Meanwhile, President Trump says land operations in Venezuela could start fairly soon. This comes following this week's seizure of an oil tanker linked to Venezuelan crude oil. Also tonight, we hear from the man who orchestrated the escape for Venezuela's Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Harris chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.
The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group moved further south into the Caribbean basin, raising questions about whether the US is moving closer toward military action in Venezuela. The ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Mark Warner, was asked at the Defense Writers Group if the US is going to war with Venezuela. Senator Warner, a member of the Gang of Eight, said, 'I don't know.' Meanwhile, EA-18 Growlers, electronic warfare jets, have been deployed to Puerto Rico. They can jam enemy radar and help take out surface-to-air missile sites. Air Force HH-60 search and rescue helicopters have deployed to the Caribbean from Japan along with 12 Navy warships.
Is the campaign against Venezuela still just about drugs or is it now also about oil?
It has to do with a lot of things. It's going to be starting on land pretty soon.
Today, more details about the dramatic evacuation of the leading Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Karina Machado, who has been in hiding in Venezuela and is seen here on the balcony of her hotel in Oslo, where she received the Nobel Peace Prize. Brian Stern, whose Greybull Rescue Foundation carried out the dangerous extraction, spoke to Fox News.
So, boat one pulls up next to boat two. I reach in to boat one and I pull Maria out and I put her on boat one and I say, 'Hi, Maria. My name is Brian Stern. Nice to meet you.' And she says, 'Hi, my name is Maria. Good to meet you.'
Nearly lost at sea for three hours in 10-foot waves after her GPS fell overboard and communications went silent. Maria Machado's extraction is the stuff of movies. It was carried out by a group of former military veterans without the direct knowledge of the US government. If the mission had failed, many fear it could have jeopardized a larger plan by the US government to replace Nicolas Maduro.
Incredible firsthand account, too. Jen, thank you.
The Venezuelan opposition leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize has appeared in public for the first time in 11 months. Maria Corina Machado emerged on a hotel balcony in Norway's capital just hours after her daughter accepted the award. Senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot shows us tonight.
Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Karina Machado in Oslo, Norway early this morning. Her first public appearance after nearly a year in hiding. Her daughter filled in as she just missed accepting the Nobel Peace Prize for mounting the most serious challenge to the authoritarian regime of disputed President Nicolas Maduro after a daring three-day escape from her homeland where Maduro has threatened her arrest. According to the Wall Street Journal, with help from the US, sneaking through military checkpoints, riding a small boat to a nearby island. US fighter jets circling overhead, an extraction specialist meeting her there, and then via Bangor, Maine onto Oslo aboard a private plane. I believe that the risk, even though it was very high, it was worthwhile.
This is the Trump administration ratcheting up pressure on a regime widely seen as misusing its energy resources, facilitating drug trafficking, oppressing its people. Credit given by the Nobel laureate.
I believe that President Trump's actions have been decisive to reach the point where we are right now in which the regime is weaker than ever.
After early wins, Machado was barred from running against Maduro in elections last year. Still, she led a challenge that by all accounts defeated the dictator who nixed results in a brutal crackdown. He now sings a defiant tune to Machado and American allies.
To American citizens who are against the war, I respond with a very famous song. Don't worry, be happy.
Banned from returning to Venezuela, some Machado supporters are concerned she could be sidelined. Others say the Venezuelan saga will only pick up pace.
I think it's an important shift in what has been a really static situation on the ground for too long in Venezuela.
Machado says she'll rest for a few days and then resume her fight for change, including a visit to Washington. She'll be welcomed. Brett, Greg, thank you. Venezuela condemning the US after American forces seized an oil tanker Wednesday, saying the country 'vigorously denounces what constitutes a blatant robbery and an act of international piracy.' Meanwhile, the White House has not ruled out taking more oil tankers.
Was this a one-off or is it safe to say the administration is taking a more active look at the oil industry in Venezuela, whether targeting other oil ships or perhaps Venezuelan oil production facilities in Venezuela?
Well, I won't broadcast any future actions from the administration, but I will just reiterate that the Trump administration is executing on the president's sanctioned policies and the sanctioned policies of the United States. And we're not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narco-terrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world.
All right, so Fox News senior strategic analyst Jack Keane joins us now. General, welcome back. Your thoughts about this next move, tightening the screws on Maduro. That oil cost him $80 million. It's now in our possession. Is that a good strategy? Stop the oil from leaving and coming.
Yeah, absolutely. And obviously what we got to do is continue this. There certainly is a legal basis for this as pointed out just prior to the interview. And the reason is this is a sanctioned ship, the skipper, and it's been involved in black market distribution of oil out of Iran and now out of Venezuela. So we have a basis to get it, and I think we should continue to do this and squeeze the regime. I mean, this is fundamentally about changing the regime out. The president's been very clear. He would like not to have to use physical force to do it like two other presidents have done. 1989 Noriega in Panama also was involved in a fraudulent election in narco-trafficking and also a military dictator in Haiti in '94 by Clinton to put back in power a democratically elected president Aristide. We're in a very similar situation here, albeit years later, but the circumstances remain really quite similar and I think the intent is worthy here. Squeeze them financially and the powers around him will likely put more pressure on Maduro to leave, take the exile ticket and free pass that the president's given you because they're going to conclude that it's not worth keeping him here.
