Transcripts For ALJAZ The Battle For Venezuela 20180212

A number of allegations of corruption but has refused to stand down before his term ends next year minimal has more from johannesburg. The agencys National Executive committee the top Decision Making body has been meeting for hours its expected to recall president jacob zuma from his position the president would then need to resign but all indications are the smain not happen zuma has existed calls to step down for months including the last few days where we understand that the president of the a. N. C. Been in talks with zuma to agree on some sort of exit but those talks reportedly failed and now its up to the ne seed to decide what next for president zuma even if the any c. Decides to recall zuma it doesnt have the power to remove a sitting head of state so zuma would have to resign if he doesnt the a. N. C. Is likely to move for a motion of no confidence in parliament now opposition parties already have a motion of no confidence debate scheduled for later this month but wanted will forward to this week and following of that they Want Parliament dissolved and south africa to hold the snap elections within three months then sees in a corner dealing with a divided party an increasingly frustrated public and opposition parties demanding Decisive Action and the unseating of the ruling party. And governmental organizations have pledged more than three hundred Million Dollars to help iraq would build after its war with ice still but the figure is well short of the hundred billion dollars the Iraqi Government says it needs a Donor Conference is being held in kuwait to raise funds to help rebuild cities destroyed in this three year conflict. Meanwhile the u. S. Secretary of state says the trouble ministration is committed to working with egypt to defeat i still write status and discuss the issue with egypts foreign minister some assure created cairo at the start of his middle east tour to his and also talks with president Abdel Fattah Sisi but we agreed that we would continue our close cooperation on Counterterrorism Measures including our joint commitment to the defeat of isis in egypt has been a very important member of the defeat Isis Coalition from the beginning they egypt deals with the threats of isis themselves and are dealing with it shortly are currently in the sinai opposition activists in syrias Eastern Ghouta turning to social media to highlight suffering of around three hundred fifty thousand people trapped in the besieged area hundreds have been killed in as strikes and shelling by Government Forces and their allies in the past week alone the un is calling for a ceasefire so aid can reach people in need investigators in russia are trying to determine how a passenger plane crashed just minutes after taking off killing old seventy one people on board the lines flight was heading to or square and it plunged into a field in the countryside outside moscow on sunday oxfams deputy chief executive has resigned as the charity faces mounting criticism over its handling of allegations of Sexual Misconduct by some of its staff oxfam denies covering up a scandal over the use of prostitutes by staff in haiti in two thousand and eleven following a devastating earthquake that oxfam officials have been meeting with the British International Development Secretary who is threatening to withdraw its government funding. And a state of emergency has been declared in tonga as the pacific nation braces for tropical cycle and gaeta storm is just off the most populous island packing winds of two hundred seventy five kilometers an hour its expected to make impact as a category five storm if you stay with us coming up next al jazeera looks at the Current Crisis in venezuela in the big picture our have that for you in just a couple of minutes stay with us. Venezuela is gripped by crisis. Ravaged by economic collapse and mobbed by political to k. The government of Nicolas Maduro faces an existential threat. Mother who has been a bully in the middle of a big storm. Latin america has once model democracy struggles to maintain order and feed a divided people. Have never seen the curation of Living Standards of this modern almost anywhere in the world a nation boasting the Worlds Largest oil reserves fight the economic survival as its called further apart. Polarization is the racial it is there regionally is there by class its there in lol tipple multiple ways. But the seeds of its current demise was sown a century ago. When the events of its formative years in shared that the fate of venezuela would be written in oil. Rig. This country that was once the the wealthiest in the region what went wrong how did we get to this point in venezuela. The country starts among the Association Process that is shaped by all of this puts a state becomes more and more powerful and they shape their country through the state charges and then my goodness of being try to create. Show is revolution and that will lead this people to destroy the whole business apparatus of the country. That unemployment did go down equality increased per capita g. D. P. Increased of course you could say thats because of the oil wealth are the same time or are the that only wealth could have been distributed completely different there and i would say it was distributed much more equitably. And it was a very backward country before or birth of one of the poorest of latin america. Life expectancy was in your early thirties and about three quarters of the country was a mature. Its very difficult to speak of a National Policy much less of a national culture. Then we have an extraordinary developments in one thousand nine hundred scene when venezuela sings its those wells begins pumping oil for the first time. In this way that enters the era of commercial heavy Oil Production and not only is the british and the dutch involved but now the us also comes to venezuela to partake in oils production. Foreign oil giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and the American Standard oil company were granted concessions by the military dictatorship of one percent taken as allowing them to drill for oil and allowing us to get rich. Why of all of the Oil Companies the development of the industry parallels the rise of one b. Cent they go missed and the rise of the venezuelan state even though venezuela really begins to develop its own economy the venezuelan state doesnt benefit hugely because in essence its only charging rent for the land. By the mid one nine hundred thirty s. The once lease collective of largely coffee exporting regions had become a consolidated nation state formed and transformed by oil. We