President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, has traveled to Venezuela to deliver an in-person message to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro about accepting violent criminals deported from the United States.

On a call with reporters Friday, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the U.S. special envoy to Latin America, said Grenell will tell Maduro to take back all the Venezuelan criminals and Tren de Aragua gang members that have been "exported to the United States, and to do so unequivocally and without condition." 

Grenell will also demand that Venezuela immediately release American hostages being held in that country, Claver-Carone said.

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The trip "focuses on two very specific issues. That we expect that Venezuelan criminals and gangs will be returned, as they are, to every country in the world, without conditions, and two, that American hostages need to be released immediately, unequivocally," he explained. 

"This is not a quid pro quo. It's not a negotiation in exchange for anything. President Trump himself has made that very clear." 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Friday that Grenell had arrived in Venezuela on orders from the president. 

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Despite widespread belief among Venezuelans and much of the international community that Maduro lost the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, he was sworn into his third six-year term earlier this month.

The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of state of Venezuela.

Opposition leader María Corina Machado has called on Venezuelan citizens to protest the Maduro regime and demand that González be installed as the rightful president of Venezuela.

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As many as 10 Americans are currently detained in Venezuela, although the State Department has not declared them wrongfully detained. Three are U.S. citizens who allegedly participated in a plot to destabilize the country, according to Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

The State Department has denied any U.S. involvement with a plot to overthrow Maduro. 

It remains unclear how many Americans are currently held in Venezuela following the significant prisoner swap in 2023 when Washington and Caracas negotiated the release of dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, in exchange for Colombian businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of Maduro.

Saab was arrested during the first Trump administration on charges related to a $350 million bribery scheme. 

As the Venezuelan political crisis reaches a breaking point, members of the Venezuelan opposition party are warning there will be an increase in Tren de Aragua gang violence with deadly consequences for the U.S. if socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro remains in power. 

Despite widespread belief among Venezuelans and much of the international community that Maduro lost the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election to opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, he was sworn into his third six-year term on Friday. 

But with opposition leader María Corina Machado calling on Venezuelan citizens to join her on the streets to demand González be installed as the rightful president of Venezuela, the stage is now set for a confrontation with the Maduro regime. 

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Machado, whose supporters said she was temporarily kidnapped by authorities and then released after a rally on Thursday, warned that if Maduro is not stopped there will be millions of Venezuelan migrants fleeing the country into the U.S.

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"If Maduro remains, prepare yourself because we will see three, four or five million Venezuelans crossing the border," she said.

On the other hand, Machado told Fox News Digital: "I want you to know how important it is also for the safety of the American people."

"We also are desperate to solve the migration problem in our region," she said. "We want those Venezuelans to come back in billions and voluntarily. And that will happen when they'll see there's a future in their country." 

Meanwhile, José Gustavo Arocha, a former high-ranking Venezuelan military official who fled persecution by the Maduro regime, told Fox News Digital that gang violence in the U.S. by the Maduro-aligned criminal group Tren de Aragua will get worse if he remains president. 

Tren de Aragua — also known by its acronym "TdA" — is Spanish for "Train from Aragua." It is a brutal international gang that victimizes Venezuelan migrants and Americans alike and has unleashed a spate of violence in recent months, including kidnapping, torture, robbery and taking over entire apartment buildings. 

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Arocha, who is now a senior fellow for the U.S.-based Center for a Secure Free Society, told Fox News Digital that "if Maduro remains in power, he will likely use the Tren de Aragua as a tool for coercion and asymmetric tactics to achieve his objectives."

"Migration, weaponized with elements of the Tren de Aragua, will serve as leverage to seek the easing of economic sanctions and to gain legitimacy from the United States," he said. "Repression, economic collapse and chaos in Venezuela will continue to be cornerstones of Maduro's state policy. As a result, migrants who are deported will likely return, as in recent years they have established logistical routes that enable them to navigate clandestine pathways along the southern border."

