What Venezuela Reveals About America’s Decline (LIVE in Venezuela ) 🔴

There is no greater wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace to the legislature and not the executive. Madison called it the crown jewel of Congress. The framers understood a simple truth. To the extent that war making power devolves to one person, liberty dissolves.

If the president believes military action against Venezuela is justified and needed, he should make the case and Congress should vote before American lives and treasure are spent on regime change in South America. Let's be honest about likely outcomes. Do we truly believe that Nicholas Maduro will be replaced by a modern-day George Washington? How did that work out in Cuba, Libya, Iraq, or Syria? Previous presidents told us to go to war over WMDs, weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. Now it's the same playbook, except we're told that drugs are the WMDs. If it were about drugs, we'd bomb Mexico or China or Colombia, and the president would not have pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez. This is about oil and regime change. And when it comes to regime change, we've already been down this road with Venezuela with nothing to show for it. In 2019, we recognized Juan Guyaido. We seized their embassy here in DC. We were told that regime change was imminent. Years later, Maduro remains in power. Today, we're told to place our hopes in other exiled figures. Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Karina Machado. I wish them well. I do. But Congress should not express moral sympathy in the form of a blank check for military escalation and American lives.

And let's take a moment to acknowledge the contradiction at the heart of this policy. This administration tells us that the Maduro regime is made up of narotists and by escal and by escalating toward war, we would predictably create countless refugees. At the same time, this administration has moved to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and deports them back to the very regime it condemns. So which is it? Are we prepared to receive swarms of the 25 million Venezuelans who will likely become refugees and billions in American treasure that will be used to destroy and inevitably rebuild that nation? Do we want a miniature Afghanistan in the Western Hemisphere? If that cost is acceptable to this Congress, then we should vote on it as a voice of the people and in accordance with our Constitution.

And yet today here, we aren't even voting on whether to declare war or authorize the use of military force. All we're voting on is a war powers resolution that strengthens the fabric of our republic by reasserting the plain and simple language in the Constitution that Congress must decide questions of war. I urge support for this resolution and I yield back.

>> Well everybody, I want to welcome you to a very important live stream. My name is Cyrus Jansen and our world has fundamentally changed in the last 48 hours. I cannot stress the significance of what is happening right now in Venezuela and really in multiple countries around the world as the United States President Donald Trump has made some moves that are honestly very much unprecedented and truly a shock to the entire international global world order. Uh in today's live stream uh we are going to be bringing in a fantastic guest uh who has ties to Venezuela who is a Venezuelan national and has spent a lot of time there obviously uh that is going to give us a very good perspective of this and I just want to before we bring in our guest Javier I want to kind of give everybody my initial thoughts on that.

Now this clip that we just opened up the live stream of this was from Republican Thomas Massie. He is a congressman who uh addressed Congress on December 17th, just a couple of weeks ago, you know, as the United States was preparing, you know, for this uh move into Venezuela. And this is again, I just really want people to understand what's at stake here because what we need to understand on the surface, a lot of people are just s looking at this on the surface level. They're saying, "Look, Maduro is not a good guy. by the United States going in there and doing this. This is a net positive for the world. You know, Donald Trump's doing a great job. You know, America is super powerful. We're number one. That's awesome. That's certainly the line that Republicans and certainly the MAGA crowd wants you to believe. But what we really want to come at in today's stream is talking about the legality of this and more importantly what this means for the future of the world.

Because what I believe is that Donald Trump has thrown the entire international rules-based order, which let's not forget this was largely put in place right after World War II. And again, we have to go back into our history. This is why we study history because it's if you don't study it, it's bound to repeat itself. But the key thing with history is is we look at World War I almost not very long after World War I. There was a second world war and the world war was devastating. It had an absolutely devastating effect. and we put in the policies and procedures in place that as the world continued to develop and we now had nuclear arms that we would not destroy ourselves and that we would actually have these systems and these protocols and countries can go to war for specific reasons. And unfortunately, Donald Trump has absolutely rammed through all of those protocols. Uh he has basically called his own shot. And as a United States citizen, if you are not concerned about this, then you are not concerned about our Constitution. you're not concerned about the legality of how this country is supposed to run. And that is very frightening that we have a large amount of Americans that again are very very supportive of this MAGA cult. You know, they're very supportive of Donald Trump. Um, but unfortunately, I think there's a lot of nuance. There's a lot of things that people don't understand about this situation. And that is what we're going to be breaking down in today's video. I'm going to take a position and I'm going to explain this theory later on in this stream that Donald Trump is actually in a very weak position. He's in a very weak position. I'll explain why I say that in a little bit, but I want to introduce a very close friend of mine now to the channel. Um, and I'm going to go ahead and bring him in. He's backstage, but we're going to bring Javier Correa to the show.

Did I get the name right?

>> Yes, sir. You did. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for having me, Jansen.

>> All right. Absolutely. Javier. So, Javier and I, we first met a couple years ago. Uh, we both met in Malaysia. Uh, you might have seen on the Nomad Capitalist channel. him and I did an interview a couple of months ago that went did very well actually kind of went viral on Tik Tok with five six million views. But you know we talked about geopolitics. We talked about bricks China you know the entire world order. But what makes Javier so special is that his background is incredible. Uh he has so much knowledge on the law, he has so much knowledge on taxes and he has most importantly he's from Venezuela. So, if you guys really want to hear an insider's voice to what the situation in Venezuela is really like, I wanted to make sure that I brought you this authentic voice so that we can really understand how complex because again, when we're discussing geopolitics, there's a lot of nuance involved. So, Javier, welcome to the show and welcome to the live stream.

>> Thank you so much, Cyrus. It's an absolute pleasure to be with you and to be with all of the audience. Thank you really for organizing this and definitely what you were saying earlier is right on point. I mean geopolitics is complicated and this goes you know far beyond just something that happened in Venezuela. It can have tremendous ramifications throughout the world and like you said it really puts the entire geopolitical order in peril. Now whether or not you believe the geopolitical order should evolve that's an entirely separate debate. But what is true is that an action like the one the United States has taken uh in the past 4872 hours really puts into question whether the international order is uh still truly functioning.

>> Yeah, I couldn't agree more Javier and I think that is what is very concerning here. So I think what we what we need to understand um you know as as far as you know Maduro, you know, a lot of people in the United States again kind of from that right-wing side is saying look this guy wasn't a good guy. you know, we need to celebrate that this guy's not in power anymore. Um Javier, um you know, I think a lot of people are missing this because it's almost like they feel like, oh, we've changed the government overnight. Uh but kind of give us a little bit of sense because I mean, Javier, you you were telling me before we went live, uh you know, your mother is living right there in Karacus. She was she was awoken by, you know, the sounds of the bombing. I mean, she I think she called you and that's how you found out about this. So, kind of give me a little bit more, you know, just play that out for our viewers. Like, how was that this morning? like tell me, you know, what your mother's thinking, tell me what your family, your initial reactions, just take us back to that day, which of course was just a couple days ago, but kind of want to get your view as a Venezuelan on like how you're just interpreting this in your country.

