Nicolás Maduro Guerra, known as "Nicolasito," referred this Sunday to the words his father spoke the day before his detention to argue that the former Venezuelan leader would have supported the oil agreement between Venezuela and the U.S. announced by Trump on August 28.
The deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly posted on Instagram a clip from the interview that Nicolás Maduro granted to journalist Ignacio Ramonet on December 31, 2025, recorded just hours before U.S. forces detained him in Caracas during Operation "Absolute Resolution."
The interview that preceded the capture
That conversation, as Ramonet recounted in Le Monde Diplomatique Chile, took place in an unprecedented format: what he referred to as a “podcar”, that is, a podcast recorded while Maduro was driving his own vehicle through the streets of Caracas.
He was accompanied by his wife Cilia Flores and the then Minister of Communication Freddy Ñáñez, without any visible security. The recording lasted one hour and four minutes.
In that conversation, Maduro expressed an openness to dialogue with Washington
"Except for military confrontation, everything is possible. We need to start serious conversations, with data in hand. The government of the United States knows this, because we have told many of its spokespersons: if they want to have a serious discussion about an agreement to combat drug trafficking, we are ready," said in the excerpt recovered by Nicolasito.
If you want oil, Venezuela is ready for American investments like those with Chevron. Whenever you want, wherever you want, and however you want. And if you desire comprehensive agreements for economic development, we are also ready here in Venezuela, he added.
In the same session, however, he warned about the limits of that openness:
"The American public must understand that our peoples in the South have the right to exist, to live... That it cannot be about imposing, with the Monroe Doctrine or any doctrine, a new colonial model... a model in which the countries of the South would have to resign ourselves to being a colony of a power and slaves to new masters... That is unfeasible."
Less than 36 hours after that interview was recorded, in the early hours of January 3, 2026, Maduro was captured and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he remains imprisoned alongside Cilia Flores.
Nicolasito as the spokesperson for the pact with Washington
The support from Maduro Guerra for the agreement is striking given his own judicial record: the Southern District Attorney's Office of New York included him in a charge for alleged involvement in drug trafficking in January 2026, and Washington demanded his extradition to Caracas weeks later.
Despite this, the deputy publicly thanked the government that is pursuing his family judicially
"I am deeply grateful to the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, as well as to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and to the U.S. government for their willingness to develop this agreement."
The pact, described by Trump as "the largest oil agreement in world history," includes the development of 17 strategic fields with a potential of 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, an investment exceeding 100 billion dollars, and over 209 billion in taxes for the Venezuelan state.
The acting president Delcy Rodríguez backed him in a televised speech this Saturday, although a U.S. official cited by CBS indicated that the agreement would include a 100-year concession in which the U.S. would control 55% of the joint venture, contradicting the 25 years announced by Rodríguez.
The first photos of Maduro from prison
Alongside the political argument, Maduro Guerra shared this Sunday the first photographs of his father from Brooklyn, dated June 25, 2026, which show him smiling, making the "V" sign for victory in front of a concrete block wall, wearing a gray tracksuit and white Nike sneakers.
The accompanying message had a spiritual tone: “I send these photos as a small gift to all my grandsons and granddaughters, to the boys and girls, and to all the noble people who love us. I want you to know that we are strong, with our hearts filled with your love.”
The trial of Nicolás Maduro in the United States is scheduled for June 1, 2027, according to a ruling issued by Judge Alvin Hellerstein in July of this year.
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