Alberto Ray, a security and risk strategist who helps handle security for Machado, told Fox News Digital that the situation in Venezuela is "extremely explosive." He said that "more Maduro is more Tren de Aragua in the U.S."

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While Ray noted that most Venezuelan migrants are honest, hardworking people, he said that Maduro has been "weaponizing" migration to sow chaos and discord in the U.S. He said it is "inevitable" that TdA presence in the U.S. will grow if the Maduro regime continues.

"These are very few fractions of Venezuelans that were introduced inside those migration processes designed by the regime… but you don't need too many to destabilize, create chaos, to install organized crime processes inside the U.S.," said Ray. "What is going to happen if Maduro stays in power is that more illegal and weaponized migration is going to keep going out of Venezuela and that increases the probability of Tren de Aragua and other gangs to migrate and be around the region, including the U.S."

On the other hand, Ray said that if Maduro is stopped, "we will see Venezuelans returning to Venezuela because many of them didn't want to leave."

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While he said that both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration have been very supportive, Ray urged the U.S. to take a strong stance against Maduro not only for the sake of the Venezuelans but for Americans as well. He urged the U.S. government to shed light on what is happening in Venezuela and to strictly enforce already-existing sanctions against Maduro and several members of his government.

He said that "the next 72 hours are going to be critical."

"Maduro has nobody supporting him but some factions inside the armed forces, and he's counting on those factions to support him and make him president," Ray explained, adding, "There are not two sides here. There is a huge Venezuelan side that is democratic, and they are looking and trying to get back democracy. And there is a tiny group that is in power that is desperately fighting to keep their privileges and to keep their position in power." 

President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning ahead of the inauguration of contested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who took up the top job for a third term on Friday. 

Despite significant opposition both at home and abroad to the July election in which Maduro claimed victory without providing ballot-box proof, the Venezuelan leader, deemed a "dictator" by American lawmakers, is now set to hold office until 2031.

On Thursday, opposition leader María Corina Machado emerged from months of hiding to join hundreds of anti-Maduro protesters in the capital city of Caracas and demand that opposition candidate Edmundo González be sworn in instead.

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Machado was briefly detained by government security forces after they "violently intercepted" her convoy as she attempted to leave the protests, the Associated Press reported.

Trump took to social media to demand she remain "safe and alive."

"Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the will of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime," he wrote. "These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and must stay safe and alive."

The opposition figure was apparently forced to record several videos before she was released, though the details of those recordings remain unclear. 

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Maduro’s supporters have reportedly denied that Machado was arrested.

On Friday, the Biden administration backed the efforts by the opposition leaders and, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, "President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia should be sworn in, and the democratic transition should begin.

"Today, Nicolás Maduro held an illegitimate presidential inauguration in Venezuela in a desperate attempt to seize power. The Venezuelan people and world know the truth – Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency," the secretary said in a statement. "The United States rejects the National Electoral Council’s fraudulent announcement that Maduro won the presidential election and does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the president of Venezuela. 

"We stand ready to support a return to democracy in Venezuela," Blinken added. 

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday slapped a new round of sanctions on the Maduro regime, this time targeting "officials who lead key economic and security agencies enabling Nicolás Maduro’s repression and subversion of democracy in Venezuela."

Eight officials were named in the sanctions, including the recently appointed head of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, Hector Obregon, as well as the nation’s transportation minister, Ramon Velasquez, according to a statement by the department.

"In addition, OFAC is sanctioning high-level Venezuelan officials in the military and police who lead entities with roles in carrying out Maduro’s repression and human rights abuses against democratic actors," the statement said. 

Maduro was also once again targeted by Washington's sanctions, and the reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction was increased to $25 million.

The same amount was offered up for the Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, along with a $15 million reward for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. 

Members of the military and police were also named in the sanctions. 

Blinken confirmed on Friday that some 2,000 Maduro-aligned individuals have had visa-restrictions imposed on them.

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, who claimed victory in last year’s presidential election against current President Nicolás Maduro, met with President Biden on Monday in search of support in removing the incumbent from office.