>> Yeah, of course. No, 100%. So, for everyone to have a bit of a background, so like Cyrus said, I am a Venezuelan citizen. I travel on my Venezuelan passport. I go to Venezuela constantly. So, I was just in Venezuela 2, three weeks ago. I'm currently in uh Panama City where I currently reside, but I go there often. I still have economic ties to the country. Uh my mother is still there as Cyrus was mentioning. So I I know I definitely keep very much I stay updated with what is happening in uh in my homeland and I do have definitely boots on the ground personally uh so to speak. Uh so basically yeah I mean uh when this happened on January 3rd essentially I got a call at around I believe 2 or 2:30 3 in the morning something along those lines and my mom calls me and she says uh stay calm but there the bombs are falling helicopters are flying everywhere like there's aircraft I mean I don't know what's happening and I immediately went on to turn on the news looked at Instagram etc. And what I saw was all of my people essentially in Venezuela uploading videos, stories to their Instagrams and things of that nature or were sending videos on Telegram, WhatsApp, things of that nature where they were literally showing how US aircraft were bombing several locations, strategic locations across the country, mainly in the capital city Karacus, where I'm from. I was born and raised in Karacus. Uh, and also uh closer to the coast in an area called Eigerote. uh one of our housekeepers actually was there and actually also called me to tell me and inform me of the situation. She actually saw some US helicopters perform you know direct military tasks in the region. So definitely you know it's something that you think is never necessarily going to happen to you although obviously we were expecting this to an extent. I mean we did see a very large US naval blockade you know build up in the Caribbean Sea. I think around a third of the US Navy is right now anchored off the coast of Venezuela in the Caribbean. In fact, last time I saw you, Cyrus, when we did uh that interview where we talked about China and geopolitics, I had flown over, you know, that US naval blockade to actually reach you uh at that time in Malaysia. And so, we were more or less expecting this, but you know, you you can never prepare for it. You can prepare it for it to an extent. My family has truly become kind of like a prepper family. So, we have backup generators, private water storage, you know, food to last us uh for uh uh you know, an extended period of time. Uh because we've been through this before. Like I personally lived through the 2002 coup. I went through the social tensions of 2007. I did the whole Guido era in 2019 in the great blackout, the great social uprising of 2014, 2017. I mean, we've been uh around the block more than a couple of times. Uh but this definitely took it to another level. And as you correctly noted, so these military aircraft came in. I will uh say that the military side of it, the precision of the military strategy was impeccable. uh from what my mother can tell can tell me and she's on the ground there was minimal collateral damage to civilian infrastructure and to civilians in general. It was kept mostly 99.9% truly to military targets. Uh and uh I understand it was US Delta Force that came in uh drones uh fighter jets escorting Delta Force aircraft helicopters. They went down, they found where Madura was staying, I guess for the night, his secure house, his safe house. They went in, they took him almost like in the movie Air Force One with Harrison Ford, you know, the the intro scene. Uh they took him into custody and they flew him out of the country uh to a US naval warship which then subsequently carried him to the United States where he is currently being held uh in New York City.

>> Yeah, exactly. I mean, it is um it's it's actually quite unbelievable. Um and you know, I I don't know if everybody's familiar with uh the TV show Jack Ryan. uh they actually had a very similar um season two of Jack Ryan which is you know all about the CIA and you know they're they're you know having all of these different military coups and here and I I think unfortunately um you know this is this is a lot of this actually has to play into how the US government you know really prepares the United States citizens. uh Jack Ryan, incredibly popular show in the United States. And you know, all of a sudden, it's a little bit of this subtle brainwashing that we get here in the United States where, you know, we're we're obviously portraying Venezuela and we obviously look at Russia, Iran, many countries. You know, you look at a country like Russia for example. Um in every movie, Russia is always the bad guy, right? It's always the Russians. And even if you look at a movie like Top Gun, which would probably be one of the most famous US military movies of all time, right? Um actually, if you watch the movie, the plot's terrible. Like there's not an actual plot. It's literally this random plane comes over a mountain and all of a sudden it's a Russian guy and then you know Tom Cruz has to take him down. He takes down the plane, saves the day, America's the best and and so you know you you watch that movie which was back from the 80s and you realize it's like wow that was a terrible plot but that was actually like like milit the uh enrollment to the US military surged after that movie came out. Okay, because all the guys were like man I want to be a Top Gun pilot. I want to go fight for America. So again, this is, you know, again, a little bit of this uh soft power culture here in the United States where we're, you know, really, you know, conditioning people very well. And I I think it's um yeah, I I mean, again, you know, for me, Javier, as an US citizen, you know, I'm actually on the road as well. I'm actually in Quebec City up in Canada. I'm I'm making my way back home as well, but uh we've been traveling a couple weeks with my family uh over the Christmas holidays. We're just got to we got two more days here in Canada before we go back to the United States. But it is, you know, quite a shocking thing to wake up in the morning, especially as a geopolitical YouTuber, I'm like, "Wow, you know, we need to uh, you know, we're going to have to get on the stream and talk about this." But, you know, what? I think what's really happening here is again, you know, if we want to go to the legality of this, Javier, I want to look at from the United States, you know, when we're seeing um if you want to go to war, right? If we want to actually declare war and we want to make these moves, uh you know, you you cannot just simply um go in to a sovereign country and remove a head of state and then all of a sudden just bring them back to New York. Now the big thing here is a lot of people and certainly what the line from the government right now is is that this is all about narcotics right this is all this is all about drugs but the interesting thing is is if we look at the data um you know uh Venezuela is not a very big hub you know for narcotics I mean if anything there's actually a little bit of um you know cocaine that comes very small amounts but it's certainly not fentinol which is the biggest problem that we're receiving right now so but of course there's this is where the the propaganda and the kind of the blur in the media is because right now, you know, we're saying, okay, fentanyl kills people, you know, there's fentanyl. You know, we've seen even in the in the bombing of these fishing boats, right? You know, the same thing happened. You know, before, you know, if there is a fishing boat that is going to be illegally trafficking drug, there's due process, right? You cannot just go out and bomb this random fishing boat and take out these people. You actually have to arrest them. You have to do an inspection. You have to see if there is narcotics on there. They have right to a trial. have to, you know, again, this is kind of going back to how our society is going to function and how international law is going to function. But again, we see Trump overstepping that boundary, just simply saying take him out. You know, it was the, you know, what was it? The double tap, you know, the double tap, you know, missiles, just take them out. And then all of a sudden, you know, some of those missiles, you know, some of those boats that were destroyed were innocent civilians. You know, they were not actually drug traffickers.

