Venezuela: Side Stories on an Extraordinary Day - with Alexandra Rauscher & Adam Termote

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to journalists Alexandra Rauscher & Adam Termote about what caught their eye at the edges of the incredible events on 3rd January in Venezuela. 

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio: 0:01

Hi everyone, welcome back to Latin America Correspondent. Obviously, it's been something of a let's say unusual day, but actually more really more realistically a crazy day. We're coming to the end of the sort of towards the end of the 24-hour period, and I thought it would be nice just to sort of take a moment. I'm joined today by uh journalists uh Alexandra Rauscher and Adam Termote who are here with me, and just to sort of take a um take a step back and sort of just think about because with with so much noise having occurred today and taken place at any events followed by events, followed by events, it's really difficult sometimes to see the wood for the trees, and sometimes there's things which we miss as well. So I just wanted to get a sense from both um Alexandra and Adam as to some of their sort of thoughts and takeaways and things that they've spotted through the through the course of the day. Um Alexandra, maybe we can start with with you. What's caught your attention?

Alexandra Rauscher: 1:01

Yeah, so what struck me really today following the news was how Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado was celebrating the liberation of her country and stated basically that the hour of freedom had arrived. She also demanded that the previous presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez should assume the role of uh president of Venezuela. And then basically she gets sidelined by Donald Trump, who shortly after Machado's statement questioned her ability to govern the country, stating that she neither had the necessary support nor the backup of her country to lead Venezuela in the future.

Jon Bonfiglio: 1:46

It was a pretty striking moment, wasn't it? I mean, there was lots of things that we were expecting to be sort of um outlier events, which were because obviously it was a Trump press conference, and we're used to this kind of stuff, even though today's um you know context was especially sort of heightened and accelerated. But I thought that that his reaction to his almost his diminishing of Maria Corina Machado was actually a real surprise because um she certainly had his his his ear. She um he obviously we know about the fact that he coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, she then won it, she dedicated it to him. She's really done a lot of the sort of the fawning and the um the the bowing down at Donald Trump, which he seems to sort of like. So something must have taken place within that period for him to sort of almost disavow that she was the right person to take Venezuela forward or even to be in a position of power. I thought that there was um, which is again no great surprise, uh, at a very basic level, there was a a um a significant degree of misogyny to how he was referring to her. It was sort of very dismissive, almost like womanhood, she's a nice woman, but she doesn't have support in the country, and so on. Yeah, again, uh limited factual basis to what he was saying in terms of the fact that you know, if if we're thinking factually, actually, how she, up until the point at which she went into hiding last year, how she was greeted on the streets of uh Venezuela was very much actually not even as a political figure, but we've spoken almost about how there's a religious mania to her appearances, how there's there's a it's almost as though there's this sort of saintly figure that comes onto the street. So so that doesn't sort of hold um hold water there there at all. And of course, we've um we've heard a limited, we've we there's been a statement from her um today, but we've heard a limited amount from Edmundo Gonzalez. What did she um say in her statement, um Alexandra?

Alexandra Rauscher: 3:37

Yeah, she was basically celebrating this moment as a very decisive moment in the yeah in the history of Venezuela because uh from now on her country would be free. And she was also outlining that now would be the time for democracy, finally. Um, but this doesn't seem to be the main interest of Trump at this point. Um, neither seems to be um the relationship he has built with the opposition in Venezuela um in 25. Um, so what he's talking about about mainly is oil, as we've heard a lot of times today. And yeah.

Jon Bonfiglio: 4:20

He was asked today about transitions and about um uh and he's uh there was a question from one reporter that said about um the fact that the U US had a Apache history. I think that was more or less the phrase that was used, um, as regards regime change and sort of transitions of of power. And he said, um, again fairly dismissively, he said that actually that was previous precedents that he had an excellent record and that actually the planning was in place and was going to be everybody was gonna win, you know, standard again, sort of Trump discourse and rhetoric. But again, which we're pretty use to, very little in the way, well, not even very little, or no detail whatsoever as to what that sort of transition would look like, and who would even um you know, would there be a US presence? Was that going to um uh hand over to the remains of Maduro's inner inner sanctum uh and so on? I I think it's it's it's um pretty logical to say I completely agree, Alexander, in terms of what you said about the the focus on oil, that actually that's not his priority, that that's not been what's been keeping him up at night, if um if if anything at all. Adam, maybe we can come to you. What's been your sort of uh focus? What's caught your eye today on the fringes of of the these huge stories?