Biden and González Urrutia met at the White House, where the latter, who represented Venezuela’s main opposition coalition in the country’s presidential election in July, tried to rally support for his effort to remove Maduro from office by Friday, when the South American country’s next presidential term starts.

"We had a long, fruitful and cordial conversation with President Biden and his team," González Urrutia told reporters. "We, of course, thanked the United States government for the support it has given us in this fight for democratic recovery in Venezuela. That is a commitment that we take with us and that we will continue to follow until the last day of the president’s government."

White House officials said in a statement that the two leaders met to discuss shared efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela.

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"President Biden emphasized that the world was inspired by the millions of Venezuelans who courageously voted for democratic change in Venezuela’s deeply flawed July 28 presidential election, as demonstrated through the collection of voting tally sheets that indicated that Gonzalez Urrutia received the most votes by an insurmountable margin," the statement read. "Both leaders agreed there is nothing more essential to the success of democracy than respecting the will of the people, as expressed through a transparent and accountable electoral process, and that Gonzalez Urrutia’s campaign victory should be honored through a peaceful transfer back to democratic rule.

"Both leaders also expressed deep concern regarding Nicolás Maduro and his representatives’ unacceptable and indiscriminate use of repression against peaceful protesters, (sic) democracy activists, and civil society," the statement continued. "President Biden reiterated his support for Venezuela’s democratic aspirations and underscored the U.S. commitment to continue to hold Maduro and his representatives accountable for their anti-democratic and repressive actions, including by working closely with democratic allies in the hemisphere and around the world."

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On Saturday, González Urrutia began touring the Americas, making stops in Uruguay and Argentina.

Ahead of his stop in Washington, González Urrutia’s team called on Venezuelans in the area to gather outside the offices of the Organization of American States on Monday.

As González Urrutia continues to search for support in removing his opponent from office, the National Assembly has invited Maduro to be sworn in to a sixth term on Friday. The swearing-in would take place five months after the National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election, though the Associated Press reported the council was stacked with loyalists to Maduro’s party.

Unlike past presidential elections, election officials did not provide detailed vote counts. But the opposition obtained tally sheets from more than 80% of the electronic voting machines in the country and posted them online. Along with the post, the opposition said the tally sheets show González Urrutia won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.

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As such, the U.S. and most European governments have rejected the official results of the election and consider González Urrutia the legitimate winner.

In fact, the Carter Center, which Maduro’s government invited to observe the presidential election, has said the tally sheets González Urrutia posted online are legitimate.

The AP reported that Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello was asked about González Urrutia’s plans, to which he responded by insulting and attacking the politician, even threatening him with arrest.

Cabello insisted Maduro would be sworn in as president on Friday.

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"Coward," Cabello said of the retired diplomat, who he accused, without offering any proof, of being a CIA agent. "He has neither courage nor disposition. ... Mr. González Urrutia knows that as soon as he steps in Venezuela he will be arrested."

González Urrutia fled Venezuela for Spain in September after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the publishing of the election’s tally sheets.

The Venezuelan government also announced a $100,000 reward for information on his whereabouts last week.

On Monday, González Urrutia told reporters his campaign has been in contact with President-elect Trump’s team.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

In the days since New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared New York City’s subways had improved in safety, a woman was burned alive, a man was pushed in front of an oncoming train and gangs of illegal immigrants have robbed straphangers.

Just before Christmas, the Democrat took to X to claim that, since March, she has taken action to make subways "safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day."

"Since deploying the [New York National Guard] to support [the NYPD] and MTA, safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up," she wrote on Dec. 22.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), while mostly serving the five boroughs, Long Island and Lower Hudson Valley suburbs, is a state-operated, not city-operated, agency.

However, in that short time, an illegal immigrant allegedly set a woman on fire on an F train, a man miraculously survived being shoved in front of a 1 train and Venezuelan gang members have been robbing straphangers at will.

In Coney Island, Guatemalan national Sebastian Zapeta was charged with murder after allegedly lighting a Toms River, New Jersey, woman on fire while she slept on board an F train at the Stillwell Avenue Terminal. That incident occurred the morning of Dec. 22, hours before Hochul's post.