have the beginnings of a mass process of illinois ation so people coming out of the rule country signs in city the big cities because the major london is the selling off their land so the Oil Companies the very idea of oil became imbued with the notion of modernity that the oil camps with the north american presence the british presence with electricity water sewage would then become social laboratories that other venezuelans should emulate on the one hand there were people who were living in the oil camps who received all the benefits of working for all companies and then on the outside of these comes you have the majority of Venezuelan Society who didnt have access to all of the health care and benefits and education benefits. One percent take as died in one thousand nine hundred eighty five but he laid the blueprint for other dictators to follow developing infrastructure suppressing to sand and getting rich off oil deals. The first half of the Twentieth Century would see venezuela ruled by oppressive military regimes for all but three years when a popular push for democracy in one nine hundred forty five briefly on seated dictatorship. But the Political Party cemented in that democratic interlude axion democratic eighty and capacity question democrats remained a persistent opposition to authoritarian rule. By the mid one nine hundred fifty s. The rule of another dictator general marcos paris and then as it creates a vastly expanded and increasingly unequal state we enter what some of call the bulldozer years in venezuela the state will now use the funds of the profits of oil to engage in broad scale developmental his projects those are all great opportunities for development but also for corruption because in the process of developing those projects the military and their associates were all benefiting from industry the big problem is that the only way pet is a menace commencing himself in power is through brutal repression. What we see is a real climb down brutal climb down position. You start to seeing also the very clear parameters of two venezuelas venezuela benefits from oil and the venezuela that actually still remains in the shadow of the oil industry. And that venezuela is rural that venezuela is poor that venezuela is illiterate that venezuela isnt seeing and looking at the evolution of the other but is not benefiting from it. As venezuelas elite rich and its poor but getting left behind the forces for democracy once again dad to take on a dictator. You begin to see rumblings in the military you begin to see younger officers protest in much the same way they had protested before theres also an active social movement being led by dissidents in the communist party in our own democratic even the social democrats and others theyre actually cooperating to undermine the menace. Said perez humanise who is the effectively have the throne through another coup which then brings us to moccasin venezuela in one nine hundred fifty eight. Democracy had fallen to dictatorship a decade earlier right now to survive unity was a must. There is an attempt to form a pact so eydie comes to the table with its union impossible its cool framework copay comes to the table the christian democrat right so what you have around the table is essentially all of the key financial and political interests in the country the Roman Catholic church is also essentially politics in these negotiations as is the military these parties signed. And began was being called in venezuela the. Meaning there was an agreement which the parties. I agreed not to go in conflicts that good risk with mr allen democracy. Venezuela was moving inexorably toward the socalled first world with growing confidence. It had broken the cycle of military coups and now the printer fiar pact ensured progress would be underwritten by democratic process. In a so lent is a kind of golden age because it has more than fishing going on now for two decades and it also has now a democracy that means to be an example for the rest of latin america. In one nine hundred sixty venezuela helped establish the organization of Petroleum Exporting countries. And in one nine hundred seventy three following the hike in oil prices after war in the middle east it was awash with petrodollars. Venezuela was asserting itself as a global player. And in colors andrus perez it would have a president ready to take the next big step and take back its well. That was the dream of democracy and so colors and this is ive got the money why not lets do it. So we nationalize the oil industry in one nine hundred seventy five its called with it. What it essentially donts is it nationalizes the bureaucracy of Oil Exploration its nationalization to create a Company Rather than nationalization all Venezuelas Oil sector to say many of the world workers maintain their privileged status in the oil camps and this is the period in venezuela that many refer to as loving as well as the image of saudi venezuela in which the notion is that one of the terms in venezuela is. Its cheap to me to venezuela have that kind of wealth. The dream of a state time oil company had been realized with had a vast. Paris now and bopped on a nationwide spending spree funding social programs housing projects and nationalizing industries with the price of crude oil at a record high such lavish spending could also be supplemented by borrowing. He wanted. An industrialized country and he could be could be had a lot of. This also puts us in loans and more loans and more than that continues as long as the price of oil is good as the all price begins to fall back venezuela doesnt reduce its financial outlays. You have this huge bureaucracy which also emerges in venezuela and huge amounts of corruption government high post implicitly have the benefit of helping yourself and helping others in your Social Circle but instead of addressing any of these problems the strategy of the government is instead to borrow money that. Becomes more difficult to. Under that environment. Is the election one thousand nine hundred to go to war to have a market economy. Inflation begins to take off corruption becomes an even more profound problem and yet we have no made by any of the governments in the 1980s to actually address the overwhelming reliance on oil which is falling in by. Successive governments of Axion Democratica and co pay did little to check the economic decline social inequality and the corruption of the ruling class. In december one thousand nine hundred eighty eight. Paris was reelected to office promising to bring back the cash which glory years of his first. But rhetoric would be trumped by reality was his sworn into power. He. Fills