In this episode, Lisa welcomes the Manhattan Institute's Daniel Di Martino to talk about his firsthand perspective of life in Venezuela, drawing from his personal experience growing up under a socialist regime. The conversation explores the devastating consequences of socialism in Venezuela, the rise of narco-terrorism under Nicolás Maduro, and how President Trump’s policies factor into the future of the region. Daniel also examines why socialism continues to attract support in the United States—especially among younger generations—and outlines strategies to push back against its growing acceptance.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get
to the heart of the issues that matter to you.
President Trump addressed the nation this week, and there were
rumors ahead of the time that he might be announcing
a war against Venezuela. So we're going to talk to
Daniel di Martino. He is an economist and he's also
a Venezuelan exile who fled socialism's devastation. He's the founder
(00:21):
of the Dissident Project and a Manhattan Institute fellow. We're
going to talk about President Trump's tough stance on the
Maduro regime.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We're also going to talk about what.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Venezuela was like it's collapse, what Daniel saw personally, and
we're going to talk about President Trump's attacks on the
narco terrorists as well. Are they justified? Why is he
doing it?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
What do you need to know?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Also, what parallels.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Does he see between people like zoron Mom Donnie in
New York City or AOC with Maduro and what he
has seen in Venezuela as well. So all of that
and more with Daniel Di Martino.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, Daniel, it's great to have you on the show.
I was looking for someone to talk about all this
Venezuela stuff and President Trump's posture toward Venezuela. And you're
recommended to me, so appreciate you making the time, and
I'm looking forward to getting your insight into all of this.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Of course, I'd love to talk about this to Daniel.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I wanted to start off because obviously President Trump addressed
the nation last night, and there were some rumors before
that you would be announcing going to war against Venezuela. Obviously,
he has taken a very tough posture with going after
the narco terrast Do you foresee a war or why
do you think he's sort of taken such a hard
(01:41):
line approach to some of these narco terrorists and then
also just you know, putting the screws to the Bedra regime.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, first, it is important to know that there's no
way there can be a war properly because Venezuela doesn't
have a functioning military nor the capacity to fight VACK
in any way, which is why they haven't fought back.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
At all with what President Trump has done so far.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I think the reason the President cares so much
about this, and he has for a very long time
he did in his first term two, but he wasn't
allowed to do all the things that he's doing now.
Is that Venezuela checks off a lot of the boxes
of the priorities of the administration. Number One, they are
the reason for a lot of the border crisis because
of the Venezuelan legal immigration, but also because Venezuela is
(02:22):
stabilized all the other countries in Latin America that led
to illegal immigration. To the drug issue, Venezuela is the
main source for the cocaine that gets.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
To the US.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It's not that it's produced in Venezuela, but the Venezuelan
regime uses its own resources, planes, trucks, boats to take
the drug into the US market, and they collaborate with
the Mexican cartels to do that. And then three, Venezuela
is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
And because the socialist regime destroyed the oil industry, Venezuela
(02:55):
now produces millions of barrels less than it used to.
So every Ingle American is paying more of the gas
pump because Venezuela is a socialist country today.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So so you think in terms of like these narco
terrorist attacks.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Do you view them as justified?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Obviously they've gotten a lot of attention, and in fact
was part of the basis of those Democrat lawmakers essentially
calling on the military to break ranks and you know,
to not listen to the chaining compan more or less.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, no, look, I think for it, I think it's
totally justified. I think a lot of people, you know,
especially on the Democrat side, they're trying to promote these
conspiracy that you know, it's all fake and they're Venezuela
is not actually involved in drug trafficking or terrorism, and
it is. Look, the reason the Venezuelan regime traffics drugs
(03:46):
is because they have no other source of income anymore
after this destroid the oil and so you know, drugs
are not government owned, it's a private sector, so it
actually works. And and so they the military of the
Venezuelan regime, they actually truly are the drug traffickers. So
the government itself is a cartel. It's the cartel of
the Suns. The name comes from the sons in the
(04:08):
ranks that they get as generals.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's why that's their name.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And they collaborate with Hespola they collaborate with Russia, with Iran.
You know, the oil actually that the little oil of
Venezuela does export, it mostly goes to Iran and China
on these sanctioned vessels that President Trump is now boarding.
