Maduro Pleads Not Guilty; Venezuela Regroups With New Leader

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow. Here
are the stories we're following today.
Karen, we begin with the latest developments after the ouster
of Nicolas Maduro, that opposed Venezuelan leader, has had his
first court appearance since his capture by the US military.
Over the weekend. Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty
to Narco terrorism charges in Manhattan Federal Court. Bloomberg's Miles
Miller covered the hearing.
When he walked into the court room, he wished people
happy New Year, and at one point someone screamed at
him and he had a loud outbursts saying he was kidnapped.
He and his wife sat wearing headphones in jail garb
to listen to translation as Judge Alvin Hallerstein read the
charges against him. When asked to enter a plea, Maduro
said through an interpreter, I am innocent, I am not guilty.
I am a decent man. I am president of my country.
Bloomberg's Miles Miller reports the indictment of qu this is
madurea of sitting atop an illegitimate government that used its
power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking.
Maduro's attorney, Barry Pollock says he expects voluminous and complicated
legal filings for the defense, including that Maduro is immune
from prosecution as head of a sovereign nation. Judge Hellerstein
said another hearing from March seventeenth, Nathan.
With Nicholas Maduro out of power, President Trump is asked
Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take the lead on
implementing political and economic reforms in Venezuela. Point House Senior
Advisor Stephen Miller says the US is getting, in his words, full,
complete and total cooperation from the current government in Caracas
under Acting President Delse Rodriguez.
And as a result of that cooperation, the people of
Venezbela are going to become richer than they ever had before.
And of course, the United States is going to benefit
from this massively in terms of economic security and military cooperation,
condor narcotics, counter terrorism, and every other dimension of our security.
White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller did not offer many
details on how the US plans to administer Venezuela. Rubio
has indicated the US will exert its influence through economic
coercion and the threat of more military action and Karen.
President Trump has said he wants US oil companies to
play a key role in rebuilding Venezuela. In an interview
with NBC News, the President said oil majors could be
up and running in the country in less than eighteen months,
and he suggested the US government could subsidize their efforts.
That timeframe is at odds with many industry experts, and
the President acknowledges it will take a tremendous amount of money.
In his words, President Trump says it's too soon to
reveal whether he's spoken to top executives at Exon Mobile, Chevron,
or Conco Phillips. Sources tell Bloomberg News Energy Secretary Chris
Wright plans to speak with oil execs at a Goldman
Sex conference in Miami this week.
Nathan Venezuela's new leader is someone many in the oil
industry wanted all along, and we get that part of
this story with Bloomberg's John Tucker. John, Good morning, Yeah.
Good morning, Aaron. Oil executives and lobbyists have long argued
that Maduro's number two, Downsey Rodriguez, should fill his shoes
of former oil minister herself. Rodriguez has long been the
go to contact for senior executives. Gray Law, Capitol chairman
and CEO. Hans Hume's a longtime investor in Venezuela. Debt
says she's navigated Venezuela's industry through international sanctions, economic pressures,
and internal mismanagement.
So if you want somebody who can operate in reasonably
okay conditions, get the person who operated in the worst conditions.
This woman is good well.
Trump administration officials were mindful of the chaos that ensued
in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Maintaining as
semblance of business continuity could be critical to a successful transition.
You know, York Home, John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio, All.
Right, John, thank you. The intervention in Venezuela has fed
concerns about other US foreign policy plans. The Prime Minister
of Denmark Meta Frederickson is warning that NATO will collapse
if the US attacks Greenland. Frederickson spoke with Danish broadcaster TV.
Two for the first I believe that the American president
should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland
but I also want to make it clear that if
the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily,
then everything stops.
Denmark's Prime Minister Mentor Frederickson, speaking through an interpreter, in
an interview with CNN, Whitehouse Senior Advisor Stephen Miller asserted
that Greenland rightfully belongs to the United States.
Greenland should be part of the United States. The President
has been very clear about that. That is the formal
position of the US government.
And presidential aid. Stephen Miller added the Trump administration could
seize the Danish territory if it wanted.
We have some health news this morning, Nathan. US officials
have taken the unprecedented step of dropping the number of
vaccines it recommends for every child, as leaving other immunizations
such as flu shots, open to families to choose but
without clear guidance. Bloomberg's Amy Morris reports from Washington.