the reserve people. Go. To the. Venezuela to go to an agreement with the International Monetary fund saying there was no choice no choice at the time because an assailant was in the business you had to go to some adjustment structure roach adjustment to launch. The growth again the problem is greg this i. M. F. Loan comes with some very difficult terms and conditions you have and you have a segment of the population that hasnt benefited from the boom times Living Conditions have been deteriorating through the eightys and now comes this i. M. F. Loan where yet again theyre feeling the effects should paris have anticipated this. Certainly on huh. Because it was like that again the poor who had been already suffering it affects them even more but i would say just one step back also in terms of an alternative i think we have to keep in mind on the one hundred at that time the liberal kind of policy paradigm was absolutely had to monitor and around the world and so it certainly appeared that way i think that there was no alternative i would argue from todays perspective there probably were some alternatives one of them would have been perhaps to actually default on the debt which of course you know has all kinds of other consequence in part about trying to for example tax the wealthy more or some other way of raising revenues other than cutting back on. The parts that. Have an impact on the poor or what do you say to that people are still suffering in terms of unemployment and wages yeah because the when you change when you have to the idea in the second last on this but as a government was that the country couldnt be resorting all Oil Resources couldnt be depending on the state resources they had to promote private an intrapreneur ship they have to promote the participation of a business we had to promote for a National Investment in oil in other industries that where state owned how we could change always. Pain and who are listening to lessen the pain for the majority there were some of the more advanced social programs about timing. That later on where and you know taken by brazilian man by mexico to. Have a meeting then i have a different perspective on that i mean if you want to change us from from one day to the other into a free market economy when we have been a state economy throughout all the Twentieth Century i mean you cant do that and i think the problem was not that the taint had to come and we have still we still havent been able to have a market economy in some way that will lead us to to feed the population the thirty million of an incident that we are but the problem was the way it was put out it was a political problem the political problem was guns and they said you know what we cant take this in well with change and were going to do a radical change would also how to play the major role in the moment were trying to cover some of the photos ran on the platform that. A liberal when he ran for president and then made this big turnaround i mean thats why there was a hundred eighty degree turn after he came in to actually i think it was a major impact on what happened afterwards as well actually i think thats not accurate because he said in his electoral come pain that he was going to bring may use changes in in a Straight Line the economy and political round but what is true is that he represented. All the years that. We had in the senate in one thousand seven hundred standing he was perceived in one way and then does the opposite and that was exactly what was this adding insult to injury injury being cut back some. Subsidies for transportation or for food and at the same time this is not what we thought we were voting for i think there was a big this in chad doesnt consult his party because he thinks he is so popular he doesnt need to consult his party to do this radical change and so there is some out against this. Party says if i go to a party i lose too much time he goes to the i. M. F. To do a Shock Therapy with that was that the way it was called that with a country that everything that depended on the state for everything you cant just jump into a free market economy without giving attention to the people without convincing the people without doing some kind of political a menu for there to convincing people that that isnt this is a the people didnt think it was necessary thats the point i really think that this is he was used to something and as god will said if you change this its going to be painful and its in the societys going to resist and thats thats theyve got a. Nineteen eighty nine the country was facing a very dire situation the government of congress on the basis of which i was part. Did try to rebalance the economy by eliminating all of these price controls Exchange Controls refinancing that and asking for International Financial assistance but before any of these policies were adopted the government that had taken over on february second one nine hundred eighty nine was met with this got a council. This was a massive revolt of the venezuelan people. Populous sectors pull sectors who were coming down from the body also. It started out of the race of petrol in the gut stations. People class people who are run second markets. It spirals into this matter of social explosion because in many ways that venezuelan dream had come to an end. The back to the old the field was shattered because in response to the massive social protests spontaneous social protest the government got one hundred s. Babies his ministers is the porters supported use of the military. The deepening economic turmoil and simmering distrust of the political elite now so caracas a blaze with riots and looting. Oh president peres gave orders for the military to restore order to the streets of caracas the militarys response would be deadly. These words troops the head some of them were young says that eighteen years old they were afraid of the people of the city big put them into shanty towns and they started killing it was a very brutal it was a very horrific repression all the pop. Immobilize they should this was the moment of reps or with democracy and so the headline in newsweek in the us was a lot americas model democracy explodes. Government figures claimed two hundred seventy six civilians were killed in the military crackdown independent reports suggested the death toll was almost twice as high. A red line had been crossed and a new figure was about to match that would challenge a failing government and change the course of venezuelan history. Think military side are conspiring against the government of. The colors of this palace and this conspiracy is going to take place is going to come