Verdict with Ted Cruz
Inside the Room with the Heroic Soldiers Wounded in the Maduro Raid & with Venezuelan Opposition Leader Maria Corina Machado
16 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome, it is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. It's nice to have you with us, especially if you're listening on the radio around the country. And a reminder, this show we also do as a podcast three days a week, so make sure for free you download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast.
Senators, we've got a big show for people today, including a really special day for you. You got to spend with some amazing heroes who are recovering in the hospital after they went in in an incredible raid in Venezuela.
Well, Ben, we're living in incredibly consequential times. The entire world is changing before our eyes. I started this week by having the chance to visit the three soldiers who were wounded arresting Maduro. And I got a chance to visit with each of them. I'm going to share to you exactly what they had to say.
From there, I also this week sat down with Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader in Venezuela. She came to Washington. She met with President Trump at the White House. She met with me and several other senators. I'm going to bring you inside that meeting, tell you what she had to say.
Beyond that, I joined Secretary Pete Hegseth going to the F-35 plant in Fort Worth, Texas, an incredible support of our military leaders. strength. And then from there, we both went down to Brownsville, Texas, to SpaceX, to Starbase with Elon Musk and tour the facilities there. We're going to bring you inside all of that on today's verdict.
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Chapter 2: What happened during the Maduro raid and how were U.S. soldiers involved?
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All right, Senator. So let's get back to this just incredible meeting. The heroes and the bravery, especially the stories that we've been told going in after Maduro. And look, the guy lived on a military base. He had these fighters that were supposed to be protecting him from Cuba.
seeing that what we had compared to what they had on the ground and the way that we came out without losing a single American life is just unbelievable. There were those soldiers, however, that were injured and shot. And you got to meet them as they're recovering in the hospital in San Antonio. Talk about this, their story. What did they have to say? What was their perspective?
So we had three of our soldiers who were wounded during the raid, and they're all at the hospital in San Antonio. They're being treated.
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Chapter 3: Who is Maria Corina Machado and what is her significance in Venezuelan politics?
The good news is that they're all in good condition. None are in life-threatening condition now. They were in good spirits. We had the opportunity to visit with each of the three of them, with each of their wives as well. They were there with their wives. And I will tell you that the first one we met with was a soldier who was in charge of helping plan the entire raid.
He was leading one of the helicopters, and he had been shot in the leg. And he continued, even in the midst of being shot in the leg, continued. He did not step back from the fight, and he was critical in terms of his location, making sure, protecting his fellow soldiers. You know, I got to tell you, he was... He was in great spirits. His wife was incredibly proud of him.
And with all three of the soldiers, I took an opportunity to tell them, I said, look, you were part of history. You were part of history in a way, without exaggeration, that changed the entire Western Hemisphere. What you did was profoundly important. And I also told them, I took the chance to on behalf of Texans and Americans, just to say thank you. Thank you for your bravery.
Thank you for your heroism. They went into a situation where they were vastly outnumbered, and the Cuban military that were guarding Maduro opened fire. And it is amazing. It is an incredible testament to the precision and effectiveness of our military that not a single soldier on the American side was killed.
There was a very large number of Cuban forces defending Maduro who were killed in that firefight. And just taking the chance to thank them, and then the first soldier who'd been shot in the leg, I was there with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, and Pete said, you know, if there's anything you need, let me know. And he said, well, actually, there is something you could do.
And Pete said, what? And he said, I'd really like the bullet. the bullet that went into his leg, and the hospital had it, and the medical director at the hospital, he said, well, we have the bullet, but we're not allowed to give it over unless we give a waiver. And Pete, to his credit, said the waiver is granted. You can have the bullet. And that soldier was beaming.
He was thrilled to have the bullet. And actually, the second soldier we met, he had been shot, but he'd also been cut by a piece of shrapnel. He had a cut that ran the whole length of his arm. Oh, wow. And he had the exact same request. He said, I'd really like the shrapnel. So they had the piece of metal that had cut his arm open. And again, the hospital said, we have it.
But we're not allowed to give it to him without the waiver. And again, Pete said, we're granting the waiver. You can have it. So both of those, I assume that they're going to frame it or otherwise keep it as just a memento to the injury, the Purple Heart that they earned fighting for their country, but also being a part of profoundly impacting history.
You mentioned their wives were there, and I don't know if you can tell us, but age range, 20s, 30s, 40s, like how old are these guys?
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Chapter 4: What was the morale and recovery status of the wounded soldiers?
And it sounds like it was by person. You mentioned a Democrat that was in that room. Does everybody get an invite or only certain people? How does that work?
So, no, it was a smaller subset. And typically what happens when you have heads of state come to Washington, they will often reach out to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And I sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And so often we will have, regularly we'll have like afternoon coffees or lunches with heads of state when they come to town.
And in the Capitol, there's an office where the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets. There's a a hearing room with this big ornate table that they'll set up and they usually put, you have some coffee and some pieces of cheese and crackers and like a little bit of fruit. The good stuff. Yeah, you know, but look, it's an opportunity to visit with world leaders.
In this instance, it wasn't the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It ended up being, we met in the office of Dick Durbin, who is the number two Democrat. He was the one hosting it. And initially, I think Durbin was making the invites. And then this is actually something Marina Carino Machado did that I think was very wise also. She invited a number of people.
So the reason I was there is because she invited me. Very cool.
Wait, you're saying Durbin, you didn't make the cut on Durbin's group chat? You're not in that group chat with him? No.
So, look, I suspect that there were some Democrats that wanted to have a meeting of just Democrats and her. Yeah. And I think that would have been really unfortunate if that had happened, because I think the Democrats would have wanted to use it to attack Trump. And I think she realized that that would not further the people of Venezuela. That would not be good for anyone.
And so she reached out, and we had four Republicans who were there. So I was there. Rick Scott from Florida was there. Bernie Moreno from Ohio was there. And then John Curtis from Utah was there. So that was the four Republicans who were in the room. And then there were about seven, eight, nine Democrats that were there. So it was a larger group of Democrats.
And they were all posing for the cameras. And look, I think Rick Scott had obvious reason to be there. There's a big, big Venezuelan population in Florida. Rick Scott has a lot of support from the Venezuelan population in Florida. So it made sense for him to be there. Bernie, his family's from Colombia, and so Bernie and I are the two Hispanic Republicans that are in the Senate. Yeah.
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