Venezuela real power holders did not disappear with the capture of Nicolás Maduro. Speaking with Steve Bannon, Oscar Ramirez explained that while Maduro’s removal is historic, the regime itself remains intact through two men who still control the military, justice system, and cartel networks inside the country.
WATCH THE CLIP BELOW:
This clip aired on January 3, 2026. Transcript begins below and may contain minor errors.
RAMIREZ: Maduro Isn’t the Regime. These Two Men Are.
OSCAR RAMIREZ (GUEST): Well, a lot of the American people do not know that the Venezuelan country was run by American companies, and it was particularly run by the American people. Then socialism came over and completely destroyed our country. And now this is an enormous accomplishment, Steve. This is a historical accomplishment.
I have suffered a lot of the consequences with these people. We have seen them die in the middle of the jungle. We have seen them drowned in the middle of the jungle, running away from a regime and a dictator and a narco terrorist that is Nicolas Maduro. This is historic. Never in history has something like this happened. Donald Trump has accomplished something that will mark history for the rest of time in Latin America, and it is a complete change.
Now they need to go after, and this is one of the most important things, they need to go after Diosdado Cabello and also Padrino Lopez. They are in charge of the defense and justice part of Venezuela. Those are the ones also running this regime. They are part of the Cartel de Los Soles.
About the fractures and the dangers, Steve, I told you last week when I was there at the borders of Venezuela that there were high tensions on these borders. There is a huge deployment of the National Guard of Venezuela throughout these particular borders. There is high tension between the people. They are basically telling the citizens of Venezuela that if you have something in your phone that is against Nicolas Maduro, you will be charged with terrorism and as a traitor to your country, up to 30 years in prison.
So a lot of people knew that something was going to happen. And guess what? This capture of Nicolas Maduro was just a historical event. They need to capture the other two, because they are basically destabilizing the country and they are the accomplices of Nicolas Maduro. That is Diosdado Cabello and Padrino Lopez. Those are the two individuals, and the two factions, that are also part of the Cartel de Los Soles.
These people are already threatening the population. They are already telling them that if you go against this, and if you celebrate the capture of Nicolas Maduro, you will be charged with terrorism. So they are terrorizing the population, telling them not to celebrate, not to go out, not to protest, not to try to rise.
So it’s going to be a battle, and it’s going to require an enormous strategy by the Trump administration to go in there and try to remove these two individuals. They have control of the justice system and also part of the executive power. So it’s going to be a battle, and there are going to be a lot of strategies to remove these two individuals so they can take control of what they are trying to do.
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