Andrés Martínez-Fernández

And many of those folks have come to the United States and have been cooperating with the DEA,

provision of inside information, which has been very important and helpful.

More recently, we've also seen reports of that fissure and the lack of support within Venezuela.

I think in part, you know, this

whole exercise of support, a public exercise of national defense, which the Venezuelan regime called the other day.

I think that also had a mass mobilization in mind, but it was very

pretty pathetic as far as actual turnout and what the military was able to show as far as strength and really exhibited just the weakness of the regime generally, but the military in particular.

The challenge for the regime and its military is that

It has really, over the past several years, turned primarily into a narco trafficking outfit rather than being a traditional military that is focused on defense of their territory and maintaining their institutions.

It's really just a profit generating and illicit revenue generating entity, which has enriched primarily those at the top of the Venezuelan military.

So, particularly as you go further down, there is quite a bit of upset and discontent within the ranks.

Yeah, I think there's a mountain of evidence that's been accumulated over the years of the regime's direct involvement in narco trafficking.

And again, as I mentioned, a big source of that has been actual regime officials who have defected.

and fled to the United States and elsewhere, sharing information about how the Venezuelan military has become directly involved in the management of narco-trafficking, naming names and identifying as much, even bank account information and other methods for laundering of illicit funds, which primarily

seems to go through these public entities, formerly government institutions, now essentially drug trafficking organizations and entities within Venezuela.

You also have seen within the US when we are able to get our hand or in Europe,

on some of these regime officials who have been arrested, we've been able to, for example, we had the prosecution of Maduro's own nephews for narco trafficking to the United States, which again, revealed the direct links of not only the regime, but Maduro himself

to narco-trafficking.

And again, other officials who we've managed through cooperation with partner nations to arrest and prosecute at different levels, we've been able to identify quite a bit about just how directly involved the regime is in all of this activity.

And all of this has been revealed, again,