>> Yeah. I I really think that you're touching on something big here and I think that people need to understand that this has to be seen from a legal perspective in two dimensions, right? Number one, you've got internal US law and whether or not the uh ordering of this military action in Venezuela was constitutional from a US legal perspective, right? You guys have your constitution is one of the most beautifully written constitutions anywhere in the world. I'm a big admire of the US Constitution, but it clearly has, you know, powers that are meant for Congress and powers that are meant for the executive branch, i.e. president of the United States. Now, uh, my understanding is that under your constitutional rules, obviously the right to actually declare war is essentially in the hands of Congress. But at the same time, the president as commander-in-chief of the armed forces does have some leeway in conducting essential military operations that are needed for the safety and security of the United States, as long as they're not prolonged armed conflicts. And to be to try to be objective here, there are no boots on the ground, at least official boots on the ground in Venezuela at this point. We know Donald Trump had authorized CIA kind of like black operations in Venezuela, so we assume the CIA still has a presence there. Um, there are some rumors uh in Venezuela that you still have some Delta Force personnel maybe somewhere in the country, but this is not Iraq. Like people have to understand that there was no massive US invasion. So the legality under the US Constitution I think can still be debated. I mean I obviously would defer to my American colleagues and I think there should be you know hearings and there should be really a debate in the United States as to whether or not you know this was within the Constitution of the United States. But I think there could be a debate there. Where it's more black and white is in the second dimension which is international law. And this is the law that governs the relations between states. So now we're no longer talking about the US constitution, but we're talking about how the US really engages with and trades with and establishes relationships with other nations of the world. And here uh it is much more difficult to justify. So for the viewers who maybe are not aware of this, so after World War II, as Cyrus correctly pointed out, the world order was changed. We see the emergence of the United Nations and with the United Nations, we see the United Nations Charter. And essentially the United Nations Charter is one of the fundamental documents of international law. And the system was built uh remember with the trauma of World War II in mind. The system was built to make it very difficult for there to be a fullscale state-onstate international conflict like what we saw in World War II. And so essentially there are very narrow paths for there to be armed military action that is actually within the scope of international law. The premise of international law is no sovereign state can attack another sovereign state. Right? That's the baseline idea. We're all sovereign. We all the peoples of the world have the right to self-determination. Therefore, you know, a bigger country with a stronger military coming in taking over a smaller country and telling it what to do. That's a no no basically in international law. However, there are a handful of exceptions. Notable exceptions include self-defense. So if you're legitimately attacked by another state, you have the right within certain rules to defend yourself. Therefore, you can push your attackers back. You can regain your territory. And then you have collective self-defense, which is kind of like an offshoot to that when a state actually requests assistance from other states to defend itself. A great example of that is for example Kuwait back during the first Gulf War when the coal the US-led coalition organize operation desert storm and actually helped Kuwait regain control of its territory and its sovereignty after Saddam Hussein at the time had invaded it. And then there's another narrow path which is when the United Nations Security Council determines that military action should and can be taken and there are certain rules around that. I'm not going to get into all the details. very technical but that UN Security Council authorized action hardly ever happens because in the UN Security Council you have five permanent members three of those are China, Russia and the US and those five permanent members have veto rights. So whenever you have a draft resolution in the UN security council that essentially proposes, you know, military action or some kind of sanction related action against an ally of any of these three nations I've just mentioned, essentially by voting no on the draft resolution, these countries essentially kill and veto the resolution right then and there. Even if every other member of the UN votes yes, as long as the US or Russia or China votes no, then the bill dies there and it's not even a bill. It just stays at the state of draft. Now the other two P5 members are France and the UK. They used to be much more relevant in global politics back when the UN was formed 1945. We don't see them being as large as players as they used to be but they are technically still there. And so that's why this attack on Venezuela coming back to our, you know, original point uh is difficult to justify because was Venezuela posing an imminent threat to the United States? I don't know. The US is much more powerful, right? I don't see Venezuela posing an imminent threat to the United States. Um and I I would confidently say no. There I mean there's no there's no threat to the to the United States. I think I think that's preposterous to be honest.

>> Yeah. And then and then to my knowledge uh the United Nations Security Council had not authorized this. And remember Maduro was a close ally to China and Russia. So if this had even gone to the UN I would presume that in the context of the security council China and Russia would have rapidly vetoed any resolution or potential resolution which would have you know potentially put Maduro in harm's way. So from an international law perspective, you know, at least with the existing rules, it seems like this um there is big room to believe that this action was not lawful under the scope of the UN and current international law.

>> Yeah. I mean, and and I think that this is this is something that's been really trending for the last couple of years, Javier, because you know, if we actually go back and we look at uh you know, for example, the United States closest ally obviously is Israel. And Israel, you know, has had a very very gruesome war against the Palestinians. you know, the entire Gaza conflict has been a stain on humanity as far as that this is an act of genocide that the United States has, you know, certainly supported. But the problem with this, Javier, is that, you know, that I I think the, you know, let's let's just say if this was a car going down the road, the wheels were starting to come off with the whole Israel thing because, you know, the United States, you know, we have a track record of, you know, the rules apply to thee and not to me. And you know that we constantly see this double conf you know this double standard with the United States government. You know we see the United States you know saying look you know Russia you're not allowed to go into Ukraine because we have you know exactly what the framework that you just said right if you want to declare a war we have rules right and if and in order to have rules you need to you know if we want to live in a peaceful society and international society where every member state is safe then you know we need to you know adhere to these rules. Now the problem is is that we have you know basically there's a lot of people that don't follow the rules but the biggest one is the United States itself and so you constantly see the United States you know I think that there you know you know if we look at for example even in Latin America if we look at the history I mean there's been no shortage of regime change operations throughout Latin America uh you know all started by the United States government you see our our efforts you know we can start saying in Yemen in Libya and af in Iraq and Afghanistan um you know

>> in Panama in Panama where I am now is the closest example to what just happened in Venezuela. So, I was actually talking to a friend of mine about this. He said, "You can sure pick him, right? Because you're a Venezuelan citizen. The United States just took Maduro into custody." And back in 1989, if uh some of you guys maybe that are watching this were around back then, 1989, something very similar happened here where I am in Panama City now, where the United States actually came in under, if I'm not mistaken, this is George HW Bush, so Bush senior administration, and at that time deposed Noriega. uh also on very similar pretenses of you know drug trafficking and so forth. Now there are certain things that were a bit different when the US came into Panama they rapidly uh decided to support the swearing in of an opposition candidate at the time who had won elections or had allegedly won elections in that context. We're not seeing the same approach with Venezuela now. In Venezuela, it appears that they're taking an approach uh more prioritizing stability and not necessarily regime change, but more leadership change is what we're seeing in Venezuela now. But definitely what you're saying is true within the context of the Cold War and now within the context of this new I would say multilateral world order, we're seeing the United States really being at the forefront of essentially giving countries a little bit of a push uh when uh policies need to change in their view.

