Episode 27 - Phil Stewart
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Interrupted by Matt Jones on NewsRadio 840 WHAS. Now, here's Matt Jones. Welcome to episode 27 of Interrupted by Matt Jones. We, of course, if you've been following the news, there have been a ton of... you know, national and international news stories. And one of the things we try to do on here is bring people on who know a lot more about it than I do. And so Phil Stewart is a national security reporter for Reuters. He has covered 60 plus countries over the years and is covering the situation in Venezuela now with the capture of Maduro by the United States military slash Justice Department. And Phil, I appreciate you doing this. Nice to meet you through this. We've never talked before, but I followed your work on social media and I appreciate you taking the time.
Well, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
All right, I'm gonna assume most people know what has happened, but let's take a step back, Phil, for people. Maduro kind of comes on the radar probably for the average American during this, but let's go back to him seizing power, taking over from Hugo Chavez. What are some of the reasons why America would have felt the need to go in? And give us a little background on Maduro as the leader of Venezuela.
Well, he had been a very controversial leader for some time. I was on a trip to South America with the last chairman of the Joint Chiefs, not the one that's there now. And during that trip, the head of Southern Command had actually called him a dictator back then in Chile, which had a very left-leaning government, and he was seen as a dictator there too. And so Maduro had been quite controversial there. even among the left in Latin America because of the fact that his last election victory was widely condemned by international organizations as being fraudulent. And so although there's a lot of questions about the legality of the operation, there aren't so many questions really about how the international community viewed Maduro.
Pretty much everyone suggests this was a dude who was maybe illegitimately elected, but certainly had committed a lot of, I don't want to use, maybe atrocities. What is he accused of doing outside of this drug issue that America said? Just as a leader, you always hear this is an awful person. What are some of the things he's accused of doing?
Well, I mean, let's say for starters that he does have a lot of supporters inside Venezuela. And you've seen some of them rallying in recent days to call for his return to Venezuela. But at the same time, the fact that there have been no celebrations inside Venezuela by the many, many, many people who don't support him, is a sign of the kind of environment that exists in Venezuela, where there isn't freedom of expression, where people have fear of voicing political views that are contrarian to the government in power. And for a A state that calls itself a democracy is quite an indictment that there have been no public acts of celebration. Actually, yesterday I was watching regional television, television in Colombia.
I used to be based in Colombia, so I'm watching one of the TV channels I used to watch when I was there. And they were talking about people who were being arrested for posting anti-Maduro material on social media after his capture. So people posted things on social media and they were arrested. And they were rounded up and arrested. So, you know, it is an intense climate. There are political prisoners. One of them has just been freed today. So there is a lot there, but it's not, you know, an open democratic state that –
Is he accused of committing atrocities against his people? I've seen that thrown around, but I've never really known what that was.
Yeah, let me just finish myself. It's an open democratic state in the view of international organizations. I'm not going to sit here and talk about my views on his actions, but there are a lot of human rights groups that have criticized his activity inside Venezuela. And and international organizations that, again, say that his election was was he did not win the last election.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–6:09
2
What background information is necessary to understand Maduro's leadership?
6:09–13:01
3
What accusations are made against Maduro regarding his actions in Venezuela?
13:01–28:50
4
How did the U.S. plan the operation to capture Maduro?
28:50–44:07
5
What details are known about the operation that led to Maduro's capture?
44:07–54:43