Which is great, right, because it's essentially a blockade of
all the resources of Maduro. First they're going after the drugs, right,
(04:32):
you can't bring the drugs now by cib because they're
bombing them. And next they're going after the oil tankers,
so now they can't even export oil, so they're eventually
going to run out of money.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
How much of going after Venezuela is also you know,
countering enemy nations like Iran or Russia.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think it's a lotte and also China. Remember most
of the oil goes to Iran and China. Iran doesn't
need it for itself, but it refines it and sends
it elsewhere, but it mostly ends up in China, So
you're really reducing China's oil supply. At the same time
you are countering the source of drugs for the US.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So it's you're hitting so many.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Birds with one stone, which is why I think President
Trump really is attracted to this.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You know, how how tired you know, we look at
you know, President Trump is accused of Venezuela emptying their
jails and sending those individuals to the United States, which
we've already seen has had a big destabilizing impact on
the country. How well, first of all, talk about that,
and then also how tied is trendy Uruagua tied to
(05:35):
the Maduro regime or what's the first kind of address
the release of the jail, the jails, and then the
ties between that gang and the Maduro regime.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I wouldn't say they released people from the jails.
It's just that people don't go to jail, got it.
I mean, why why do you think Venezuela's is injuris country.
It's because criminals aren't arrested, Right, If people went to jails,
Venezuea wouldn't be dangerous. It's kind of like, why why
do you think there's crime in blue cities? It's because
the criminals aren't in prison.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That sounds familiar, you know, and it's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It's the Venezuelan form of socialism. I would say it's
the most similar to the one promoted here. It's like
a third worldish socialism, at least in the Soviet Union,
the criminals went to prison. In Venezuela, they never did
since Javis came so, but Turnderagua was formed by the
few people who did go to prison, who then ended
up running the prisons. You see this woman who is
(06:27):
a minister in Maduro's government. Her name is it is Varela.
She was the minister of prisons for a very long
time under Chavis, and then she stayed under Maduro. And
she's essentially a thug like all the other members of
the regime, but this one is a prison thug. And
she allowed the jails and this criminal organization to foster
so that they can then use them to terrorize the population.
(06:49):
So they use the gangs to say that when there's
a protest against the government, the gangs go after the
protesters and kill them, kidnapped them, terrorized them, so that
they don't say that's not the police, that's a criminal gang.
But then the criminal gangs were using Russian weapons that
only a military can purchase. So the Venezuelan government was
(07:10):
arming the gangs on purpose with military great weapons. And
then eventually these gangs obviously want to make money. Their
profit maximizing enterprises.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
They are not.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I wouldn't say they terrorize people just for sadism at all.
It's a very different type of crime than what you
see in the US. It's they just really want money.
They will extort you, they will rob you, but they
won't kill you just for killing you. And so they
run out of money to steal in Venezuela because Venezuela
was destroyed economically by the government policies, and so they
(07:41):
went to Columbia, they went to Peru, they went to Chile,
to Brazil to rob more money. Eventually they ended up
in the US because that's where the money is. They
knew that they could steal, shoplift, you know, create these
shoplifting gangs in New York City and or Blue cities
where they knew they wouldn't be put to prison, and
so that's what they did. It's it just made a
lot of sense. Then the Maduro regime used trend Aragua,
(08:04):
bribing them, paying them to also go after political opponents.
So that's how you saw the assassination of a Venezuela
in general, this is in Chile by trend Awa gangsters
that the Chilean government itself which is, by the way,
until this past election under socialist control, they themselves said yes,
it was trended rahwa paid for by the major regime
(08:26):
who killed these men.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Do you see parallels with the way the left uses
like Antifa or Black Lives Matter or these Palestinian protesters
in the same way where it's like, you know, they're
not like directly endorsed by the left, but they're kind
of like their street thugs to a certain degree.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
That's such a good point. Well it's not. I wouldn't
say it's a parallel. I would say it's even more direct.
So many of these far left groups that are here
in America.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I'll give you one example, the People's Forum in New
York City. They were one of the main organs of
the pro Hamas occupation at Columbia University. Their president, who
was arrested in this pro Hamace occupation is a man
named Manolol Losantos.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
You can google him.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Manuela is originally from the Dominican Republic, and he's a
very close friend of Majuro himself. He went to Venezuela
last year to celebrate the rigged election. I'd been to
their HQ in Manhattan, and they fly the flag of
North Korea.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
They flyg the flag of the CCP of Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
They have a picture of Jehavara, of Castro, of mal Sedon,
of King Yo Noon. I mean these are radical communists, right.