The victim, Debrina Kawam, once worked for Merck Pharmaceuticals in the early 2000s but had more recently lived in a New York City homeless shelter.

Zapeta’s arraignment has been set for Tuesday. He told the NYPD he overindulges in alcohol and "doesn’t know what happened," according to NBC News.

"My office is very confident about the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds," Kings County Democratic District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said of the case.

Earlier this week, 23-year-old Kamel Hawkins of Brooklyn allegedly shoved an unsuspecting straphanger into the path of a South Ferry-bound 1 train at W 18th Street Station in Chelsea.

Hawkins initially got away but was soon caught near Columbus Circle and Central Park, according to reports. The injured victim’s survival was lauded as a miracle, as he fell into a "trench" between the tracks as the train ran over him and was ambulanced to a hospital with head injuries.

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Hawkins had prior arrests for body-slamming a police officer in Queens. His father, Shamel Hawkins, told the New York Post, "We think somebody put something in his weed."

The elder Hawkins said his son had been "acting weird" recently and that he "needs help" but continues to refuse to seek it.

On New Year’s Day, WPIX reported two separate unprovoked subway stabbing incidents during daylight hours on the West Side. A 30-year-old man was reportedly stabbed in the head and hip awaiting a 1 train at 110 Street and Broadway. The station is in otherwise one of the safer areas of Manhattan, near Columbia University, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the diner made famous on the sitcom "Seinfeld."

Another man was stabbed while awaiting a 2 train at 14th Street and 7th Avenue that same day, according to the outlet.

Meanwhile, authorities found 22 Tren de Aragua migrant gang members during a raid on a residence in Crotona Park, Bronx last month. Federal law enforcement had tracked the ankle monitor of Jarwin Valero-Calderon — a Venezuelan national originally arrested in Nassau County and under a deportation order — to the building.

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Hochul said in an X video on her account, called "This Week in New York," that her "five-point plan to improve subway safety" has led to overall subway crime dropping 10% since March 2023.

Hochul also said she will deploy 250 more National Guard members to take part in Joint Task Force: Empire Shield.

In its December report on November’s crime stats, the NYPD listed subway crime as having decreased 15% that month from 240 reported incidents to 202 and a year-to-date decrease of 6% from 2,137 to 2,002.

The NYPD said the subways saw their safest year-to-date figure in more than a decade.

"We are all in this together, and while the downward trends in violence and disorder across New York City are highly encouraging as we enter the final month of 2024, we have a lot more work to do to deliver the public safety that New Yorkers deserve," NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said in a Dec. 3 statement.

However, New Yorkers overall felt less safe on the MTA as of late.

"Kathy Hochul needs to resign," commentator Chaya Raichik — or "LibsOfTikTok" — wrote on X after chronicling some of the recent subway incidents and claiming some of the recent underground robberies were committed by Tren de Aragua gang members.

"Of course she won’t resign. These people care only about their power and the perks," FOX Business host David Asman wrote in a reply. "Only New Yorkers can get rid of her."

"Daniel Penny for governor," another X user commented, referring to the man acquitted in the death of a crazed straphanger who had been menacing passengers earlier this year.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber pledged during a March transit board meeting "we are not going back" to the mid-20th century when the subway was incredibly unsafe. "This is a nightmare for New Yorkers," he said after learning Carlton McPherson — whom neighbors described to the Post as "a little off" — had recently fatally shoved a man in front of a Woodlawn-bound 4 train on 125 Street in Harlem.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams also addressed the public sentiment in remarks earlier this year.

"Public safety is the actual safety and it's how people are feeling," he said in March. "We know we have over 4 million riders a day and a reliable system. We know we have approximately six felonies a day out of those 4 million riders. But if they don't feel safe, then we're not accomplishing our task."

"Stats don't matter if people don't believe they are in a safe environment," he said, according to WNBC.

Lieber said at the March meeting he would not be "surrendering our city to anyone."