Why Maduro’s Capture Is a Major Blow for Beijing | J. Michael Waller
American Thought Leaders
The Epoch Times
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we sit down with J. Michael Waller, a senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy and author of “Big Intel,” to understand the geopolitical implications of America’s capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
“For the first time in a very long time, the President of the United States has reasserted the Monroe Doctrine to keep foreign empires out of our hemisphere,” he says.
By capturing Maduro, President Donald Trump sent a signal to all of America’s adversaries, but first and foremost to communist China. “Trump has just pulled out a linchpin in an elaborate piece of machinery for the CCP’s sprawling global empire,” he says.
How did Venezuela devolve from a once prosperous country into an authoritarian hub for drug cartels and a key node of Chinese and Iranian influence? How does Maduro’s capture affect Beijing’s strategy and calculations when it comes to Taiwan? How will this impact Cuba and Iran? And what does the future hold for Venezuela and its people?
Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Venezuela was a colossal asset for China as a piece of real estate from which the CCP could operate against us, |
| 0:07.0 | but also a huge resource, sitting on the world's largest reserves of oil. |
| 0:12.0 | Michael Waller is a senior analyst for strategy at the Center for Security Policy. |
| 0:17.0 | Trump has just pulled out a linchpin in an elaborate piece of machinery for the CCP's sprawling |
| 0:22.7 | global empire. To bring outlaw dictator Nicholas Maduro to justice. In this episode, he breaks |
| 0:29.5 | down how Maduro's capture has shifted the entire geopolitical landscape, from Venezuela to Iran, |
| 0:36.2 | to Cuba, and to Communist China. |
| 0:38.9 | He is really just a cartel leader running a country. |
| 0:42.3 | You've sent a message to the regime, as Trump has very bluntly done. |
| 0:46.2 | Stay in your lane or we're going to come and get you. |
| 0:50.2 | The key is that this in Venezuela is happening in parallel with what's happening in Iran. |
| 0:55.6 | This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yankee Kelleck. |
| 1:01.0 | Michael Waller, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. |
| 1:04.7 | It's good to see you. |
| 1:06.2 | Let's talk about Venezuelan leader Maduro being captured by the United States. What are the geopolitical |
| 1:12.4 | implications here? What's going on? |
| 1:15.4 | There are potentially huge geopolitical implications because now no leader on earth is safe |
| 1:22.4 | from the United States. If we have the capability to undetected come into a huge fortified military base and break |
| 1:34.7 | into the inner sanctum of where a leader is hiding and snatch him out undetected, |
| 1:39.6 | then the whole world has changed. |
| 1:44.0 | I mean, but it goes far beyond that, doesn't it? |
| 1:47.3 | I mean, Venezuela, almost a failed state, if not a failed state. |
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