These are people who would take all our property and
send us to concentration camps. And they're the ones promoting
all of the pro Hamas protests. They are the ones
promoting all the climate activism. All of these issues are
(09:47):
just tools for them to advance their true goal, which
is to create a socialist government in America. Right.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
These are the people who are advising Saam Mamdani.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
These are the people who who are part of the
Democratic Socialists of America. And they view class I met
they view Palestine, they view the Black Lives Matter whose founders,
by the way, also no Maduro for many years. They
view it as just chools to divide the population and
gain power.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You know, and this all obviously resonates with you because
you were up in Venezuela and you fled Venezuela and
you saw the fall of Venezuela. Walk us through what
you saw and how socialism is destroyed once Latin America's
wealthiest nation.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah, you know, my story is very I would say average,
meaning I was in a middle class family. You know,
we had a car, you know, I went to a school,
We had you know, our own home that we lived
in an apartment in Caracas, and we used to have
electricity and water and normal things, right.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That most people would have watched TV.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And then suddenly, oh there's no water or so for
one day, and then for several days, and then there's
no electricity, so you have to carry up the jugs
of water up the stairs five floors, or then you know,
you have to lie up for food. I remember, you know,
when I was in high school, some of the teachers
who dismiss class in the middle of class because they
will get a text from their friend that works at
(11:09):
the grocery store next door that chicken or toilet paper
or flour had just arrived, so they had to go
line up as quickly as possible to get there first.
They had the insider notes that the truck just arrived.
The rationing system got so sophisticated that because we were
not like cue right, socialism got their decades later. We
(11:31):
had more technology, and so the majora regime put finger
print machines in the grocery stores where when you went
to the cashier to pay, you had to scan your
fingerprint in a machine so that the cashier would see
whether your quota covered the items that you were purchasing.
It's very stopian. This is worse than nineteen eighty four, right,
(11:52):
And that became my daily life, right, And so I
saw that happen all just in my lifetime as a teenager.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So after saying that and then coming in the United
States and now sort of on the left, there's like
this open embrace of socialism where people have sort of
become desensitized to the term, like it's it's losing its toxicity, right,
So why do you think that's happening? And why are
(12:19):
people susceptible to the idea of socialism?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, that's such a good question of why people are susceptible,
because clearly people have been susceptible to socialism in every culture,
in every you know, for for so long, right in
the world. It's almost like it's a natural human impulse.
And that's why I think, you know, the source of
socialism is actually sin, it's envy. It's that the rich
are rich because of the poor poor, So I want
(12:43):
to punish those people. It's not that I want to
lift up the poor, is that I also want to
punish the rich purpose even if that doesn't benefit me.
And that comes from envy. And you know, envy is
a natural human feeling. It's a That's why it's a
capital sin, and it's something that we must fight if
or otherwise you're going to get a lot of bad outcomes.
Every ideology that comes from that is very poisonous. So
(13:04):
I think that that's the source. What Venezuela proved though,
that is very important for us here, is that socialism
can come democratically, not just through a revolution. In Cuba,
we had socialism because of a violent revolution in the USSR.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Too, in China as well.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
In Eastern Europe, they were invaded, right and imposed by
the Soviet Union. In Venezuela, people were deceived into voting
for socialism, and then they got into power and they
never left even when the people wanted them out. That's
the goal of the democratic socialism in the United States,
and the fact that people have been desensitized. It's obviously
been part of an agenda because of college campuses, right.
(13:42):
I think it's also been the fault of you know,
Republicans calling everybody who they didn't like a socialist when
they weren't.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
That doesn't help.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
It's kind of like when they left called all the
Republicans racists and then nobody believes when they're actual racists,
you know, in some debate or whatever. And so it's
been so our fault, I think, And so our job
is to educate people better quick.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Break, stay with us. If you like what you're hearing,
place your on social media or send it to your
family and friends. You know, it's interesting because when you
talk about envy, you know, the irony of all this
is the individuals pushing socialism want wealth themselves, right, and
so like that's what inevitably happens, is these people subjugate
(14:25):
everyone else, but then they become wealthy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
They're you know, friends and family well connected.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
People become wealthy and like Maduro's rich, right, but the
rest of society poor. And you look at like Bernie
Sanders sells books, makes millions of dollars, has different homes
like flies private, right, like oraoc wants to go to
the met gala, or you look at your mom. Donnie's
probably going to find ways to build well, right, So
it's like it's like they all want to be rich.
(14:51):
So it's like they don't really hate the rich, and
they don't really hate billionaires to your point with envy,
like they want to be them.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yes, I think that that's interesting. Yes they do want
to be rich, but they do hate the people who
are currently rich. You know, I see so many perils
between this resentment. In Venezuela. There's a woman who The
New York Times recently profiled that The New York Times
has been carrying the water for Majua for a very
long time, just like many socialist regime throughout history.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
But her name is Delsi Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
She is one of the vice presidents and she's obviously
one of Venezuela's richest women. Her brother is like the
president of Congress, like they're all plugged in. Her and
her brother are actually the sons of a very famous
Marxist terrorist in Venezuela that got killed in the seventies
because he kidnapped an American executive and then the police
caught him and killed him. Back when Venezuela was democratic,
(15:41):
and these kids grew up with a lot of resentment
they became Marxists like their father, and now they supplanted
the elite.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Now they're the elite.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
The Supreme Court president until recently in Venezuela was a
convicted murder. The criminals will become the law enforcement, The
parasites will become the rich, the workers will become the owners.