>> Yeah. abs, absolutely. Um, so I I think kind of going back to, you know, Javier, I do want to touch on the on the next thing. Next topic here would be about the oil and I think this is a very big story and I I certainly want to get your your >> uh insights into this because I know that you uh have worked for an is it right that you've worked for an oil company before and in a kind of a legal manner and you've have definitely have a lot of good insights that I think is going to be very interesting to share. Before you share that, I do have an interesting clip that, you know, talks specifically about the oil that we'll be able to play. But yeah, I mean, kind of to wrap up this opening, you know, point here is I think that it's very difficult for the United States now on the international world order to really have the respect and to really, you know, to be able to even say, you know, look, we have a system, we have the United Nations, we have international worlds based order, we have these systems and processes in place. basically, you know, Donald Trump has thrown that out the window and it has really opened the world to a very dangerous president because, you know, this is a very very uh, you know, clear violation of international law. And I think what I I I open the stream up for those of you that have many joined here. We've got around 830 people here in the stream. Uh, you know, appreciate every one of you being here tonight as we continue to talk about this very pressing news story. But I opened the stream and I said I think that Donald Trump is getting very desperate and I want to you know make my uh case for this. So if you look at Donald Trump his numbers are absolutely crashing right now in the United States as far as his poll numbers. uh the United States economy is not in a good position and we and the unfortunate thing is is that we can't get an accurate measure of what the economy is doing because of you know you know simply Donald Trump has fired so many people in the organization that gives these correct updates and you know we see a lot of this manipulation you know the numbers aren't good let's go ahead and fire the you know the budget committee you know we don't like this we're going to fire this department you know even even for example even if you are pro- regime change even if you took the stance of your Look, I love that the America went in there, uh, you know, because I want Venezuela to have a better regime change. Well, we fired the entire USA ID, you know, which would be the organization that could actually fund this and actually make changes abroad. So, we wouldn't have the resources to do it anyways, you know. So, again, like even if that was your stance, well, Donald Trump's fired the very department that would actually be in charge of that. So, that wouldn't work either, you know. So, there's there's a lot of problems here for the United States. But I think what this does as well is, you know, we still look at the Epstein files. The Epstein files, I think, is a very big problem. I think there's a lot of information that has been leaked from these files that are really um, you know, honestly, I think it would would have really caused any other president to probably be impeached by now. But for some reason, you know, Donald Trump has an incredible ability to have this absolute dictator-like control over his constituents. You know, no Republican is able to really stand up, really able to challenge him. He has this incredible control over the Republican party and you know he is basically you know I think this is a very large distraction and again you know we can sell this to the American people that hey look at our Delta forces you know there's not a there's not another army or military power in the world that could operate this precisely this accurately this grand and you know from a military perspective like you said I mean you know they did a great job I mean

>> from from a military strategy perspective it was lovely it was executed in a lovely matter like I will give recognition to the United States armed forces. I do think that that was top-notch in terms of how it was managed from a technical perspective. Now the legality of it is a separate uh definitely a separate debate. But in terms of the aircraft, the coordination, the weapons, the the entire intelligence community that actually managed to track down President Maduro. All of that was absolutely incredible.

>> Yeah. And when you're spending a trillion dollars a year on on military, you know, you're going to have you're going to have that. I mean that's that's certainly um you know that's certainly the United States's forte for example. But I think that this is a very large distraction uh you know that Donald Trump is basically trying to do because there's a lot of things at play and Javier it kind of goes back to what we started our conversation a couple months ago in Malaysia when we talk about the rise of bricks we talk about the the the multipolar world that we now live in. And I think what we're seeing right now is I think we're seeing basically Donald Trump trying to say we are going to have these spheres of influence. And for example, if you look at Marco Rubio's comments, Marco Rubio's comments about Venezuela are all about the Western Hemisphere. And this is kind of an interesting thing here, Javier, because what I've noticed in a lot of my comments, you know, I I'll make a video, for example, said, you know, why Latin America, you know, chose China or why Brazil chose China, you know, why these countries are moving strategically closer to China. Many of you know who follow this channel, I talk a lot about China specifically. But the interesting thing is is, you know, if you look at, for example, Brazil, why are they importing so many BYD cars? Well, the BYD cars are incredible pieces of technology at a very affordable price rate. And that is going to give the Brazilians a strategic advantage and their long-term future. Hence, they're partnering with America uh with China, you know, for that technology. And and so what what's interesting though, Javier, is you'll see some US politicians that will say a line like we can't have China operating in our own backyard. And I've noticed this for many people in Latin America. They absolutely hate that term when American politician says my own backyard. Because it's like, well, you know, you don't get to own and control the entire Western Hemisphere. But in reality, I think that's exactly what Donald Trump wants to do. He's going to say, look, nobody's going to operate the Western Hemisphere. you know, you know, we don't want to have any China, Russia, we don't want you guys over here. I think that you got to be on high alert for, you know, for example, I mean, I think Marco Rubio's dream has always been to, you know, get involved with Cuba, potentially throw, you know, a revolution there. You know, Donald Trump has said, uh, in a White House interview, um, I actually have this call. This is an interesting clip. This is a 29 second clip. Everybody, let's listen to this clip where Donald Trump talks specifically about Colombia.

>> That's Venezuela's very sick. Colombia is very sick, too. Run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he's not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.

>> What does that mean? He's not going to be doing it very long.

>> He's not doing it very long. He's he has uh cocaine mills and cocaine factories. He's not going to be doing it very long.

>> So, there will be an operation by the US and

>> it sounds good to me.

>> Secretary Rubio mentioned yesterday kill a lot of people. Yeah,

>> Secretary Rubio. So I I hope that everybody was able to hear that. But the reporter basically said was talking about Colombia and he said the leader there is not a good man and he's not going to be operating there for a very long time. The reporter said so are we going to have an operation there which Donald Trump reported sounds good to me. And so you know it's it's an interesting one because again I think we we all know this that Donald Trump speaks off the cuff right he's just going to say it as it is. He's you know he doesn't have a filter. But the problem is is when you're the sitting president of the United States and the most powerful man in the world, you know, you can't just talk about a sovereign nation and be like, "Yeah, are we gonna have a military operation there? Sounds good to me." You know, why not? Let's go for it.

