Leonardo Rocha
speaker
43 appearances
8 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Apr 2025
Leonardo Rocha’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Well, to the surprise of most people, the Trump administration sent an envoy to Venezuela on the 31st of January, and he reached a deal with the Maduro government. The Venezuelan government accepted to take back deported migrants, and in exchange, Venezuela released six American citizens who had been held in prisons there. The U.S.
said they were innocent and were being held in prisons in Venezuela. And that's apparently the deal. But there must be more. And it's unclear what's behind the deal.
Well, that's interesting. I mean, those who are members of the Tren de Aragua, of this gang, they will be arrested. The concern of many people in Venezuela is that people left the country, some because they were escaping poverty, but others for political reasons. And there are fears that the Venezuelan government... they will have a list of people they want back.
So if there are people who are wanted for any political dissent or being linked to the opposition in the past, that they might be arrested as political prisoners in Venezuela. So that's very worrying. Others who are economic migrants who have nothing, they'll just be released and go back to normal.
He published a note on social media saying exactly that, that migration is not a crime and that Colombian nationals should have been returned on civilian planes and he wouldn't accept them otherwise. So those two flights, apparently one of them took off and had to return shortly after and the other didn't even take off from the United States.
But one thing that needs to be said here is it's nothing really new. What's new here is the use of military planes. That's new from the United States. But last year, under the Biden administration, there's a record number of people deported from the U.S. 271,000 people were deported, and Colombia came as number five on that list, most of them to Latin America.
It's just the way that's being done and the perception that there's more to come that is creating these problems here.
Soon after President Petro said that he wouldn't take these migrants back, President Trump announced sanctions against Colombia, very stiff sanctions. He said he will impose emergency tariffs of 25% on all Colombian imports for the first week, will go up to 50% the second week. Also travel ban on government officials and their families.
visa sanctions as well, and the American consulate in Colombia will stop dealing with visas for Monday. So it's a very strong response. And in President Trump's statement, he called Mr. Petro a socialist and unpopular leader.
That's something recent. These gangs, they evolve all the time. They have new symbols to identify them. These gestures were developed in prison when prisoners, they had to communicate from a distance using silent language and they developed that. The gesture itself was an offensive in Brazil. The older generation was associated with the Second World War and victory in Churchill.
Others with peace and love, the hippie generation. But many people are unaware of that, like those people who were killed. The V, of course, stands for the CV. And the other main gang that operates in Brazil, the PCC that came from Sao Paulo, They have a variation of three-finger gestures to symbolise the three letters, the PCC, the three letters.
It's all a bit silly, but it's extremely dangerous.
Yes, these gangs created in the 80s and the 90s, they're not gangs anymore. They're major, big criminal organisations. They have a lot of impact on politics. The PCC is deeply involved in illegal mining in indigenous lands in the Amazon. They're very powerful. And what they have done now, going beyond the idea of just selling drugs, is they control territory a bit like mafia style.
And they charge people who live in the area protection money. They force people to buy, for example, gas canisters or water or beer from them. And that's why it's so important for them to have the territory. And when people show the wrong gestures at the wrong place, that's seen as a sign of disrespect.
Well, what I found interesting is that the reaction has been quite muted. I don't know if it's out of fear. People are really terrified of those gangs or because violence has become normalized in the country. People who are from there, they know those symbols. They know, for example, that the red colour is associated with the red command, the CV. The black colour is associated with the police.
And actually, the club was informed of these implications of this hand gesture by the fans who posted messages online. Otherwise, they wouldn't have known about that. But I think it's a sign of how deep the situation, how serious the violence is in Brazil.
Global News Podcast · Police suspend efforts to arrest impeached South Korean president · 3 Jan 2025
podcast
We have the inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro. He's going to be inaugurated into a third term next Friday in a week's time. And I think it's a message for the opposition candidate telling him, don't try to come back. If you do, we're going to arrest you. I'm saying that because Edmundo Gonzalez said a few weeks ago, a couple of months ago, that he was planning to go back to Caracas.
It took everyone by surprise. for the inauguration ceremony, but not for Maduro's inauguration ceremony. He was going to come back to claim the presidency. What the Venezuelan opposition say is that they won the election by a wide margin. They have provided what seems to be clear evidence of that.
It was accepted by many countries, including countries in the European Union, the United States, proving that they won the election. Nicolas Maduro was declared a winner by a government-appointed election commission, but he never published the breakdown of the vote, and many countries refused to accept.
One of the main allies of President Maduro in South America, President Lula of Brazil, for example— sort of broke off with him. So he's not going to attend the ceremony in Venezuela next week. He's going to send his ambassador. Other countries that are very loyal to him will be there, like Cuba, Nicaragua, which is of the hardcore of the left in Latin America.
Showing 21–40 of 43 · page 2 of 3
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