“WORST to Come!” - Venezuelan on Maduro, Narcos & $17 Trillion Oil Conspiracy | D. DiMartino • 370
Julian Dorey · 5 Jan 2026 · 2h 45m
Guest: Daniel DiMartino · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
Recorded the night after a US military operation reportedly captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, this conversation features a Venezuelan-born economist walking through his family's life inside Chavismo and what led to that raid. He traces how price controls, expropriations of farms, factories, and foreign oil companies, and Cuban political and intelligence backing turned an oil-rich democracy into a state defined by hyperinflation, food lines, and a mass exodus he says now outnumbers Ukraine's refugee crisis. He describes the machinery of repression in detail, from torture centers and disappearances to a Cuban officer embedded in every military unit, and lays out how the regime's inner circle allegedly built fortunes through drug trafficking routes running from Colombian guerrillas through Venezuelan territory to Mexican cartels and US markets. The host pushes back on parts of the official rationale for the operation, questioning whether oil interests and precedent-setting regime change concerns are being underplayed, while the guest argues Venezuela's illegitimacy, terrorism sponsorship, and human toll set it apart from other cases. They also debate how a peaceful transition could actually happen, the role of regional governments and possible foreign peacekeeping troops, and take aim at commentators and outlets they accuse of running cover for the regime, including a specific claim about a paid lobbyist appearing on a prominent media figure's show without disclosure.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Debating whether the operation is about drugs
- Guest's family history in Venezuela
- Hyperinflation and cash shortages
- Chavez's rise and business expropriations
- Cuba's long involvement with Chavez and Maduro
- Scale of the Venezuelan refugee crisis
- Drug trafficking ties to guerrillas and cartels
- Torture of political prisoners
- The Delta Force raid and Maduro's capture
- Plans for a peaceful transition of power
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“Venezuela had more inflation in 1 year than America had in 250 years of history.”
“The largest refugee crisis in the planet is Venezuela.”
“I tell people, I should not be in New York City. I should be driving a Lamborghini in Caracas.”
“So, they make people eat their feces.”