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Although President Donald Trump’s administration has been openly hostile to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for months, there’s no sign Maduro has given up power as a result.
Still, Trump shared a screenshot of an X post Dec. 1 that read, "BREAKING: Venezuelan President (Maduro) publicly surrendered to President Trump!!"
Trump’s post included video of Maduro giving a speech along with the caption, "BREAKING: Venezuelan President just publicly surrendered to President Trump! Maduro has now turned in state evidence against the Biden admin & is releasing proof that Biden asked the Venezuelan government to ship Tren de Aragua dr*g gangs into the US."
Trump’s administration has pressured the Venezuelan government with more than 20 military strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean against what he describes as drug boats from Venezuela and Colombia. He has also threatened to attack drug cartels on land and positioned the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, among an armada of U.S. ships in the waters off Venezuela.
But Maduro didn’t recently publicly surrender or turn in state evidence showing proof that Biden was involved with members of the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua prison gang.
The video Trump shared is from a February speech Maduro gave during a Venezuelan government event. Translated from Spanish, the name of the event was a "high-level workshop of the people's government."
We also translated the part of Maduro's speech that Trump shared. In it, Maduro says: "I respectfully tell President Donald Trump to request FBI and DEA reports from the last four years, specifically from their offices in Colombia, so that you, President Trump, can see who financed, who moved, who directed the infamous Tren de Aragua, who brought it to Colombia, and who brought it to the United States."
Maduro said his administration "dismembered" and eliminated Tren de Aragua, and he accused the group of operating in Colombia and having "deep ties" to the Biden administration.
"If anything can be said about the terrorism of the Tren de Aragua — the now-extinct Tren de Aragua — it is that they wanted to attack the country’s cities with terrorism, and we prevented it with intelligence and action," Maduro said. "President Trump, request those reports so that you can see — I say this sincerely and respectfully — the truth about the infamous Tren de Aragua. Our migrants are not criminals. They are not bad people, they were people who migrated as a result of the sanctions, they are good people, hardworking people."
Although Maduro alleged in his speech that the Biden administration was involved with Tren de Aragua, he provided no evidence, contrary to what Trump’s post said.
Venezuelan investigative journalist Ronna Risquez, who published a book about Tren de Aragua, said in a March 18 interview that she found no evidence that the Venezuelan government had sent Tren de Aragua members to the U.S.
We found no credible news reports saying that Maduro "publicly surrendered." Rather, news coverage has shown Maduro energetically engaging with his constituents. He made news for publicly dancing before a Caracas crowd to music that featured a remix of his past speeches in which he said, "No war, yes peace."
On Dec. 1, Maduro replayed the song and said the U.S. hasn’t been able to "take us down with their psychological terrorism."
On Dec. 2, he shared a video that showed him ordering Venezuelans to "work, and work more, and to party."
And on Dec. 3, Maduro posted a TikTok video showcasing an aerospace exhibition.
We rate Trump’s claim that the February video of the Venezuelan president shows him surrendering Pants on Fire!
