosion. |
| 1:09.3 | It was like a movie, she says. |
| 1:13.2 | The windows in her house rattled. |
| 1:15.8 | Her baby woke up. |
| 1:17.4 | Her hands were shaking |
| 1:21.1 | because she has no idea what's going on. |
| 1:24.5 | So now she goes outside. |
| 1:26.7 | And it's when I observe that plume of smoke in the distance |
| 1:35.2 | floating into the night sky. She was in shock. With my his in brazos and saying, |
| 1:44.3 | this, not can't be |
| 1:44.8 | passing. |
| 1:45.6 | Holding her baby |
| 1:46.6 | in her arms |
... |
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