Right that you just flip everything up. That's their goal,
and I think that's their goal here too. See who
whose advice is from Mamdane enough for the NYPD, somebody
(16:12):
who was a violent criminal himself. You know what, what
job did Mamdani have before being major?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No, no job.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
He never had a private sector job. And it's the
same story for all these people.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's very interesting. So then how do you counter it
from a messaging standpoint, because you know, we're saying socialism
being embraced more, especially by younger generations, the idea of
free things, the idea of you know, the government handouts,
the idea of you know, the easy street, particularly when
people are struggling financially. You know, it sounds good on
its face, right, they don't dig deeper. So, like, how
(16:46):
do you counteract that messaging?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, one of the ways I think is faith. I
think that's important. I think we need that. That's part
of what I think the pastors and the priests and
faith leaders need to need to do. The Catholic Church
has been very clear from you know, well over one
hundred years ago that socialism is incompatible with Christianity, and
that's all written in Catholic social teaching in many paper
(17:09):
and cyclic clom No Room and others.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But other than.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Faith, I would say conservatives are doing a good job
in taking back at academia where all these conservative centers
that red states are opening in state universities.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I think that's a very good step.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Another good step is that we need to do it
in K through twelve. Both Turning Point and YAF Young
America's Foundation have been doing that. I speak for BAF
Young America's Foundation, and I traveled to high schools, colleges
to tell my story. There's other speakers that do that.
And I would say the other one is in the family.
I think a lot of conservatives find that their children
(17:46):
end up becoming liberals. And I don't mean just liberals,
I mean very radical right. I mean they're taken over
by trans ideology, by Black Lives Matter, by all these
things in colleges, and I think that's a failure.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Of the parents to be very own, honest and.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Think about it. This even happened to Ronald Reagan himself.
Ronald Reagan's children all but Michael became very far left.
That was a failure, I think on the on the
family part, and I think that means that parents need
to be better at teaching their kids about this, meaning,
you know, you have to expose them from a young
age about what America is, why this is a great country,
what made it great, which is its freedom right. If
(18:23):
America stopped being a free country, it would stop being
a great country. And a lot of people refuse to,
I think, teach their kids about that. I know it's
an effort that you have to do because the Left
is making a big effort to indoctrinate them through social media,
through so many things, and if we don't make an
equal or greater effort, we're going to lose them. And
they know it, right because the left doesn't have children,
(18:44):
you know, they are The instrut for Family studies found
this that the average liberal couple has approximately half a
child on average, less than the average conservative couple. So
they know that their only path is indoctrination. But that
means that for us the job is easier, right, we
just need to continue passing down our ideas.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
It's a really good point. And then before we go,
what do you think the future the future holds for
the Maduro regime.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Well, I think it all depends on what President Trump
decides to do at the end. If he continues taking
the oil tankers, if he continues closing down on the
narco trafficking, I think the money's going to run out,
and that's a great thing. But Majuro is never going
to leave power unless he feels his life is threatened.
And so unless President Trump can find a way to
(19:29):
threaten the life of Majua himself or other top leaders
of the regime, either with the land strikes that he
suggested or you know, the CIA operations that he said
that he's begun, there's no you know, the goal of
majority is going to be to out last Trump. He
really Maduro is just on lockdown mode until January twenty
twenty nine, hoping that under the next president everything will
(19:51):
be lifted and then Majuro will be able to rule forever.
And I think President Trump now has to show that
he can do more than that, and think about what
he has to gain, right well, all of us have
to gain. If Venezuela were to become a free country,
hundreds of thousands of Venezuela would go back to their country,
so that's great. Oil would start coming to the United
States instead of drugs, another great thing, and more importantly,
(20:13):
Venezuela would stop destabilizing other countries in the region. Colombia
right now is ruled by a former Gorilla Marxist member
because Maduro finances campaign.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Gustavo Petro.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Maduro is the one that's funding Nicaragua, another country that's
an enemy. It's the one that's sending free oil to Cuba.
These tankers that Trump is seizing were headed to Cuba
to give them the oil for free, so that Cuba
could resell it and then keep continue funding their oppression,
their migration, everything else. So really, Venezuela right now is
the head of the snake, and if President Trump can
(20:45):
cut that off, there will be so many other positive
things that come down the line.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Very interesting stuff, Daniel.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
We appreciate your sharing your insight and your story with us.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Thanks Lisa.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
That was Daniel Di Martinez. Appreciate him for taking the
time to come on the show. Appreciate you guys at
home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can
listen throughout the week. I also want to thank John Cassio,
my producer, for putting the show together.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Until next time.
