MADURO EMPTIED VENEZUELA'S PRISONS INTO THE U.S.

A Hollywood Insider, a Private Jet, and a Chilling Warning For Cuba's Leadership

Last year, at 49,000 feet above the west coast of North America, I heard first-hand confirmation of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s treachery against the United States.

By mid-2024, Donald Trump had spent years warning that enemies of the United States were emptying their prisons and forcing convicted murderers and rapists to cross illegally into the U.S.

As massive migrant caravans moved north from South America, through Central America and Mexico, and across the U.S. southern border, the mainstream media’s silence was striking. Something was clearly happening. Several colleagues told me tens of thousands of migrants were crossing each month—often with what appeared to be the blessing of U.S. Border Patrol.

Privately, a former high-ranking CIA official told me that millions had crossed illegally. He said it was Biden administration policy, arguing that the influx helped prop up a struggling post-COVID economy.

Today, we know that at least 10 million people crossed the southern U.S. border illegally during Biden’s presidency. And those unprecedented numbers helped fuel Trump’s election win.

In May 2024, I was aboard a private jet, seated across from one of South America’s most powerful entertainment executives—a Hollywood legend with deep personal ties to Venezuela. Family members still lived there, and he had recently returned from Caracas.

He told me that Maduro’s military had gone prison to prison across Venezuela. Prisoners were forcibly removed, transported to the Colombian border, and ordered to join migrant caravans heading north. They were warned that if they ever returned to Venezuela, they would be executed.

I was stunned. Could what Trump had been saying actually be true?

The executive insisted it was—and added that Caracas had become safer than almost any major city in the Western Hemisphere. The reason, he said, was simple: the regime had cleared the streets by exporting its criminals.

Yesterday morning, when news broke that Maduro had been abducted by U.S. Special Forces, I immediately thought back to that conversation. By dumping his prison population into the United States, Maduro had crossed a dangerous line.

Whether it was his involvement in drug trafficking, his alliances with China and Russia, or his mismanagement of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, one thing was clear: flooding the U.S. with criminals would not go unanswered.

And yesterday, it wasn’t.

Interestingly, in 1980, Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro sent more than 20,000 criminals to Florida during the Mariel boatlift, unleashing chaos in Miami.

Following Maduro’s capture yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a pointed message to Cuba’s leadership:

“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned… at least a little bit.”