>> Maybe. Why not? Yeah. But I will I I will say one thing here, Cyrus, which is I think a lot of times many people in the US give themselves a very hard time for these quote unquote imperialist policies. that you have to acknowledge that while in Latin America we don't like to be called the backyard of the US or something like that we do in many cases acknowledge that US influence has also brought many good things right I think that you also have to acknowledge that for example in the case of my homeland Venezuela the oil industry was largely built uh thanks to transfers of technology that were brought in largely by American companies and if you talk to my mother's generation for example they have tremendous respect uh for the United States and a lot of, you know, warm feelings and thankfulness towards the United States. I can tell you here in Panama, of course, there are mixed feelings. There are people who remember that that day back in '89. And of course, there were horrible things that happened. But many people here in Panama are happy that the US at one point, you know, came in and transitioned Panama from Noriega to another president. A lot of people in Panama also are very thankful for the Americans to have initially, you know, uh, did everything, done everything to actually operate the Panama Canal. Now, it's in the hands of Panameanians. And we also heard Donald Trump make a couple of comments earlier in his presidency about the Panama Canal. That's a whole separate issue. But my point is, let's not forget that the US has also done very good things. I think nobody is entirely bad or entirely good. And I personally think the US has also influenced the region in many positive ways. And that's something that you also have to take into consideration even with the Venezuela issue. Like I can uh sit here as a lawyer and talk about from the legal perspective how international law and geopolitics may be affected. But the reality is a lot of my countrymen, many of my countrymen who have been uh you know outside of Venezuela in many cases for a decade plus were celebrating on the streets not only in Panama City but in Miami and New York and Madrid. People in Venezuela many of the of those people there saw uh you know this as a as a liberation day. So you also have to take into consideration that a lot of people welcome these actions. Now is it everyone? No. You're never going to have a 100% consensus. But I think that that drives me back to my earlier point. You can never say US entirely bad guy or US entirely good guy. They're always good things and bad things. And depending on who you are and where you are in the world, you may see it as something good. A lot of my countrymen who have not been back to our homeland in 10 plus years don't care about international law. They don't care about the United Nations and the charter and self-defense. They just care that the man that in their vision drove them out of out of their homeland, separated their families, has now been deposed. And that is something that I think, you know, is worth understanding that there are always these different perspectives.

>> Yeah. I think there's there's an interesting uh you know counterargument to that because I I think there's you know like like we'll talk about it with China as well because you know there's there's a lot of uh Chinese that are outside of China you know that that that would certainly you know talk against the Chinese government and you know and I I'll give you a very interesting example you know I was I was actually exchanging tweets with um this uh this lady who's actually she's ethnically Chinese um I think her name is Xi Van Fleet I believe is her name on Twitter and<seg_33> She's an older lady. I'd say she's probably in her 60s or 70s. Um, you know, she and and her whole thing is that, you know, she says, you know, her entire platform on Twitter is that she talks about, you know, I know what it's like to grow up under Ma under Chairman Mao's China and, you know, this is, you know, China is trying to, you know, spread Chairman Mao's ideology across America. And I said, you know, the problem with this type of, you know, Chinese person is is that, you know, they left China 40 years ago, maybe 50 years ago. So like the China of 50 years ago is nothing like the China of today. And the problem with that with that argument is is that if you haven't been back to China in 40, 50 years, you honestly can't comment on China because, you know, we're not talking about Chairman Mau China. Chairman Mau China doesn't exist anymore, right? you know, so you know, I I I I totally empathize with you because if you growing up in China in the 1960s, yeah, it was poor and it sucked. Life was not good there, you know, but the thing was is that it was going through a difficult period of time, a period of time where the country was, you know, was changing, you know, there was a lot of changes coming and certainly, you know, there was brighter times ahead. Um, and so I think that's the that's that's kind of the issue, you know, where I see a lot of people that are over that are overseas, you know, that that become, you know, very very polarized against their their ancestral land and and that. So there's always a bit of context. I I don't think, you know, I'm right or you're right or I'm, you know, there's always a little bit of, you know, the biggest word that I like to use in geopolitics is always is always nuance, you know. So it's always about understanding a little bit of nuance and stuff. So again, you know, when I was exchanging these tweets with this lady, you know, we're talking about this. She's like, "Oh, you know, you don't know China like I do." And I would say I will argue that point because I think I know China better than you because if you again, if you haven't been to China in 40, 50 years, I don't think you can comment on China today. That's that's just a stance that I'm going to take on that. But, you know, Javier, this brings us to an interesting point. You know, we've had an amazing live stream. We're close to a thousand people in the stream. Um, you know, and I want to talk to you specifically about oil because I think that, you know, Donald Trump has made it very clear, you know, he's been very vocal that, you know, he has said there's there's obviously a tremendous amount of resources, a lot of oil resources. It's also the hard crude oil, which is actually benefits the United States because we have a lot of refineries in the United States that can actually process that oil. And, you know, actually, there was a a tweet that went viral. Um, and I'm gonna I I can't bring up the tweet. I'm gonna actually find this tweet. I think it's quite interesting. I'm going to I'm going to tell you this tweet. I'm going to play a clip from Donald Trump Jr. and also um Mashado who talks about the oil industry which I think is very which is very interesting. But basically they said um you know there was a tweet here that says the oil companies were informed about an act of war before it happened. Congress was not. That my friends is what an authoritarian regime run by oligarchs looks like. I think the oil is a big play.

Here. Javier, I'm gonna play a clip here. It's about 55 seconds long. Let's just listen to it as we talk about the oil. As soon as we go after this clip, I'd like to get your thoughts on the oil industry specifically.

"Forget about Saudi Arabia. Forget about the Saudis. I mean, we have more oil. I mean, infinite potential. And we're going to open markets. We're going to kick off the government from the oil sector. We are going to privatize all our industry. Venezuela has huge resources, oil, gas, minerals, land, technology, and as you said before, we have a strategic location, you know, ours from the United States. So, we're going to do this right. We know what we have to do. And American companies are in, you know, super strategic position to invest. This country, Venezuela, is going to be the brightest opportunity for investment of American companies of good people that are going to make a lot of money."

All right. Um, there, there we have it. The Nobel Prize winner Machado, um, you know, talking about how, you know, how rich the reserves are. Obviously, a tremendous amount of oil there in Venezuela. And I think that the whole, the whole play here would be, you know, and this is exactly what Marco Rubio said, is that we don't want to have countries like Russia and China getting access to this oil because it is in the Western Hemisphere. And again, it goes down to my theory that really I believe that Donald Trump is wanting the sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere. He wants everything in the Western Hemisphere to run through the United States, and he definitely doesn't want to have China or Russia having access to that. And so I think there's a big play with that. I, we, we haven't even talked about Greenland yet, which he, which I absolutely think that Trump is going to make a move on. And if you don't believe it, um, I, I definitely think that Trump is going to make a move on on Greenland very, very soon. Uh, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but, you know, what is, what are your thoughts on this? You know, talk, let's go from the legal perspective and and just, you know, just your thoughts on the oil industry, what Machado said in this clip, and and what the future of this is.

