The Venezuelan reality under socialist rule is characterized by severe shortages, lack of basic services, absence of rule of law, and political repression, forcing a significant portion of the population to flee and leaving opposition leaders like María Corina Machado facing grave personal risks.
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What is what is the typical what what is
typical reality for a Venezuelan citizen
now because we never hear about it. We
we have no idea. Well, it's what you
would expect in a socialist paradise.
It's basically you don't have enough
food to eat. Calorie intake in in
Venezuela has collapsed over the last 15
years, 20 years. Uh you don't have
medicines, you don't have um hospitals
that are functioning. uh you have no
grit electricity you have problems all
the time in Karacas everywhere in a
country that is very hot many regions of
Venezuela are very hot you don't have
air conditioning you don't any of that
um and only people who can get access to
dollars because because you are there
are remittances going to to the country
they they manage to survive um but this
is the reason why uh almost a quarter of
the population have left and if Maduro
is reinstalled in January you will
another couple of million living
Venezuela. By the way, this is going to
happen and we are expecting that all
over Latin America. Um, you have uh no
rule of law, zero rule of law. So, you
basically have a regime that controls
the judiciary, the legislative,
everything and the police. Any day
someone can knock at your door and they
take you uh a prisoner and you disappear
and no one knows anything about you
anymore. Um, you have to be if you are
in the opposition, you have to be h h h
h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h
h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h and
and and and very careful. Even I am on a
blacklist. I was sold and that's one of
the reasons why I've never been back to
Venezuela since last time I was there,
2014, even if I'm not really relevant
within the country, but because I have
argued against the Madur regime in
different media all over the the west,
probably in in at least in the United
States, in Latin America and Spain, um
I'm not welcome. So So imagine people
who are living there. My friends are
hiding from the regime. Um you have um
many families that have been torn apart,
completely destroyed because you know,
let me tell you also an anecdote to um
that is really interesting for the
audience. I was once in Miami and I took
an Uber and I started talking to the
driver and and I thought that he was
very uh well educated and and and really intellectual
intellectual
um like more than the normal uh he knew
a lot about law for instance and I said
what what do you what did you do back in
Venezuela? I was a minister of the
Supreme Court in Venezuela, a member of
the Supreme Court of Justice in
Venezuela and now I am your Uber driver.
So this is the reality of millions of
Venezuelans uh you know not only uh poor
people or middle-class people but also
people who were very successful they had
their jobs they had their companies and
they lost everything they lost their
families they lost everything and many
of them have families members that have
been killed by the regime also. So uh
and and and so the situation is so
desperate that I think Venezuelans are
going to fight to the last breath in
order to make change possible. And Maria
Korina Machello by the way has said this
the fight is until the end. And so I
don't know how this is going to look like,
like,
but if ma if the Biden administration
does not uh convince Maduro and the
regime to
uh transition back to democracy, you
will maybe have a blood path even worse
than the one you have now. By the way, a
point that is important. Uh Chavez when
he was in government he disarmed the
Venezuelan population. He banned guns
for every citizen in Venezuela. The only
people who could have guns were his his
tax basically and the culanos
the parallel army groups that they have
um uh funded and and they were
financing. And so now you have a
situation where Venezuelans don't have
even a pistol to defend themselves from
these hordes of uh uh of assassins that
their regime is sending to kill them or
to imprison them. And they have over
2,000 people in the last weeks have been
imprisoned mostly young people who want
a better future. So this is what
Venezuela looks like right now. It's
it's it's hell on earth.
Let's talk about the structure of the opposition.
opposition.
So it's Maria Karina Machado. I'm
butchering that name obviously. And it's
difficult from the outside to understand
because tell me how the last election,
who was put forward as opposition in the
last election, what role does she play?
What threat does she currently face? And
what well what what can people from the
outside do to shed light on this and to help?
help?
>> Well, Maria Korea Machalo has been uh
the main opposition leader for over a
decade. I would say even a decade and a
half. Even if at some point in 2013 for
instance after Chavez died, you had an
election where Enrique Capriles um lost
by a small margin to Maduro, but Maduro
sold that election. they stole millions
of votes. This is not the first time
that this happens. Um and and so and the
reason is because the system in
Venezuela uh it requires that you have
um sort of an ID and you go and vote but
the system is not integrated. So in the
sense that you can with with different
IDs you can vote in different parts. So
one member of the of the government got
like let's say 100 IDs and he could go
to 100 different places and vote for the
same candidate and this is the way they
stole the last election in 2013. Um and
back then population wanted to rebel but
Capri said no stay home we got we have
nothing to do here and so it gave oxygen
to the regime. Um and Maria Gorina has
always been the voice of I think reason
and courage because she was willing to
fight but the opposition was very
fragmented and has been for a long time.
This is the first time that they are all
together together against the regime. Uh
so which is which is very good and um
and she has become the undisputed leader
of the opposition even though Eduardo
Gonzalez is a pre is a candidate and the
president the president-elect is Eduardo
Gonzalez. Why? Because Maduro banned
Maria Corina from running as president.
So, and they have they've been doing
this forever in Venezuela since Chavez
came to power. So, uh so Maria Corina
endorsed Gonzalez to the election and
Gonzalez know won we all know for with a
distance of over 30 points. So, uh with
a difference of over 30 points.
So now the opposition at least they are
all together against the the regime h
but the main fa the main face of the
opposition is Maria Corachal which by
the way deserves a Nobel Prize for peace
because she she has been so courageous
in trying to to uh bring democratic
change to Venezuela but she's not going
to get it because she is not left a
leftist so I think there is not a big
hope that she would get this but um she
faces now the possibility of being imprisoned
imprisoned
and who knows maybe being killed and
she's willing to give her life for the
cause. I mean, she's not going to turn
herself over to the regime just, you
know, a simple I mean, like I think she
will try to to prevent uh them from
capturing her, but she could be
imprisoned and maybe killed. Uh so this
is what she's facing. Maria Corina and
her family.
>> So she had she had Eduardo Gonzalez run
in herstead in essence. Is she in hiding
at the moment?
Yes, she is. She's um I think she's
sort of in hiding because uh the
government wants to wants to bring her
in uh and to to to take her to uh you
know to prison. So, but she she has
she's very active on social media and
she has showed her face on on some
public rallies. So I I think the
government is in a situation where they
they don't really want to do this very
publicly because they could upset the
world and and and the um people in
Venezuela even more than they are right
now. So it's a it's a problem for them
because she's too symbolic. Um they are
not going to probably go after her where
everyone is is looking or watching at
her. I mean this is this is probably not
going to happen. But they would rake
into her house in the middle of the
night or something like that. They would
do. Uh but I don't think they know where
she is. Um so but she's at risk of
course and and there are some um uh
orders that were given by the government
to detain her. So I think uh it's it's a
very it's a very
um dangerous situation for her. And as
long as some regimes like the Biden
administration keeps pushing for a
democratic transition, maybe she has a
chance. But um we have communist or
socialist let's say far left presidents
in in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil and
they are in bed with Maduro also to some extent
extent
and they are sort of protecting Maduro.
They're not really pushing Maduro to
accept that he lost and then um just
rule the country until January uh which
is the date where he should um leave
live leave the leave the presidency and
and accept Eduardo Gonzalez as the next
president. Um but this is a life ordeit
situation for Maria Gorina and most of
the opposition leaders. As I said, one
of her right hands, a friend of mine was
taken uh to prison uh by the armed
forces uh or by members of the of the
dictatorship. And we don't know anything about
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