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we get
to the heart of the issues that matter to you.
President Trump addressed the nation this week, and there were
rumors ahead of the time that he might be announcing
a war against Venezuela. So we're going to talk to
Daniel di Martino. He is an economist and he's also
a Venezuelan exile who fled socialism's devastation. He's the founder
(00:21):
of the Dissident Project and a Manhattan Institute fellow. We're
going to talk about President Trump's tough stance on the
Maduro regime.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We're also going to talk about what.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Venezuela was like it's collapse, what Daniel saw personally, and
we're going to talk about President Trump's attacks on the
narco terrorists as well. Are they justified? Why is he
doing it?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
What do you need to know?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Also, what parallels.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Does he see between people like zoron Mom Donnie in
New York City or AOC with Maduro and what he
has seen in Venezuela as well. So all of that
and more with Daniel Di Martino.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Well, Daniel, it's great to have you on the show.
I was looking for someone to talk about all this
Venezuela stuff and President Trump's posture toward Venezuela. And you're
recommended to me, so appreciate you making the time, and
I'm looking forward to getting your insight into all of this.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Of course, I'd love to talk about this to Daniel.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I wanted to start off because obviously President Trump addressed
the nation last night, and there were some rumors before
that you would be announcing going to war against Venezuela. Obviously,
he has taken a very tough posture with going after
the narco terrast Do you foresee a war or why
do you think he's sort of taken such a hard
(01:41):
line approach to some of these narco terrorists and then
also just you know, putting the screws to the Bedra regime.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, first, it is important to know that there's no
way there can be a war properly because Venezuela doesn't
have a functioning military nor the capacity to fight VACK
in any way, which is why they haven't fought back.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
At all with what President Trump has done so far.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
And I think the reason the President cares so much
about this, and he has for a very long time
he did in his first term two, but he wasn't
allowed to do all the things that he's doing now.
Is that Venezuela checks off a lot of the boxes
of the priorities of the administration. Number One, they are
the reason for a lot of the border crisis because
of the Venezuelan legal immigration, but also because Venezuela is
(02:22):
stabilized all the other countries in Latin America that led
to illegal immigration. To the drug issue, Venezuela is the
main source for the cocaine that gets.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
To the US.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It's not that it's produced in Venezuela, but the Venezuelan
regime uses its own resources, planes, trucks, boats to take
the drug into the US market, and they collaborate with
the Mexican cartels to do that. And then three, Venezuela
is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world.
And because the socialist regime destroyed the oil industry, Venezuela
(02:55):
now produces millions of barrels less than it used to.
So every Ingle American is paying more of the gas
pump because Venezuela is a socialist country today.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Very interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
So so you think in terms of like these narco
terrorist attacks.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Do you view them as justified?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Obviously they've gotten a lot of attention, and in fact
was part of the basis of those Democrat lawmakers essentially
calling on the military to break ranks and you know,
to not listen to the chaining compan more or less.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, no, look, I think for it, I think it's
totally justified. I think a lot of people, you know,
especially on the Democrat side, they're trying to promote these
conspiracy that you know, it's all fake and they're Venezuela
is not actually involved in drug trafficking or terrorism, and
it is. Look, the reason the Venezuelan regime traffics drugs
(03:46):
is because they have no other source of income anymore
after this destroid the oil and so you know, drugs
are not government owned, it's a private sector, so it
actually works. And and so they the military of the
Venezuelan regime, they actually truly are the drug traffickers. So
the government itself is a cartel. It's the cartel of
the Suns. The name comes from the sons in the
(04:08):
ranks that they get as generals.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
That's why that's their name.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And they collaborate with Hespola they collaborate with Russia, with Iran.
You know, the oil actually that the little oil of
Venezuela does export, it mostly goes to Iran and China
on these sanctioned vessels that President Trump is now boarding.
Which is great, right, because it's essentially a blockade of
all the resources of Maduro. First they're going after the drugs, right,
(04:32):
you can't bring the drugs now by cib because they're
bombing them. And next they're going after the oil tankers,
so now they can't even export oil, so they're eventually
going to run out of money.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
How much of going after Venezuela is also you know,
countering enemy nations like Iran or Russia.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think it's a lotte and also China. Remember most
of the oil goes to Iran and China. Iran doesn't
need it for itself, but it refines it and sends
it elsewhere, but it mostly ends up in China, So
you're really reducing China's oil supply. At the same time
you are countering the source of drugs for the US.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So it's you're hitting so many.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Birds with one stone, which is why I think President
Trump really is attracted to this.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
You know, how how tired you know, we look at
you know, President Trump is accused of Venezuela emptying their
jails and sending those individuals to the United States, which
we've already seen has had a big destabilizing impact on
the country. How well, first of all, talk about that,
and then also how tied is trendy Uruagua tied to
(05:35):
the Maduro regime or what's the first kind of address
the release of the jail, the jails, and then the
ties between that gang and the Maduro regime.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I wouldn't say they released people from the jails.