Adam Termote: 5:32

Hi, yeah, well, um I guess many things have caught my eye, and um I initially set out uh uh sort of later on in the day um to just kind of try and find uh an on-the-ground basis to narratives that were being played out as things unfolded. So I tried specifically to look at Venezuelan voices uh both in Venezuela and also external to Venezuela, and see how um they were responding to things that were happening, and then try to make sense of what could arise out of this kind of uh vacuum of um leadership in Venezuela. I guess the kind of the thing that I was initially trying to um to combat, which was a sense of confusion, was something that after as the day went on I kind of ended up just sticking with not because um not because I was failing in the task, but more because I was accepting that that is what um that is what is represents this situation and you can't really um you can't really narrow it down, you can't specifically make um a very clean narrative out of it. Um I think that came as a result of the of looking at different uh voices coming from the Venezuelan community. So we have like a lot of stories coming out of um US, out of Europe, places like Madrid and London, with Venezuelan uh diaspora openly jubilant or celebrating the fall of Maduro, um, and then those being amplified in Western media. And then at the same time, there's also a lot going on in in social media in Venezuela of um a clear resistance to imperialist moves by the US. So in terms of understanding how um Venezuelans are responding to what happened last night, um it's it's very seemingly um fraught with contradiction. Um but what I want to say is generally that those things should not necessarily at this point see be seen as a contradiction. And actually it's it's very important, I think, especially as a journalist now, to stick with the with the truth that there's a lot of realities happening at the same time. So um the fact that Venezuelans outside uh and and to a large extent inside Venezuelas to are celebrating the fall of Maduro does not necessarily mean that they are in agreement or supportive of the means by which that has become possible. So um I think especially going forward in the next few days, uh weeks and months, it's really important to not um condense those realities into very simplistic narratives that end up generating a good guy and a bad guy, which also happens obviously to be a very important thing.

Jon Bonfiglio: 8:27

You're saying that Anglo-Saxons have finery perspectives. Um yeah, and and certainly uh because a lot of this obviously is uh plays out in the in the media, right? And of course, uh the US media is going to focus on what um the Venezuelan diaspora uh how they respond. Uh the Fox News, of course, has already made a big play for uh for video and footage of of the sort of the jubilation and celebration of these things. Um and I think a thing which is important, it's a pretty obvious point, but I think it's a really important thing to say is of course, um you know, all of these, the whole array of reactions, uh um they're not contrived, they're rooted in real direct experience. So you can understand where these things come from, but of course, um the great big unknown is what happens next. So you can want one thing, but then when new realities begin to emerge, sort of step by step, which by which at the moment, as we said with Alexander and a few minutes ago, are really unclear. Like it we we have no sense whatsoever of what actually the next steps forward for Venezuela are at this case in point. And people, um, it's not just that all of these different senses or these different reactions across different people are um are valid. I think you can also within yourself have all these different feelings at the same time as well. You can also be happy that this has ended, but also be conflicted about the way in which it's happened, and also be incredibly troubled and trepidatious about what's what's coming next. It's not as though you have to just think and feel one particular thing. Um, and of course the days and weeks that um that that come that follow these seismic events of uh uh in in Venezuela on the 3rd of January 2026 are um going to be something that we continually pour over, and not just as physical actions and social socio-political context for for these weeks and months, but also it's pretty clear now that this is also something which is going to be a really significant history piece for the next few generations in um uh in Latin America, uh in the Americas, and probably even more significantly right across the globe. Thanks so much, um Alexandra, for uh for joining us today, Adam, uh you two, and I look forward to continuing to hear your your thoughts as we move down the down this uh imperfect, sinuous uh process towards uh who the hell knows where. Thanks again.