Well, listen, like everything within the legal sphere, and especially in the international legal sphere, it's always complicated. It's not black and white. So, first of all, yes, she's correct in saying Venezuela has tremendous oil reserves. They're humongous. Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia, than Qatar, than the UAE. Uh, I mean, name any country in the world, Venezuela has more oil. In addition to that, Venezuela is also the jackpot in terms of natural resources with tremendous reserves of gold and diamonds and rare earth minerals that are becoming more important for those AI data centers, natural gas. I think we're third in the world. So definitely Venezuela is a huge win for anyone who is natural resource hungry, right? That is very, very important to take into consideration.

Now, the Venezuelan oil industry has unfortunately been in a sharp decline, uh, throughout essentially my lifetime. So, uh, in the early 2000s, uh, you know, we had a decent oil production, so to speak. Uh, in 1999, when, uh, we rewrote the constitution under Chavez, just after the 1998 election, if memory serves, we had about 3 million, something barrels per day being produced in Venezuela, maybe 3.5 if memory serves. Uh, at one point, that dropped to 300,000 barrels per day under Maduro, and it's been slowly going up, uh, you know, in recent years. And I believe we recently hit a mark of about a million, slightly under a million.

Now, the Venezuelan oil industry, uh, you know, if you want to analyze it, it's very complex. You know, you've got American oil companies that were historically there and that largely left Venezuela after the 2007 oil reforms by, uh, President Chavez. Uh, some of them had their assets nationalized and confiscated and and taken. Uh, others simply decided to pack up and leave. It depends on a, on a case-by-case basis. That generated a lot, a lot of issues. And then during the 2010s, you essentially had a progressive introduction of US sanctions that have severely limited Venezuela's possibility to essentially rebuild its oil industry. So, it's kind of like a, a chicken and egg type situation. Yes, the sanctions make it very difficult for Venezuela to actually rebuild its oil industry and to get oil production back up, but at the same time, those sanctions were in a way, uh, direct, in, in direct response to Venezuelan's treat, Venezuela's treatment of foreign investors in the past, and also Venezuela's treatment of, you know, protesters and political, uh, uh, opposition, etcetera, within the country, which also justified a series of economic sanctions, first under Obama, and then obviously much more sharply under the Trump administration, both during the first term and during the second term. Uh, and, uh, only briefly under, uh, President Biden's presidency did we see a slight relaxation of certain sanctions that allowed, uh, actually Chevron to retake certain projects in Venezuela as the last, uh, remaining American oil giant, uh, in, uh, in Venezuela.

So, definitely a very interesting, uh, you know, geopolitical situation down there with the oil interest. Uh, Russia and China being predominantly present. China, under Chavez, I believe, becoming the largest buyer of Venezuelan crude. The Russians are obviously present on the ground there as well. So, I mean, it is obviously a very complex situation. And in addition to that, not, not only is there an abundant reserve of oil, but there is also extra heavy crude, which is precisely what many American, um, refineries, excuse me, uh, that are built all along the Gulf Coast and Texas and Louisiana, etcetera, are actually built to process. So, you know, American oil production is at all-time highs, but my understanding is, in the United States, you're mainly producing light crude. And a lot of these refineries that have been built, and you can't just build refineries, you know, from, in 24 hours, a lot of these refineries are actually ideally built to import, receive, and refine, uh, heavy crude. So, I believe that all of this actually ties in beautifully, uh, into a strategy whereby if you control this oil, then yes, ultimately, you know, you can feed it back to the American economy. And tying it back to what Donald Trump has just done, I mean, you look at his speech right after, uh, the US military action. I think he mentioned oil and wealth and American oil companies much more than he did democracy or nation building or transition or anything like that. And in fact, uh, currently, the Maduro vice president, Deli Rodriguez, who has now been sworn in as the acting president of Venezuela, she's still in command. So the Maduro government apparatus is still in control of Venezuela. And what the American government has done is essentially play their cards to pressure them into negotiating the entry of American oil companies. So it appears that they're very honest about oil and rare earth minerals being the main objective and, uh, and they've been very clear on that.

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I, I think, well, I think there's no doubt about this, that it certainly benefits the United States. I mean, I think there's, there's a huge advantage for, like you said, I mean, I mean, you know, we, we can put two and two together, right? We have the refineries in the United States that could specifically, you know, you know, process this, this very heavy crude from Venezuela. But my, my concern here is, is that, you know, Javier, I want to get your thoughts on this. Is that, you know, are the Venezuelan people going to benefit from this? I mean, are they going to actually, you know, benefit from this, or is it just going to be more Americans? I mean, yeah, it works. You said it works beautifully. I think it does work beautifully for the United States, but I'm, I'm more worried for the people of Venezuela because, you know, I, I, what I'm, I'm, you know, I'm very outspoken on geopolitics. I, I take a very, you know, bold stance on on times. I mean, I am not, I'm definitely not for United States regime change, mainly from the fact that I don't think there's a single case study that we can examine where the, you know, the, the situation has actually improved, you know, for the people. Now, again, this is not me saying that, you know, um, you know, Maduro is an excellent leader and that he should be the, you know, he's the best thing to ever happen to Venezuela. I don't actually know enough about Venezuela to take that stance. But I do know that, you know, if we look at, you know, many of the conflicts in the Middle East, you know, you know, you look at, you know, I mean, again, you know, we go to Libya, we go to Afghanistan, we go to these other countries. I mean, I don't believe that the United, you know, what was better before or after the United States was intervening in their country and replacing their leaders, and you know, there's always this thing of a message of democracy and liberty and freedom. You know, these are, these are, you know, very loose terms that are thrown out there. You know, but I think, you know, we have a big issue in the United States where I feel that, you know, I don't feel that democracy is doing very well in this country. I don't feel that a lot of people have feel a lot of liberty here. Um, I certainly don't feel like a lot of people don't have a lot of freedom here, you know, because of kind of the regime that is in power right now. And, you know, again, these guards that are being absolutely destroyed because of our constitution and the and simply the Trump, you know, Trump.

You know, an interesting one here, and I, and if we have any Europeans that are in the chat, you know, this would be my message to the Europeans, and this is a very interesting one, is, you know, we saw a clip from, um, Ted Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz, from Canada, from actually was born in Canada, but he's actually from, he's actually from Texas. Uh, but,

>> He had Canadian citizenship, I believe, right?