It's just that people don't go to jail, got it.
I mean, why why do you think Venezuela's is injuris country.
It's because criminals aren't arrested, Right, If people went to jails,
Venezuea wouldn't be dangerous. It's kind of like, why why
do you think there's crime in blue cities? It's because
the criminals aren't in prison.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
That sounds familiar, you know, and it's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It's the Venezuelan form of socialism. I would say it's
the most similar to the one promoted here. It's like
a third worldish socialism, at least in the Soviet Union,
the criminals went to prison. In Venezuela, they never did
since Javis came so, but Turnderagua was formed by the
few people who did go to prison, who then ended
up running the prisons. You see this woman who is
(06:27):
a minister in Maduro's government. Her name is it is Varela.
She was the minister of prisons for a very long
time under Chavis, and then she stayed under Maduro. And
she's essentially a thug like all the other members of
the regime, but this one is a prison thug. And
she allowed the jails and this criminal organization to foster
so that they can then use them to terrorize the population.
(06:49):
So they use the gangs to say that when there's
a protest against the government, the gangs go after the
protesters and kill them, kidnapped them, terrorized them, so that
they don't say that's not the police, that's a criminal gang.
But then the criminal gangs were using Russian weapons that
only a military can purchase. So the Venezuelan government was
(07:10):
arming the gangs on purpose with military great weapons. And
then eventually these gangs obviously want to make money. Their
profit maximizing enterprises.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
They are not.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I wouldn't say they terrorize people just for sadism at all.
It's a very different type of crime than what you
see in the US. It's they just really want money.
They will extort you, they will rob you, but they
won't kill you just for killing you. And so they
run out of money to steal in Venezuela because Venezuela
was destroyed economically by the government policies, and so they
(07:41):
went to Columbia, they went to Peru, they went to Chile,
to Brazil to rob more money. Eventually they ended up
in the US because that's where the money is. They
knew that they could steal, shoplift, you know, create these
shoplifting gangs in New York City and or Blue cities
where they knew they wouldn't be put to prison, and
so that's what they did. It's it just made a
lot of sense. Then the Maduro regime used trend Aragua,
(08:04):
bribing them, paying them to also go after political opponents.
So that's how you saw the assassination of a Venezuela
in general, this is in Chile by trend Awa gangsters
that the Chilean government itself which is, by the way,
until this past election under socialist control, they themselves said yes,
it was trended rahwa paid for by the major regime
(08:26):
who killed these men.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Do you see parallels with the way the left uses
like Antifa or Black Lives Matter or these Palestinian protesters
in the same way where it's like, you know, they're
not like directly endorsed by the left, but they're kind
of like their street thugs to a certain degree.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
That's such a good point. Well it's not. I wouldn't
say it's a parallel. I would say it's even more direct.
So many of these far left groups that are here
in America.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I'll give you one example, the People's Forum in New
York City. They were one of the main organs of
the pro Hamas occupation at Columbia University. Their president, who
was arrested in this pro Hamace occupation is a man
named Manolol Losantos.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
You can google him.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Manuela is originally from the Dominican Republic, and he's a
very close friend of Majuro himself. He went to Venezuela
last year to celebrate the rigged election. I'd been to
their HQ in Manhattan, and they fly the flag of
North Korea.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
They flyg the flag of the CCP of Venezuela.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
They have a picture of Jehavara, of Castro, of mal Sedon,
of King Yo Noon. I mean these are radical communists, right.
These are people who would take all our property and
send us to concentration camps. And they're the ones promoting
all of the pro Hamas protests. They are the ones
promoting all the climate activism. All of these issues are
(09:47):
just tools for them to advance their true goal, which
is to create a socialist government in America. Right.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
These are the people who are advising Saam Mamdani.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
These are the people who who are part of the
Democratic Socialists of America. And they view class I met
they view Palestine, they view the Black Lives Matter whose founders,
by the way, also no Maduro for many years. They
view it as just chools to divide the population and
gain power.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You know, and this all obviously resonates with you because
you were up in Venezuela and you fled Venezuela and
you saw the fall of Venezuela. Walk us through what
you saw and how socialism is destroyed once Latin America's
wealthiest nation.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Yeah, you know, my story is very I would say average,
meaning I was in a middle class family. You know,
we had a car, you know, I went to a school,
We had you know, our own home that we lived
in an apartment in Caracas, and we used to have
electricity and water and normal things, right.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
That most people would have watched TV.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And then suddenly, oh there's no water or so for
one day, and then for several days, and then there's
no electricity, so you have to carry up the jugs
of water up the stairs five floors, or then you know,
you have to lie up for food. I remember, you know,
when I was in high school, some of the teachers
who dismiss class in the middle of class because they
will get a text from their friend that works at
(11:09):
the grocery store next door that chicken or toilet paper
or flour had just arrived, so they had to go
line up as quickly as possible to get there first.
