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VENEZUELA ABOUT US INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA ... BBC News Trump warns Venezuela’s new leader “do what’s right or pay a very big price” \| BBC News PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv2pv62uXdU
Trump warns Venezuela’s new leader “do what’s right or pay a very big price” \| BBC News BBC News 19M subscribers Jan 4, 2026 #BBCNews Donald Trump has issued a new threat against Venezuela, telling interim leader Delcy Rodríguez she will 'pay a very big price” if she does not cooperate with the United States. It follows the US attack on the country and seizure of its president Nicolás Maduro, who has been flown to New York to face drugs trafficking charges. Ms Rodriguez, who served as vice-president under Mr Maduro, has publicly condemned the American operation, describing his capture as an atrocity and saying Venezuela will defend itself. However Donald Trump said in a new interview: “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.” He had previously said that the US was going to “run Venezuela” for the time being and has repeatedly stated that the US plans to control the country’s vast oil reserves. The Trump administration has made clear that it is ready to carry out a further attack on Venezuela and has massed a large military presence in the region. Nicolás Maduro is being held in jail in New York and is expected to be brought before a court shortly on charges of drug trafficking and what the Trump administration describes as 'narco-terrorism'. Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Tom Bateman, Vanessa Silva, Ione Wells, Nada Tawfik and Jeremy Bowen. Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news #BBCNews Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 Donald Trump has issued a warning to the new leader of Venezuela, saying in an interview that if she doesn't do what's right, she's going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro. He's referring, of course, to the dramatic nighttime capture of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife this weekend, seized by US special forces in the capital, Caracus, and transferred to New York ahead of a court appearance tomorrow on narot terrorism and drug trafficking charges. But the woman who's now been sworn in by Venezuela's Supreme Court's interim leader, Deli Rodriguez, has already criticized America, demanding Maduro's release and saying Venezuela will defend itself. We'll have the latest from the capital, Caracus. And take a look at the wider implications of the events of the last 36 hours with Jeremy Bowen. But first, Tom Baitman as our top story tonight from Washington. Nicholas Maduro, handcuffed, appearing to limp, and surrounded by drug enforcement agents, taken down in the 1:00 eyes of the Trump administration from president to perpetrator. Still, there was a New Year nod to the waiting camera. Good night. Happy New Year. Crowds waited outside the notorious New York jail where he now faces charges of running a violent cocaine trafficking empire. A claim he's always rejected as a front for regime change. Now an attempt by the US to coers his allies that remain in power. Mr. Trump's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, long a hawk on Venezuela, says its leaders have to end drug smuggling and let in American oil companies. We are not going to be able to allow in our hemisphere a country that becomes a crossroads for the activities of all of our adversaries around the world. We just can't allow it. We can't have a country where the people in charge of its military and in charge of its police department are openly cooperating with drug trafficking organizations. We can't we're not going to allow that. These are these things are direct threats to the United States. 2:01 The raid on Maduro's compound amounts to the US's most controversial intervention in Latin America in four decades. Mr. Trump has claimed the country's vice president, Deli Rodriguez, has agreed to comply, pressing her with a new threat today that if not, she could pay a bigger price than Maduro. It followed her defiant public comments. If there's something that the Venezuelan people and this country have very clear is that we will never again be slaves is that we will never again be a colony of any empire of whatever kind. A US Armada says President Trump is off the Venezuelan coast. The result of a monthsl long military buildup. It is now being used to impose an effective oil embargo on the country and he says they're prepared to strike again if necessary. But opposition to that buildup had already been growing here in Congress for weeks. And now Democrats are railing against the president's action, calling it illegal and pushing 3:00 for a vote this week to stop further strikes. The United States will run Venezuela. We have learned through the years when America tries to do regime change and nation building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and in dollars. Much of Florida's large Venezuelan population is celebrating a dictator deposed being brought to justice on US soil. But the spectre of American adventurism, something Mr. Trump explicitly opposed in the past is also sparking protests. Today, he repeated his claim that the US needs Greenland for its defense. While his national security team says the attack serves as a warning to other leaders, don't mess with Donald Trump. He says the US will get its way in Venezuela. America's history of managing its own interventions could prove otherwise. Tom Baitman, BBC News, 4:00 Washington. Well, the authorities in Venezuela say a number of people were killed during the military operation to seize Nicolas Maduro. The military has now backed the new interim leader with the generals telling people to resume normal activities after this weekend's dramatic events. The streets of the capital have remained calm, but there is fear over what happens next. As Vanessa Silva reports now from Caracus, after US air strikes shook Venezuela two nights ago, the clear up continues today. Their Venezuelan government has yet to announce how many people were killed in the US military action, but says soldiers and civilians are among the dead. Some residential areas were also reportedly hit. Flares were coming in and then then came the explosions. We all ran. All our neighbors had to flee. 5:04 To be honest, I'm very scared. I feel a lot of fear everywhere inside. I'm afraid for my life. I'm afraid of what might happen. Nicholas Maduro may now be in a New York Yale, but his face still looms across the capital. And a few blocks away from the presidential palace, government loyalists gathered today demanding his release. But elsewhere in Karakas, the streets are quiet and empty. We saw cues to buy petrol, a sign of a lingering anxiety over fuel supplies. Although tankers continue to arrive at filling stations, we've been buying food just piling up just in case because you never know. And uh yeah, like I said, anything could happen. It's uncertainty. Life in Karakas is actually continuing in a relative calm today. People are 6:02 telling me they are just processing what has happened. But there is a sense of anticipation hanging over the city about what comes next. The defense minister who had says he will carry on the fight. He has now asked citizens to return to normal. Venezuelans know that something has shifted but the true consequence of this change are still uncertain. Vanessa Silva, BBC News, Karakas. Well, the capture of Nicolas Maduro was months in the planning, but why now? And what does the immediate future hold for Venezuela? Here's Ioni Wells, our South America correspondent. A new dawn, a new leader, but not yet a new order that despite this. We're going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transitions. 