>> He did. Yeah, he had to renounce, you know, in order to become a senator. Uh, because I don't think you're going to be able to win an election in Texas, uh, you know, if you're holding a Canadian passport. But yeah, he did renounce. He was born, I think he was born in Alberta, uh, which is funny enough called the, the Texas of Canada. You know, that's a big oil. Speaking of oil, that's where all the Canadian oil is, is in Alberta. But I believe, but Ted Cruz said something very interesting. He said, "Hey, you know, I, you know, Denmark, we've had a great relationship with you, but I want to have a conversation." And they said, "Well, um, we can have a conversation, but just so you know, Greenland's not for sale." And he said, "Well, everything's for sale, you know, and and guess what, you know, either you sell now or you, or you might not get anything for it, and we might just take it from you, you know." And so it's kind of like, I, I just really cannot stand that part of the United States. I just cannot stand that American arrogance. I think that that is just a really big stain on our country. I, I find it quite embarrassing as a United States citizen that we have our politicians would speak like that. But I do think that a precedent has been set because right now we have all the European nations, might minus Spain. Spain has been the one country that has been vocal about, you know, what we've talked about today, which is the international law, due process, exactly what this world needs to have these guardrails in place. But, you know, we have countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, who have basically just stood by and been like, I don't know, like, uh, you know, basically, we'll kind of let Trump do whatever he wants to do. So, I definitely think that, you know, kind of going to my theory of of these, um, spheres of influence, and I think Greenland fits very much into Donald Trump's sphere. I think he's going to take it. I think he's going to make a move on it. And I think it's going to be a very interesting thing because if we look at that situation, how there, you know, we're looking at, uh, you know, Greenland is a member of NATO. It's owned by Denmark, and it is, it is, uh, it is actually, you know, it would be a NATO ally attacking a NATO ally, which would just be unprecedented, and I think it could destroy the entire NATO organization as well.

Correct. Yeah. No, definitely very interesting. Now, your original question was, you know, how do I view, you know, basically the transition, pre-US interventions, all of that. Listen, I am usually a guy who champions sovereignty of nations. I believe each nation has to resolve its own issues, and I believe that usually foreign intervention is not something that should generally be seen as positive unless it is, uh, definitely coordinated in a legitimate and in a very organized manner. So, in general, I would say that there is always good things and bad things, but I am more inclined to say that generally, like brute force interventions do not yield as many positive things for the local population. I think overall, if you're going to see major investment into, in this case, the Venezuelan oil industry, I think you're rapidly going to see macroeconomic data perform well. You're going to see an increase in GDP. You're going to see an increase in economic activity, and that generally overall will benefit the population. However, what we usually see time and time again is that it disproportionately benefits the elites, at least at first, and then it usually trickles down to the rest of the population more slowly. I mean, I, I, for example, was definitely on the ground and living full-time in Venezuela when Chevron was allowed, uh, to, uh, prop up part of its operations in Venezuela. And I did see a, you know, a general economic, um, progress during that time, even for average Venezuelans, but it definitely was more slow, more, it definitely was more, it was slower for average Venezuelans than it was for the actual elite that is closer to that, uh, source of money. So, generally speaking, I would say yes, self-determination is something important. The sovereignty of nations is something important, and I believe that as Venezuelans, we have to do what is best for our country. Now, at the same time, we have to acknowledge that many Venezuelans have been grieving for a very long time and have been asking the international community to take action. And unfortunately, the current international system we have is just not designed for nation building or supporting democracy necessarily. We have a system that is generally built, uh, to favor stability and to prevent nation on nation and state versus state conflicts. So, should this be a wake-up call for the international community to maybe update the international order or international laws to include some kind of mechanism other than the ones we have now to deal with situations like the one we have in, in Venezuela, maybe? But that's an entirely separate debate.

Yeah. Um, absolutely. Yeah. So Javier, I mean, we're kind of coming to, you know, kind of an hour, the hour segment on our stream. I think we've had a, you know, fantastic discussion. Um, you know, I'm, I'm still very worried about, you know, the legal ramifications and what, and kind of what Trump has done. And I'm, I'm also worried because, you know, he has a couple more years left on his presidency, so who knows, you know, what we're going to get into. But I do think that, uh, it opens the door to a lot of other questions that are going to have to be answered. You know, for example, I, I think, you know, I, I kind of mentioned earlier in the stream when I talked specifically about Israel and how, you know, we, the United States, we try to play both sides a lot of times. For example, we'll condemn Russia and say, "Look, Russia, you're not allowed to go into Ukraine," but, you know, we basically give Jo, you know, um, Benjamin Netanyahu the pass to kind of do whatever he wants to do in Palestine. Uh, we know that, you know, tens of thousands of innocent women and children have been slaughtered and, you know, killed, you know, many civilians targeted. Um, I mean, it's been a tragedy over there, but, you know, we kind of see this double standard going on. And I think that you're going to see, you know, a little bit more aggressiveness around the world, you know, from potential other powers. Now, one of the questions that I get a lot is, you know, did this basically give a green light to China? Is China going to walk in and are they going to take Taiwan? Interesting enough, I made a video about that specifically. That's my last uploaded video. So if you check my channel, you can talk about that where I actually bring in another professor, Professor Tangu Chin, who many of you know, very prominent YouTuber. Um, and we talk specifically about that on why I think, um, you know, Taiwan is nowhere close to anything like Venezuela. So I think it's a very big, big can of worms. But I want to kind of give our, let's kind of do some, uh, final thoughts here. So, Javier, I'm going to, I'm going to give you your kind of final thoughts of the situation, and then I'll close this out with my closing comments, and, uh, then we'll kind of, uh, we're, I'm going to end the stream by playing that clip from Republican Thomas Massie one more time, and then we'll let you guys go. But I do want to thank everybody. We had an amazing panel in here today. Javier, you've been awesome to listen to, and also I think it's been great for our chat and for everybody in the chat. You know, I'm going to be getting back into our live streams in 2026. Um, I'm going back home in a couple of days. I'm actually building out a new YouTube studio. You can see I'm on the road. I'm in my hotel room at the moment. But this was so important to get this live stream today. Uh, but I'm looking forward to putting out a weekly show for you guys, a weekly live stream, all things geopolitics, to kind of keep the momentum going. But Javier, kind of wrap everything up on what you think on, on what you've seen, what you think, and where you think the future's going in your, in your closing segment here. Take as long as you like.

Yeah. Well, thank you, Cyrus, so much for this, uh, you know, this, this lovely live stream, truly, and thank you to everyone that has, uh, tuned in. I mean, ultimately, this is about informing people and helping people arrive at their own conclusions and making their own decisions. Uh, I think that we are really in changing times. You know, honestly, the international world order is changing. I think things like what the US did recently with Venezuela and taking a sitting Venezuelan leader into custody, uh, that is really something that, uh, should make us think, should make us review the international world order and the international system as it exists today, and see potentially how it can be improved. And from the business perspective, as people who trade internationally, who invest internationally, understanding the world order is also key to keeping our wealth protected, our assets safe, and ultimately anticipating what we can do to stay safe individually. Because unfortunately, the reality is that people like you and me, people like most of our viewers, we're not really going to be able to influence, uh, in a great deal, what happens at this very high level of international order. All we can do is prepare, be ready, and, uh, you know, just adapt to the changing circumstances. And that's why I invite everyone to do to stay alert and to, uh, to basically anticipate as best they can what is happening in the world so they can prepare and stay safe.

