Guest host Kalonji Changa sits down with Leonardo Flores, a Venezuelan political analyst, activist, and founding member of the Venezuela Solidarity Network, for an in-depth conversation on the escalating U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Flores, who has appeared on Democracy Now! and also serves as a Latin America campaign coordinator with CODEPINK, brings critical context to the rapidly unfolding political and humanitarian crisis.
The discussion examines recent U.S. airstrikes, reports surrounding the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, and U.S. government statements asserting interim authority over Venezuela’s governance. These developments mark a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s framing of its actions as a “war” on so-called narco-terrorism.
Since September 2025, U.S. forces have carried out dozens of lethal strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. While U.S. officials claim the operations targeted drug-smuggling networks, families and regional authorities report that many of those killed were fishermen, low-wage workers, or civilians driven into dangerous labor by economic collapse. At least 105 people have reportedly been killed in 29 known strikes, raising urgent concerns among human rights advocates about extrajudicial killings, lack of due process, and the absence of transparent evidence.
Flores analyzes the political and economic motivations behind the escalation, the legality of the airstrikes and detention of a sitting head of state, and what U.S. claims of interim governance mean under international law. The conversation also interrogates how media narratives around “narco-terrorism” obscure civilian harm, regional destabilization, and the normalization of regime change by force—and what accountability and international solidarity should look like at this critical moment.
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.