General, let's roll in while we speak all the things that President Trump's team has done to put pressure on Maduro. I mean, the sanctions, the 22 attacks, the taking of this tanker, and now they sanction two of his nephews who are looked at as drug traffickers as well. So the thing is, if this guy stays in power, he not only wins, he looks stronger. He stared down America and survived. So this has got to end soon. Now, there's congressional pressure coming at the president. He says land strikes could be next. What would be the targets?
Well, they have plenty of options. I mean, obviously, they can focus on the narco-trafficking targets themselves, where it's manufactured, the storage sites for it, the distribution for it, or they can target government sites as well. So they have a number of options here to deal with. And I think the pressure is going to increase here. The fact that the president has taken these other steps indicates he's trying to avoid the use of force. I think that's pretty clear and yet he still wants the objective of Maduro to get out of there.
Absolutely. The objective is clearly regime change. No question. Let's go over to Ukraine. We understand according to ABC reports that the Ukrainians have handed off a revised 20-point peace plan and it does include giving up some land of course that Russia stole. Your thoughts about where this is heading?
Well, I think there's getting to be some agreement here. I don't believe they're giving up land to Russia, but I do think there's an agreement on how that land will be neutralized and become a DMZ, the disputed land in the Donbas region. And the United States team, I know for a fact, is supporting Ukraine's position on what's acceptable to them. And I think that's the right path to take here. What we don't want to do here is through negotiations leave Ukraine in a more vulnerable position for a Russian attack. And the second part that they're working on very hard is the security guarantees. And so our audience understand these guarantees have got to be firm and comprehensive to deter Russia from an attack. Listen, Russia has not changed their desires here. They want to pocket whatever concessions the United States and Ukraine are willing to make and then at some point that's convenient for them, it is guaranteed they will try to reattack and take the country. That is their objective. And then expand into Eastern Europe. We can never lose sight of where Russia really is on this. So we have to put these security guarantees in place to credibly deter them. What are they? They have to have an air component to it. They have to have a land component with forces on the ground. They have to have a maritime component in the Black Sea, likely commanded and controlled by the United States. The Europeans can't do that. Rebuild the Ukrainian military and help them in their defense industrial base to be able to stand on their own. Put all of that together. That's a comprehensive package and that will have some deterrence to it.
And Ukraine came to the table. I don't see Russia at all, but we'll see if that changes this weekend. General Jack Keane, thanks so much for all the work you do, all the cutting edge information you relay. Appreciate it. Have a fantastic weekend.
Venezuela. Now that we've seized this tanker, is the campaign against Venezuela still just about drugs or is it now also about oil?
Well, it's about a lot of things, but one of the things it's about is the fact that they've allowed millions of people to come into our country from their prisons, from gangs, from drug dealers. Drug traffic by sea is down 92%. And nobody can figure out who the 8% is because I have no idea. Anybody getting involved in that right now is not doing well. And we'll start that on land, too.
All right, that from yesterday at the White House. Now, big story. Venezuela. Here's the recent US actions there. Go back 10 months ago in February. US designates TDA as a foreign terrorist organization. Then in July, the Treasury sanctions another cartel group as global terrorists. Let's come back to this in a moment. From August now, US deploys major military naval assets near Venezuela. And then early September, you got the US strikes on 22 smuggling boats, killing 86 people so far to date. November last month, the USS Gerald Ford, the largest carrier strike group deployed off the coast of Venezuela. Three weeks ago, the US formally designates this cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. We've got more. End of November, Trump issues the warning about Venezuelan airspace. Still watching that. And then this week, the US seizes that oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. Now, we are told that tanker was bound for Iran. It was sailing at sea under a Ghana flag and it's been used many times to take illicit oil overseas. From the State Department, Tommy Pigott with him now. And sir, thank you for your time. Good morning to you.
What's the endgame here? Maduro out. Is that what you see?
Well, the president has been very clear with his concerns when it comes to Venezuela. And as the press secretary outlined, we're seeing two different actions here, two different things. We're seeing a campaign to stop the flood of drugs into this country that are poisoning Americans. A campaign against narco-terrorists to stop the flow of those deadly drugs. You're also seeing a judicial enforcement operation when it comes to that oil, making sure that we are implementing the president's sanction policy, the sanctions policy of the United States, that we're not going to tolerate shadow vessels that violate our sanctions. We're going to enforce our policies here.
Here now is Maduro two days ago made a defiant speech, most of it in Spanish, but this portion was in English. Let's watch and listen.
No more Somalia. No more Iraq. No more Afghanistan. No more Libya. No blood for oil.
