can also see if you look carefully to

the right of that epicenter is

>> Karacus.

>> Uh you can see it if you look carefully

that of course uh is the uh is the

capital. So after

uh the United States kidnapped President

Maduro and his wife from their bedroom

in the middle of the night. This is

months ago. This is January now. They

still didn't lift the sanctions. They

have uh lifted some specialized

sanctions to allow for business

contracts and oil deals the way the US

government sees fit. But there wasn't a

blanket lifting of sanctions. No. On top

of that, there are billions of dollars,

I think roughly $30 billion of just

Venezuelan assets frozen in accounts in

the United States and abroad that we've

basically stolen since recognizing a

shadow government there that we haven't

given back. to the government. The IMF

has announced a plan to release some

frozen Venezuelan assets in order to go

toward disaster relief. You can assume

that that I mean with the history of uh

foreign aid groups in Venezuela, it it

is usually a pretty corrupt game. Uh and

that's just I think what we could expect

to come uh from uh the contracts that

the US is dictating are going to be

going to the the players in the United

States that that our government would

like to see happen. You have already an

expose at the gray zone recently

published by my husband where we

discussed how Mauricio Clav Corrone, a

figure who's not even in the Trump

administration, is pretty much acting as

a private business negotiator, what he

just calls himself the Jared Kushner of

Latin America, pretty much cutting these

deals. I'm sure he's going to step in

and have a big role to play in this kind

of a aid response. I if if the US and

its allies are going to be managing it

and releasing assets under the

>> I would argue that uh a sanction

that prevents a country from buying

lifesaving equipment is a war crime. I

mean it's a little late to buy trucks

and bulldozers now 3 days after the

earthquake hit. They should have existed

and been possessed by the government

before that. According to President

Trump, the United States was going to

take care of Venezuela after we

kidnapped its president.

>> And in some ways, I would say that we

are in the in and and not in a way that

the Venezuelan people have a necessarily

a say in. uh and that is now we're

seeing the US consolidating the advances

its own military has made in terms of

its presence in Venezuela since Maduro

was ousted on January 23rd. Southcom and

US military forces have announced that

they will be leading the aid response on

the ground in Venezuela. So what you

have is a de facto collapse of the

state. The state is unable to respond to

the crisis because it's paralyzed,

because it doesn't even have control of

its international assets, hasn't been

allowed to buy proper machinery and

equipment. And now the US military comes

in and sets up its aid and distribution.

It's it's a de facto regime change on on

the basis of a shista government in

power. And what we have to remember,

judge, is that this line was already

crossed following the ouster of Maduro

in on January 3rd. Since then, the

United States conducted a US military

strike on sovereign Venezuelan

territory, killing Nino Guerrero, the

man that they claim as head of this

group, Trend Aragua, which you've

covered, we've discussed on this show,

was a USbacked group that wasn't really

functioning as a legitimate narco group,

but for some reason became the the

favored bogeyman of the Trump

administration and Marco Marco Rubio in

order to justify continued intervention

in Venezuela and bombings off the coast

of Venezuela. that led up to Maduro's

arrest. And so now the US having

conducted that strike already clearly a

flagrant violation of Venezuelan

sovereignty is using this earthquake to

increase its presence in Venezuela. And

this is happening at a time, as you

mentioned, when neighboring countries

are also suddenly changing course from

acting as independent

uh Latin American nations to saying,

"Look, we're just going to have our our

our policies uh dictated by the State

Department." And I'm talking about

Colombia. I'm talking about Ecuador.

These are countries, Ecuador as well,

that have already begun uh coordinating

with US military operations on their own

territory. So, this is something that is

set, I think, to expand in the region

beyond Venezuela's borders, perhaps even

all the way up to Mexico.