Health and Human Services is moving to change the recommendations
for childhood vaccinations, including no longer broadly recommending the flu
or COVID nineteen vaccines. The CDC will continue to recommend
shots for whooping cough, diphtheria. New macaucle polio, measles, and HPV,
and all vaccines recommended by the CDC through December thirty
first will continue to be covered by the Affordable Care
Act and other federal insurance programs. Medical experts are slamming
the move. They say this could lead to a reduced
uptake of important vaccinations and increased disease in Washington. Amy
Morris Bloomberg Radio.
Okay, Amy, thank you. We turned to the markets now,
where futures are mixed this morning. Following yesterday's gains on
Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial average led the way,
gaining one in one quarter percent as investors shrugged off
geopolitical concerns. Lori Calvacina is head of US equity strategy
at RBC Capital Markets.
We've seen, particularly with geopolitical issues over the past year
or so, that investors have tended to take a wait
and see approach, maybe pricing in things more at them
micro level as opposed to the big picture index level.
And I think this is a period of time where
we're going to get a lot of information over the
next few days. There are different issues that we're monitoring,
but at the end of the day, I think that
investors are very focused on what does the economic backdrop
look like in the US, what does the earnings backdrop
look like in the US, and what does the monetary
policy backdrop look like in the US. And those are
really the bigger picture issues I think people have on
their minds heading into the new year.
RBC's Lori Calvacina has a twelve month price target of
seventy seven to fifty for the S and P five hundred.
That's about twelve percent above current levels.
Nathan Let's turn out to new developments At the CEES
trade show in Las Vegas, and Video CEO Jensen Wong
announced a group of AI models and tools designed to
speed up the development of autonomous vehicles. The offering is
aimed at creating vehicles that can think their way out
of unexpected situations such as a traffic light outage. And
here's Wong.
Today, we're announcing alpamyle, the world's first thinking reasoning autonomous
vehicle AI. Alpmio is trained end to end, literally from
camera in to actuation out.
In another development, Jensen Wong said the company's Reuben and
data center processes are in production and demand is strong.
Long says the Rubin processor is three and a half
times better at training and five times better at running
AI software than its predecessor Blackwell.
And also at CEES Karen Advanced micro Devices CEO Lisa
Sue announced a new chip for corporate data center use.
With all of that user growth, we have seen a
huge surge and demand in the global compute infrastructure, growing
from about one zetaflop in twenty twenty two to more
than one hundred zeta flops in twenty twenty five. Now
that sounds big, that's actually one hundred times in just
a few years.
And d CEO Lisa Sue says her companies created did
a new multi billion dollar business out of AI chips
in the last couple of years. AMD is widely regarded
as Nvidia's closest rival.
Time now bro look at some of the other stories
making news in New York and around the world, and
for that ever, joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr Michael, good Morning.
Good morning, Karen. House Democrats are holding an informal hearing
to commemorate the January sixth attack on the US capital.
House Minority leader Hakim Jeffrey says Democrats plan to honor
police officers today who defended the capital. The session will
include testimony from law enforcement and others who were at
the capitol that day. Minnesota Governor Tim Walls is ending
his bid for a third term amid President Trump's focus
on a fraud investigation into childcare programs in the state
and its Somali community. Wall says the negative attention and
Republican attacks make it too hard to serve full time
as governor and be a candidate for another term.
Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest
would be a minute I can't spend defending the people
of Minnesota against the criminals who pray on our generosity
and the cynics who want to prey on our differences.
A person close to Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar says she's
considering running for governor. Activists say the death toll in
violence surrounding economic protests in Iran has risen to at
least thirty five. It's believed more than twelve hundred people
have been detained in the protests. New Orleans police officials
say the city endo twenty twenty five with the third
straight year of declining violent crimes. The Armed National Guard
troops are currently patrolling the city's streets, per the White House,
New Orleans Police Superintendent, and Kirkpatrick says that's fine as
long as laws are followed and crime is down.
We work very well with everyone, so I will just
say that collectively, all of us have a role to play,
and we're just grateful that crime is down.
And I don't care who goes.
To the credit.
