Trump says US will 'run' Venezuela
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 January 2026
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Following the capture of the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by the US military, President Trump has said the United States intends to run the South American country until there can be a "safe, proper and judicious transition". The president was pressed by reporters about who would be running Venezuela during the transition period and offered few details on who exactly would be in charge. He added that Washington wasn't afraid of putting boots on the ground. The announcement comes as the United Nations Security Council plans to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Venezuela's future and the US actions, which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres views as setting "a dangerous precedent." Nicolas Maduro's vice -president has called for his immediate release, but the exiled opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, says Venezuela's hour of freedom has arrived. We look at what may happen next and whether Donald's Trump's actions have any legal justification.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | If American politics is leaving you with a lot of questions, you're not alone. |
| 0:12.2 | On America's, we chat through what's really going on. |
| 0:15.3 | Make sense of what's happening in the US, with new podcast episodes arriving throughout the week. |
| 0:20.6 | America's, listen on BBC Science. |
| 0:24.1 | This is a special extra edition of the Global News podcast, marking the momentous events in |
| 0:29.8 | Venezuela from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and at 21 hours GMT on Saturday the 3rd of January, these are our main stories. |
| 0:41.2 | After a Hollywood-style raid by 150 aircraft and U.S. special forces on a fortress in Caracas which snatched President Nicholas Maduro, Donald Trump says he's now in charge of Venezuela. |
| 0:53.5 | We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition. |
| 1:00.2 | And it has to be judicious. |
| 1:02.6 | We can't take a chance that somebody else takes over Venezuela that doesn't have the good of the Venezuelan people in mind. |
| 1:09.9 | We've had decades of that. |
| 1:12.3 | Mr. Trump announced U.S. oil companies will fix Venezuela's broken infrastructure and start |
| 1:18.1 | making money for the country. The U.S. President also released a photo of a blindfolded and |
| 1:23.5 | handcuffed Nicolas Maduro aboard a U.S. Navy ship on his way, he says, to face justice in |
| 1:29.6 | New York. But Venezuela's vice president, Delci Rodriguez, now sworn in to take charge, has taken |
| 1:35.8 | to state TV to say there is only one president of Venezuela, and his name is Nicholas Maduro. |
| 1:44.6 | Also in this podcast, we'll be looking at how far the US operation complies with international law. |
| 1:54.0 | Following on from the capture by the US military and the deposing of the Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, President Trump has said |
| 2:02.5 | that the United States now intends to run the South American country. Mr. Trump spoke just hours |
| 2:08.2 | after Mr. Maduro was, along with his wife, Siliya Flores, taken from the Venezuelan capital |
| 2:14.3 | Caracas in an air, land and sea operation in the early hours of Saturday morning. |
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