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In the days after Nicolás Maduro was abducted by US special forces, hundreds of journalists from as far away as Japan flocked to Colombia’s border with Venezuela hoping to witness the fallout from one of the most dramatic moments in South America’s recent history. None were granted visas to enter. Those who tried to do so anyway were detained and thrown out.
But last weekend a team of reporters was finally allowed to visit Caracas.
Not the award-winning correspondents from outlets like CNN, Sky News and the BBC, who were among those left waiting at the border in January, but reporters from Newsmax, a conservative network owned by Donald Trump’s billionaire friend Chris Ruddy.
“We are here in the shadow of the great monument to Simón Bolívar, the great liberator … of Latin America. And … now we have a new great liberator, Donald Trump,” Ruddy told his channel’s correspondent as he stood in Caracas’s historic Plaza Bolívar celebrating the US president’s “almost miraculous” overthrowing of Maduro.
“Just one military strike: boom! It was done,” the Mar-a-Lago-frequenting media mogul enthused, claiming Venezuelans all across the country were “really excited about what Trump is doing”.
On Saturday, the anchor for the Florida-based broadcaster, Rob Schmitt, was even granted an “exclusive” audience with one of Venezuela’s most powerful men, the president of the national assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, who is also the brother of the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.
“In the last 36 days, we have had a very good understanding and relationship working with the government of the United States,” Jorge Rodríguez said in what is thought to be the first such interview since Maduro’s capture.
Rodríguez called for a “win-win relationship” and touted some of the world’s biggest reserves of oil, gold and natural gas. “As President Donald Trump has mentioned recently, there’s a lot to be done,” he added, switching to English when asked how Venezuela’s people felt about the arrival of capitalist oil giants. “They are OK,” he said.
Venezuela’s decision to open the doors to the conservative network, an upstart rival to Fox News, highlighted the once-unthinkable alignment of interests between the remnants of Maduro’s supposedly “anti-imperialist” regime and their ideological opposites in the White House.
For years those sides have been at loggerheads, as Trump worked to topple the socialist “thug” Maduro and Maduro berated Trump as an insane imperialist “gangster”.
Now, for different reasons, both countries appear keen to project an image of post-Maduro stability and good cheer.
“It is kind of tragicomic. But it is revealing,” political scientist Michael Paarlberg said of the peculiar political marriage of convenience that lay behind the Newsmax trip to Caracas.
From the perspective of Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, both close Maduro allies, the network’s visit was an opportunity to signal to Trump that they are reliable partners who should be allowed to remain in power without the need for a messy transition towards democracy.
“[Trump] wants to keep the oil flowing and that’s something the Rodríguez siblings can guarantee – or at least that’s what they promise. And that’s their bid to stay in power,” said Paarlberg, the former Latin America adviser to Bernie Sanders.
From Trump’s point of view, Paarlberg said the Newsmax interview was a chance to send his Maga movement a simple message: “We’re kicking ass!”
“It was a propaganda piece for consumption by Trump’s base,” said Christopher Sabatini, a senior research fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, who believed the tete-a-tete was designed to convince Trump voters that the Rodríguez siblings would toe the US line.
“[The message about Jorge Rodríguez was]: ‘This is our man. Look how reasonable he is … He’s going to support US capitalism and US jobs and markets. Hey, it’s a win-win,’” Sabatini said.
Sabatini said Rodríguez’s “softball” sit-down with “the most pro-Trump news station in the US” was as inconceivable as imagining the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, giving an exclusive interview to the leftwing magazine Mother Jones – and getting an easy ride.
But the decision to grant the interview made sense, from the perspective of Venezuela’s new leadership, as they sought to convince Trump of their desire to collaborate in order to retain power and avoid a Maduro-esque fate.
Asked by his interviewer what message he had for Trump, “who watches this show quite often”, Rodríguez replied: “Right now, we have a golden opportunity … We have a very bright future ahead of us.”
Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell, seemed to approve and shared a link on X.
On the streets of Caracas, the channel’s reporting followed a script likely to have pleased both governments – but which left opposition activists incensed.
“Venezuelans to Newsmax: Country Calm, Optimistic Since Maduro Capture,” read one headline, so on-message it might have been plucked from the pages of North Korea’s state-run news agency, KCNA, or Xinhua in China.
An unnamed woman told the network’s correspondent: “I’ve noticed there’s a calm within the people. I feel it could be a better future for us and for Venezuela.”
Another local ventured: “I consider there is optimism. The country is very calm right now … You can see it here – harmony. Nobody fighting.”
Sabatini believed the US network had been handpicked because Venezuelan officials were aware of “Newsmax’s fealty to Donald Trump” and anticipated such “Trumpist propaganda” that would not dwell too long on thorny issues like human rights and democracy.
“Why not invite the BBC?” he asked. “Because the BBC would have asked tough questions.”