They had the insider notes that the truck just arrived.
The rationing system got so sophisticated that because we were
not like cue right, socialism got their decades later. We
(11:31):
had more technology, and so the majora regime put finger
print machines in the grocery stores where when you went
to the cashier to pay, you had to scan your
fingerprint in a machine so that the cashier would see
whether your quota covered the items that you were purchasing.
It's very stopian. This is worse than nineteen eighty four, right,
(11:52):
And that became my daily life, right, And so I
saw that happen all just in my lifetime as a teenager.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So after saying that and then coming in the United
States and now sort of on the left, there's like
this open embrace of socialism where people have sort of
become desensitized to the term, like it's it's losing its toxicity, right,
So why do you think that's happening? And why are
(12:19):
people susceptible to the idea of socialism?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Well, that's such a good question of why people are susceptible,
because clearly people have been susceptible to socialism in every culture,
in every you know, for for so long, right in
the world. It's almost like it's a natural human impulse.
And that's why I think, you know, the source of
socialism is actually sin, it's envy. It's that the rich
are rich because of the poor poor, So I want
(12:43):
to punish those people. It's not that I want to
lift up the poor, is that I also want to
punish the rich purpose even if that doesn't benefit me.
And that comes from envy. And you know, envy is
a natural human feeling. It's a That's why it's a
capital sin, and it's something that we must fight if
or otherwise you're going to get a lot of bad outcomes.
Every ideology that comes from that is very poisonous. So
(13:04):
I think that that's the source. What Venezuela proved though,
that is very important for us here, is that socialism
can come democratically, not just through a revolution. In Cuba,
we had socialism because of a violent revolution in the USSR.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Too, in China as well.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
In Eastern Europe, they were invaded, right and imposed by
the Soviet Union. In Venezuela, people were deceived into voting
for socialism, and then they got into power and they
never left even when the people wanted them out. That's
the goal of the democratic socialism in the United States,
and the fact that people have been desensitized. It's obviously
been part of an agenda because of college campuses, right.
(13:42):
I think it's also been the fault of you know,
Republicans calling everybody who they didn't like a socialist when
they weren't.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
That doesn't help.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
It's kind of like when they left called all the
Republicans racists and then nobody believes when they're actual racists,
you know, in some debate or whatever. And so it's
been so our fault, I think, And so our job
is to educate people better quick.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Break, stay with us. If you like what you're hearing,
place your on social media or send it to your
family and friends. You know, it's interesting because when you
talk about envy, you know, the irony of all this
is the individuals pushing socialism want wealth themselves, right, and
so like that's what inevitably happens, is these people subjugate
(14:25):
everyone else, but then they become wealthy.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
They're you know, friends and family well connected.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
People become wealthy and like Maduro's rich, right, but the
rest of society poor. And you look at like Bernie
Sanders sells books, makes millions of dollars, has different homes
like flies private, right, like oraoc wants to go to
the met gala, or you look at your mom. Donnie's
probably going to find ways to build well, right, So
it's like it's like they all want to be rich.
(14:51):
So it's like they don't really hate the rich, and
they don't really hate billionaires to your point with envy,
like they want to be them.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yes, I think that that's interesting. Yes they do want
to be rich, but they do hate the people who
are currently rich. You know, I see so many perils
between this resentment. In Venezuela. There's a woman who The
New York Times recently profiled that The New York Times
has been carrying the water for Majua for a very
long time, just like many socialist regime throughout history.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
But her name is Delsi Rodriguez.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
She is one of the vice presidents and she's obviously
one of Venezuela's richest women. Her brother is like the
president of Congress, like they're all plugged in. Her and
her brother are actually the sons of a very famous
Marxist terrorist in Venezuela that got killed in the seventies
because he kidnapped an American executive and then the police
caught him and killed him. Back when Venezuela was democratic,
(15:41):
and these kids grew up with a lot of resentment
they became Marxists like their father, and now they supplanted
the elite.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Now they're the elite.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
The Supreme Court president until recently in Venezuela was a
convicted murder. The criminals will become the law enforcement, The
parasites will become the rich, the workers will become the owners.
