Is Putin panicking?

**Jamie Rubin** (0:02)
This is a global production.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:04)
The last 10 years at least, Venezuela has been imploding economically in institutions. Their hospitals are not in any fit state. They haven't recovered since the January abduction of Maduro.

**Jamie Rubin** (0:17)
It brings back the famous phrase, you break it, you own it. Venezuela sits as the place where Trump had his big success, and now what we're seeing is the heart.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:27)
I remember a couple of months ago, Volodymyr Zelensky is saying to me, we will not get America's attention for any peace deals until the Iran war is over. And now Putin is saying the same, Jamie.

**Jamie Rubin** (0:39)
Vladimir Putin doesn't want to admit that he can't win.

**Christiane Amanpour** (0:43)
He acknowledged a certain shortage of fuel. Do you think that shows Putin is pretty worried?
Hello everyone, it is Christiane here with The Ex Files in London.

**Jamie Rubin** (0:59)
And Jamie Rubin in New York.

**Christiane Amanpour** (1:01)
And today we are going to ask two big questions and of course have our recommendations. First we are going to pivot a little bit for the first bit to Latin America because a new far right president has been elected in Colombia, very Trump like, very Maga like and we will get into that. We will talk about whether, you know, Latin America, is it turning Trumpian? And then we will come back to Ukraine, a little bit of Iran. Is Putin panicking a bit because of Ukraine's deep, deep strikes inside Russia, particularly against their oil depots, which clearly finances their war. So let's get started. Jamie, let's start first with the idea of Venezuela because for the last week, everybody has been glued to their cell phones and any platforms they can to see these really heartbreaking pictures and videos coming out of Venezuela. The earthquake, the double earthquake, has actually revealed this country to be incapable of dealing with their own crisis and I don't know what you think, but it is a vassal state of the United States since they took away the leader, imposed their own leader and Trump has said, we're running the place. So what is the US doing and should it be doing anymore?

**Jamie Rubin** (2:17)
Right. Good question.
The Venezuela operation, I think, was an important moment in the Trump administration. It gave the president the feeling that he had at his disposal, a military that could be extremely effective, could get something done very quickly and achieve its objectives with very, in his mind, low cost and at a short time. And that is probably what led him to the mistake in Iran in thinking that there were some similarities. And we've learned very to our regret that there are two very different countries and two very different problems. So Venezuela, he's been working closely with, I mean, to the surprise of many, many of the same people that were working under the previous president, Maduro, who's been taken prisoner are working with the Trump administration, the oil executives going in and out, everything's supposed to be fine. And now these earthquakes hit, and I think it brings back the famous phrase, you break it, you own it. You know, the United States intervened in Venezuela and said that it was going to work closely with it, said it was going to thrive and revive, and the oil industry was going to thrive and revive.
And now we see the disaster of the earthquake. And I have to say that we are doing some things, I don't know all the details, but we're not making it a massive effort. We're not putting the full weight and shoulder of the United States behind this recovery or search and rescue or rebuilding phase, which when it comes to that, we're just doing what I would call the minimum that United States does funding some of the international organizations at a certain level. And that's it, really. You don't see the shift that you might have seen. And that would be a way to demonstrate goodwill after this military operation. And would be a way to show that the United States is a friend and comes in time of need. And there are things the United States can do. And we know that when it puts its mind to it in the humanitarian field. So I'm sorry that we're not doing more.
And I feel that it's a sort of a kind of a microcosm of this short attention span approach to the administration of the administration. Venezuela sits as the place where Trump had his big success. And now what we're seeing is the horror.

**Christiane Amanpour** (4:52)
Yeah, so I had former Secretary of State John Kerry on the program in the aftermath of this for other reasons. But it happened to be in the aftermath. So I asked him, what should the US do? And he said, well, we should and we can do the heavy lifting. I mean, we have these massive, huge planes, right? The galaxies and the big ones that carry all the equipment that's needed. I've seen that happen in different parts of the world. It can happen.