Absolutely. And I think, um, I, you know, what I had a good comment from Raymond here, one of our fans, uh, who said, you know, chatting about it is good because we can crowdsource different points of view. I definitely, um, you know, agree with that. And I do want to give, uh, chat, I want to just, I'm going to put a link to your guys' YouTube channel here in the chat here, guys. So, um, Javier and his business partner have started a really interesting YouTube channel. Um, I put the link down there as well. It's been simultaneously streaming on their channel as well. Um, you know, where you guys can check out. He has some very good, uh, insights. Um, you know, Javier is a lawyer, you know, tax expert, and, you know, very, very, uh, international man. You know, I've always enjoyed our chats. Uh, Javier, and again, as I come to the conclusion of the stream, I want to leave everybody with my final thoughts. Um, I do think the last 48 hours is going to have, uh, some very big consequences for the future of our world. But I'm, I'm actually very worried for the United States because I think that, you know, we are going down a very difficult path moving, moving forward with Donald Trump as president. Um, you know, we see him time and time again, you know, making these very, uh, dangerous moves. I think in the last 48 hours, you know, we have, you know, made an act of war by bombing another sovereign country, taking that leader, and, you know, bringing him to New York to file, you know, to face these charges that I don't really think that you could, that would actually hold up under international law. You know, we've threatened to put troops on the ground in Mexico. We've threatened to have an operation in Colombia. We've threatened to take Greenland. And so we see, you know, a lot of my European friends have messaged me, my phone has been blowing up the last two days. A lot of people messaged me just like, Cyrus, what is actually going on in the United States right now? Like it seems Donald Trump has lost his mind. And I think there's a lot of Americans that are very concerned about this as well. Um, you know, I'm always concerned when we talk about regime change. I would agree with your statement, Javier, that if there is an organic movement for a change in government, that that almost always provides a much more stable outcome. Um, I think that in, we, we can look at the, you know, 70 plus regime change operations that the United States has done around the world from the early 1900s to up until the late 1990s. You know, there's not been a track record of success there. Um, I think that if, um, you know, if you, if you want to make the argument that the United States is a, you know, country that, you know, that honestly is, you know, supports the international rules-based order and that is a model for the world. I don't think you can make that argument. I think the United States is going down a road where we're becoming very isolated on the world stage, and I believe that's why that Donald Trump is making these very drastic moves. You know, we've talked about this in our live streams, Javier, or in our videos before our interviews, rather, but, you know, why is an organization like BRICS, why is this gaining so much momentum? Why is it that last year, in 2025, when we look at international surveys, um, we see a record number, specifically of the youth, most importantly, but even record numbers of countries around the world. There are more countries in the world now that have a more favorable view of China as opposed to the United States. Now, sometimes people will take that and say, "Cyrus, you're being anti-American." I'm not. I'm actually a concerned American because I would like my reputation.

Yeah. >> I just, I just report facts. And I mean, that's that is what our entire YouTube channel has always been based on facts and logic. And so, you know, some people will take a look at that and say, "Yus, that's propaganda." I said, "No, it's actually a Pew Research Center who has gone around the world, interviewed tens of thousands of people in, you know, 40 different countries, and here's the data that we can look at, and here's what it's saying." So again, instead of, you know, writing this off and saying that this is anti-American propaganda, let's look at the data and let's try to figure out why are we going down this road, how can we correct it? Um, you know, I, I do think that there's many positive things in America. I mean, I am a US citizen. You know, I, I do love my country, very frustrated at my government, and I think a lot of people are reaching that point. So, you know, I think today's live stream was important because it gives us a very good time to, you know, to talk about these things. I think dialogue is always good. I think learning different perspectives, and Javier, I love learning from you because, you know, again, you're a Venezuelan, you know, you have a lot of experience, and I want to thank you for that. So everybody, make sure that you check out his YouTube channel. Uh, make sure that we, uh, we're going to continue to do more live streams in the future. Uh, like I said, we're going to be building a more consistent weekly show here on YouTube. That way that you guys have a dedicated time that you guys know that I'm going to be going live, that we can provide you the best insights into geopolitics and, you know, give you the content that you guys enjoyed. So, so Javier, I want to just say thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you for having me, Cyrus. It was an absolute pleasure. Thank you. And thank you to everyone.

Absolutely. Well, guys, I think the best clip here, we're going to end it with this clip that we opened up. This is Thomas Massie. I think his comments here are really spot-on. So, I want to thank you all. I'm going to stay in the chat, chat with everybody for a little bit, and we would look forward to seeing you guys, um, in our next live stream very soon.

Mr. Speaker, James Madison warned us that in no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace to the legislature and not the executive. Madison called it the crown jewel of Congress. The framers understood a simple truth. To the extent that war-making power devolves to one person, liberty dissolves. If the president believes military action against Venezuela is justified and needed, he should make the case and Congress should vote before American lives and treasure are spent on regime change in South America. Let's be honest about likely outcomes. Do we truly believe that Nicholas Maduro will be replaced by a modern-day George Washington? How did that work out in Cuba, Libya, Iraq, or Syria? Previous presidents told us to go to war over WMDs, weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. Now, it's the same playbook, except we're told that drugs are the WMDs. If it were about drugs, we'd bomb Mexico or China or Colombia, and the president would not have pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez. This is about oil and regime change. And when it comes to regime change, we've already been down this road with Venezuela with nothing to show for it. In 2019, we recognized Juan Guaidó. We seized their embassy here in DC. We were told that regime change was imminent. Years later, Maduro remains in power. Today, we're told to place our hopes in other exiled figures, Edmundo González and María Karina Machado. I wish them well. I do. But Congress should not express moral sympathy in the form of a blank check for military escalation and American lives. And let's take a moment to acknowledge the contradiction at the heart of this policy. This administration tells us that the Maduro regime is made up of narcos, and by escalating toward war, we would predictably create countless refugees. At the same time, this administration has moved to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and deports them back to the very regime it condemns. So, which is it? Are we prepared to receive swarms of the 25 million Venezuelans who will likely become refugees and billions in American treasure that will be used to destroy and inevitably rebuild that nation? Do we want a miniature Afghanistan in the Western Hemisphere? If that cost is acceptable to this Congress, then we should vote on it as a voice of the people and in accordance with our Constitution. And yet today, here we aren't even voting on whether to declare war or authorize the use of military force. All we're voting on is a war powers resolution that strengthens the fabric of our republic by reasserting the plain and simple language in the Constitution that Congress must decide questions of war. I urge support for this resolution and I yield.