Right that you just flip everything up. That's their goal,
and I think that's their goal here too. See who
whose advice is from Mamdane enough for the NYPD, somebody
(16:12):
who was a violent criminal himself. You know what, what
job did Mamdani have before being major?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No, no job.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
He never had a private sector job. And it's the
same story for all these people.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's very interesting. So then how do you counter it
from a messaging standpoint, because you know, we're saying socialism
being embraced more, especially by younger generations, the idea of
free things, the idea of you know, the government handouts,
the idea of you know, the easy street, particularly when
people are struggling financially. You know, it sounds good on
its face, right, they don't dig deeper. So, like, how
(16:46):
do you counteract that messaging?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well, one of the ways I think is faith. I
think that's important. I think we need that. That's part
of what I think the pastors and the priests and
faith leaders need to need to do. The Catholic Church
has been very clear from you know, well over one
hundred years ago that socialism is incompatible with Christianity, and
that's all written in Catholic social teaching in many paper
(17:09):
and cyclic clom No Room and others.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But other than.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Faith, I would say conservatives are doing a good job
in taking back at academia where all these conservative centers
that red states are opening in state universities.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I think that's a very good step.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Another good step is that we need to do it
in K through twelve. Both Turning Point and YAF Young
America's Foundation have been doing that. I speak for BAF
Young America's Foundation, and I traveled to high schools, colleges
to tell my story. There's other speakers that do that.
And I would say the other one is in the family.
I think a lot of conservatives find that their children
(17:46):
end up becoming liberals. And I don't mean just liberals,
I mean very radical right. I mean they're taken over
by trans ideology, by Black Lives Matter, by all these
things in colleges, and I think that's a failure.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Of the parents to be very own, honest and.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Think about it. This even happened to Ronald Reagan himself.
Ronald Reagan's children all but Michael became very far left.
That was a failure, I think on the on the
family part, and I think that means that parents need
to be better at teaching their kids about this, meaning,
you know, you have to expose them from a young
age about what America is, why this is a great country,
what made it great, which is its freedom right. If
(18:23):
America stopped being a free country, it would stop being
a great country. And a lot of people refuse to,
I think, teach their kids about that. I know it's
an effort that you have to do because the Left
is making a big effort to indoctrinate them through social media,
through so many things, and if we don't make an
equal or greater effort, we're going to lose them. And
they know it, right because the left doesn't have children,
(18:44):
you know, they are The instrut for Family studies found
this that the average liberal couple has approximately half a
child on average, less than the average conservative couple. So
they know that their only path is indoctrination. But that
means that for us the job is easier, right, we
just need to continue passing down our ideas.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
It's a really good point. And then before we go,
what do you think the future the future holds for
the Maduro regime.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Well, I think it all depends on what President Trump
decides to do at the end. If he continues taking
the oil tankers, if he continues closing down on the
narco trafficking, I think the money's going to run out,
and that's a great thing. But Majuro is never going
to leave power unless he feels his life is threatened.
And so unless President Trump can find a way to
(19:29):
threaten the life of Majua himself or other top leaders
of the regime, either with the land strikes that he
suggested or you know, the CIA operations that he said
that he's begun, there's no you know, the goal of
majority is going to be to out last Trump. He
really Maduro is just on lockdown mode until January twenty
twenty nine, hoping that under the next president everything will
(19:51):
be lifted and then Majuro will be able to rule forever.
And I think President Trump now has to show that
he can do more than that, and think about what
he has to gain, right well, all of us have
to gain. If Venezuela were to become a free country,
hundreds of thousands of Venezuela would go back to their country,
so that's great. Oil would start coming to the United
States instead of drugs, another great thing, and more importantly,
(20:13):
Venezuela would stop destabilizing other countries in the region. Colombia
right now is ruled by a former Gorilla Marxist member
because Maduro finances campaign.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Gustavo Petro.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Maduro is the one that's funding Nicaragua, another country that's
an enemy. It's the one that's sending free oil to Cuba.
These tankers that Trump is seizing were headed to Cuba
to give them the oil for free, so that Cuba
could resell it and then keep continue funding their oppression,
their migration, everything else. So really, Venezuela right now is
the head of the snake, and if President Trump can
(20:45):
cut that off, there will be so many other positive
things that come down the line.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Very interesting stuff, Daniel.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
We appreciate your sharing your insight and your story with us.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Thanks Lisa.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
That was Daniel Di Martinez. Appreciate him for taking the
time to come on the show. Appreciate you guys at
home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can
listen throughout the week. I also want to thank John Cassio,
my producer, for putting the show together.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Until next time.
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