President Trump deployed three hundred and fifty National Guard troops
to the state. Global news twenty four hours a day
and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now Michael Barr,
and this is Bloomberg Cameron.
Thanks Michael a time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update,
and for that we bring in John Stashauer.
Thanks Darren Black.
Monday.
In the NFL, three coaches got fired. Kevin Stefanski after
six years in Cleveland. A two time Coach of the Year,
he had the best win percentage of any Browns coach
since Bill Belichick thirty years ago. Seventy four year old
Pete Carroll, the coach for the Raiders for just one
season they went three and fourteen. He got fired, so
did Jonathan Gannon at Arizona. Top two teams of the
NBA's Eastern Conference met in Detroit, and the Pistons blew
out the Knicks one twenty one to ninety. That's your
Bloomberg Sports Update.
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Good morning, I'm Nathan Hagar with Nicolas Maduro now behind
American bars. The White House is getting down to his
President Trump has put it running Venezuela. White House Senior
Advisor Stephen Miller says Secretary of State Marco Rubio will
run point with the remaining Venezuelan government.
Our conversations are that we are very much getting full,
complete and total cooperation from the government of Venezuela.
That was White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller. This morning,
we're joined by Bloomberg News correspondent David Gerro, host of
The Big Take podcast. In David, do we have a
better sense of what running Venezuela is going to look
like in these days? After Maduro's ouster, Good morning, Good morning.
We really don't. So we know that the President has,
as you said, backed the Vice president now acting President
of Venezuela, who was sworn in yesterday in that National
Assembly meeting. She's somebody with whom oil companies in the
US and around the world have some familiarity. She used
to be the oil Minister. And what we hear Stephen
Miller and Secretary of State Mark Rubia continuing to talk
about is this quarantine of oil, this blockade of oil
tankers around Venezuela. They see that as their best leverage
here going forward, Nathan, They're going to be able to
kind of control the economy from the outside and that's
going to force that administration that's in office now on
this temporary basis to do what the US wants it
to do. And what we know, Nathan, at least some
broad strokes from the President and famous advisors is they
want that Venezuelan administration to work more closely with the
United States and with oil companies to reanimate this oil
industry that is a shadow of what it once was.
And in commons from the President yesterday the NBC News,
we have him talking about how he thinks that the
estimates that will take a very much longer time to
set up that infrastructure are exaggerated. He thinks within eighteen
months we can have companies back on the ground getting
that oil running more fully once again.
Well, that's a pretty tall order, isn't it, given the
state of the Venezuelan oil industry and the fact that
we don't really have a sense at this point about
whether oil industry executives are willing to go in right now.
It's a great point. And what we've fir from analysts
over the course of the last forty eight hours is
this is a decades long project. It's not something that's
going to happen quickly. We do know that the Secretary
of Energy, Chris Wright, is going to make his way
to a conference in the coming days to meet with
oil executives to talk to them about the path forward here.
But what you rightly point out is what those executives
are looking for here is an assurance, some sense of
confidence for the administration. There's going to be some stability here.
And you look at what's played out on the streets
of Caracas and elsewhere in Venezuela over the last few hours.
It is not a more tranquil scene that it once was. Yes,
Nicholas Maduro is out of the country, he's in Brooklyn.
But we've seen these collectivos, these gangs of motorcyclists kind
of roaming the city. We've seen counterintelligence groups from roaming
the city. We've seen arrests of journalists and others. So
it isn't a new sense of stability in the country.
Seems far from and again that the leadership has gone
at that the highest level. Of course, the president is
now here in the United States, but it seems like
there is still a great deal of uncertainty and unease
across Venezuela.
And in our last thirty seconds, David, where is the
opposition in all this? The Venezuelan opposition.
We heard from Ria Corona Macchiado last night. She was
on Fox News and she said she hadn't spoken with
President Trump since the tenth of October when she was
picked to be the winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize. Look,
she's still retaining hope the opposition is going to get
more recognition, that they're going to be guaranteed some safety,
that members of the opposition who have been jailed will
be released by this new administration, but they don't have
the kind of might that they might have hoped going
forward here, so that's still very much uncertain as well,
Nathan sort of the role they're going to play here
going forward.
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