Trump wants Venezuela’s oil. What happens next?

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

When President Trump spoke about Venezuela's future on Saturday, after the U.S. military action and arrest of its president, Nicolás Maduro, he said that the country's decimated oil infrastructure will be rebuilt and start making money again. Rice University's Francisco Monaldi talks about the major challenges of rebuilding the Venezuelan oil industry and how it will require many years and tens of billions of dollars.

Then, Adelys Ferro, an immigration activist in Doral, Florida, the American city with the most Venezuelans, talks about how her community is feeling after Maduro’s capture.

And, Texas Tech University Law School's Geoffrey Corn talks about the legal issues surrounding Maduro's capture.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for WBUR comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at Boston University that explores questions like,
0:09.3	why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? And of course, is business broken? Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:20.5	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:27.2	There is not such a thing as regime change.
0:30.9	Don't even mention those words anymore.
0:34.1	They just decided to maintain a dictatorship as long as that dictatorship do whatever the
0:43.1	Trump administration want.
0:45.4	An extraordinary rendition in every sense of the term.
0:50.5	Maduro may be out, but the plan for the day after the American coup in Venezuela is still up in the air.
1:01.7	It's Monday, January 5th, and this is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR.
1:11.8	I'm Chris Bentley.
1:22.0	The U.S. has deposed the president of Venezuela after months of threats, military strikes,
1:32.0	and a partial naval blockade on its oil tankers. Now President Trump says, we're in charge of Venezuela and plans to seize the country's oil industry.
1:33.2	Venezuelans in exile are celebrating Maduro's ouster, but somewhat uneasily because most of
1:39.3	Maduro's government is still in power.
1:41.6	We'll hear from some of those exiles in a few minutes.
1:45.2	But first, we want justice you say how. We want justice you say how. Primaduro right now. Primoduro right now.
1:55.2	Protesters and counter protesters gathered today outside the federal courthouse in New York
2:00.2	where Nicolas Maduro and his wife
2:02.4	Celia Flores faced narco-terrorism charges. Two days after American troops abducted them
2:08.5	and deposed the president in a coup. Venezuelan officials said at least 40 people were killed in the
2:15.0	attack, including civilians. Maduro pleaded not guilty, saying in court,
	...

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