7:01 What does Trump mean? And who is actually in charge? For now, it's Deli Rodriguez, Madura's vice president, oil minister, and ally. Now sworn in as interim president. The judges, military, and ministers remain loyal to Maduro. The US doesn't have troops on the ground, but it holds leverage another way. These pictures of Maduro headed to detention, hands tied, blindfolded. A warning to his allies still in power. Trump has threatened further strikes if necessary. He's made it clear one thing the US wants is oil. We're going to take back the oil that frankly we should have taken back a long time ago. A lot of money is coming out of the ground. We're going to get reimbursed for all of that. We're going to get reimbured for everything that we spend. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. 17 trillion worth. Enough to last more than 800 years, more than the likes of Saudi Arabia and Iran. It's the type of oil 8:00 that is critical, too. America's own oil industry predominantly drills shale, a lighter oil. America needs more of the heavy crude, which Venezuela has in abundance. But rebuilding Venezuela's oil industry won't be simple. Investment and reconstruction would take years. The country is politically fragile with security uncertain. Global over supplies of oil and low prices make investing now unappealing. Across the region, the shock waves are being felt. Some protesters in Havana, Cuba, a country heavily reliant on Venezuelan oil, show solidarity and fear with its government and other US foe. Some fear it could be next. I think they're in a lot of trouble. Yes, I'm not going to talk to you about what our future steps are going to be and our policies are going to be right now in this regard, but I don't think it's any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime. For now, Venezuela's future lies caught between a government that still holds power and a superpower determined to influence it. Ioni Wells, BBC News. 9:03 Well, Nicholas Maduro is due to appear in court in Manhattan at noon tomorrow, local time, on charges including narco terrorism and cocaine trafficking. The UN Security Council is also due to meet to discuss his capture. Well, Neta Tafi is in New York for us now. It's going to be quite a moment, Neta, when he appears in the dock. Absolutely, Clive. You know, Nicholas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, have been uh detained here in this federal detention center in Brooklyn behind me, which is infamous for its poor conditions and has even been called hell on earth. But tomorrow they will be transported to Manhattan under heavy security for their first court appearance and that will happen at noon. Now just like other federal cases, no cameras will be allowed in court, but the public and the press will be there to catch a glimpse of him being read formally the charges against him uh 10:01 being read his rights and for that chance for him to enter a plea. Now, the indictment charges him, his wife, and his son, and three others with naroterrorism and weapons offenses, essentially accusing him and his associates of flooding the United States with thousands of tons of cocaine to enrich themselves and to hold on to power. Now, Mr. Maduro has long rejected the allegations and has accused President Trump of illegal wararmongering. And just blocks north at the United Nations Security Council. There will be an emergency meeting on Venezuela. Trump's critics will be saying that this was an illegal action against Venezuela's sovereignty. The US's allies will be stressing a peaceful transition of power. Neta, thank you. Neta Ti, they're live in uh Manhattan. Well, this is the most consequential action so far of Donald Trump's second term in office. But what could the wider implications be beyond America and 11:01 Venezuela? Jeremy Bowen is with me now. Um the reverberations of this weekend's events could be travel very far and wide. Yeah, they're going to rumble along, Clive. I think there are enormous implications not just for US foreign policy in Latin America, but worldwide as well. And that's because of what this says about Donald Trump's attitude towards international law and the sovereignty of nations, the control of their resources that he clearly covers. Because you know, we should be clear about this. The US action is a blatant violation of the UN charter. Now, does this matter? Maduro has been a bad man. He stole an election. Well, yeah, it does. If you believe that there should be rules and law governing the relations between states rather than simply the way, simply raw power. Now, that was already a tattered idea, but I think we can say that this is another big nail in the coffin of the idea of a rules-based order. The Britain, among other countries, still says that they support. Uh, so also I think that the Russians 12:00 and the Chinese will look at what Trump has done and think, well, yeah, this this plays pretty well for us, for Putin in the Russian president. the idea that he might be able to walk away with the Ukrainian territory that he coverts because clearly Trump believes that big powers deserve spheres of influence because the US has one. And there's the issue of China and Taiwan. China wants to repossess Taiwan. Threats as well regionally, Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Greenland as well. That's a European issue because Dane the Danes have the sovereignty there and the the Europeans are stumbling around at the moment trying to find a way of saying they support international law but they don't condemn Donald Trump. So I think that you look at him and he clearly is a man who believes that never mind laws, it's his will, it's raw American power backing it up. And for those people who are hoping for a smoother 2026, I'd say fasten your seat belts. 13:01 All right, Jeremy. Thank you. Jeremy Bow, our international editor.

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