out in the open in one thousand nine hundred two with the coup of february the fourth the leader of the coup was to which of us. The coup attempt was launched in six different cities across from this way love because chavez had failed to catch a clue that because he was basically taken prisoner and during a very very Famous Television interview when the coup was over the government brought all the laws are going to be going to. Move forward in or out of the work that weve done jabbers said we failed to achieve our goals from now. This two word sentence really became the catchphrase of demands for political change in venezuela the government of paris doing these reforms how did a lot of these content when chavis attempted coup in for a variety nineteen ninety two. Suddenly this content got the face. That would represent it the disturbances that the society. Has is now on the political map and he in effect as soon as the political savior those completely disaffected and they do. Chavez a middle ranking officer in the Venezuelan Army had failed to overthrow carlos under his peres and was sent to prison. He would be released within two years hed taken on a corrupt elite stood up for the poor and transformed himself from a man of the military to a man of the people. By nine hundred ninety eight a man who would be king would be elected as president. Thank you. Well if we cannot have palestinian my government was certainly not allowed britain to control the french promised time would be now true but then we need to find another solution before we come to blows more than a century ago britain and france made a secret deal that would influence the shape of the middle east for more than a century to come and so. Now we can draw a map. Sikes pico lines in the sand at this time on aljazeera. The nature of news as it breaks the u. S. Cut the funding has cemented the feeling here that the u. S. Is now part of the problem and has picked the israeli side with detailed coverage the Nigerian Government insists negotiations are ongoing to secure the release of the girls and hundreds of others. From around the world three decades on chileans are still thinking about abuses but this time those committed by the church. A unique poor trait of a small gulf nation living under siege what made this to friends was they targeted sent their pain to be forced to leave would just be all and then gains by this a little bit has given us the desire to carry on with our lives and be creative maybe on the turn downs but its not a marriage bargain business. Has become more united. Beyond the blockade at this time on aljazeera. Hello im in london harry headlines on aljazeera the clamor has been growing for jacob zuma to stand down as south africas president the past six hours his party the a. N. C. Has been meeting to discuss his fate a special gathering is a final attempt to precious zuma to resign hes facing a number of allegations of corruption but has refused to stand down before his term ends next year. All opposition parties have come out today to say that they want a motion of no confidence which was set out for the twenty second of this month they want that brought forward to this week and once that motion of no confidence is debated and these parties and members of Parliament Vote they Want Parliament dissolve to say they have no faith in this institution that has protected jacob zuma and that also has in how the president to account and our other top stories nongovernmental organizations have pledged more than three hundred Million Dollars to help iraq with build after its war with i still but the figure is well short of one hundred billion dollars the Iraqi Government says it needs a Donor Conference is being held in kuwait to raise funds to help rebuild cities destroyed in the three year conflict. The u. S. Secretary of state says the trouble ministration is committed to working with egypt to defeat i still Rex Tillerson discuss the issue with egypts foreign minister Sameh Shoukry in cairo at the start of his middle east tour investigators in russia are trying to determine how a passenger plane crashed minutes after taking off killing all seventy one people on board the sars Alliance Flight was heading to or squint it plunged into a field in the countryside outside the capital moscow on sunday. As deputy chief executive has resigned as the charity faces mounting criticism over its handling of allegations of Sexual Misconduct by some of its staff oxfam denies concealing the findings of an inquiry into claims staff use prostitutes while delivering aid in haiti in two thousand and eleven the u. K. Government is threatening to withdraw funding from the charity. And a state of emergency has been declared in tonga as the pacific nation braces for tropical cyclon keita the storm is just off the coast of the most populous island packing winds of two hundred seventy five kilometers an hour its expected to make impact as a category five storm Evacuation Centers have been set up and a curfew imposed. The big picture the battle for venezuela now continues ill be back with the news hour after that stay with us. In december one thousand nine hundred ninety eight chavez a former on the left tenant was elected as president of venezuela so you order from and then they are oh johnny free in a country divided by race and class white equal to wealth and privilege and anything else meant everything less chavezs victory was an historic turning point he was of mixed indigenous heritage he was really nothing like anything that we had ever seen before in terms of venezuelan president ial elections or politics which would always been very much dominated by an a white elite class a politician. So obvious was elected on a very simple blood form saying that essentially a problem is corruption and we have to get rid of this political. Leader. Chavez was talking about the importance of ace third way between socialism and capitalism it was all about participation democracy a what chavez was promising to do was to completely overhaul the pontiff equal states yet because of the article. The new president created a constituent assembly to write a new constitution and set about his task of transforming the country. To say we need to eradicate this poverty and our country and the way to do it is by gaining control of our oil industry making sure those profits are going back into our country. Because they want to import closer to get a bit less of a base i dont know what the embassy in but it was each of the end of it and we have no. Doubt that they do that. By seeking greater control of the National Oil Company divest chavez was taking on venezuelas most prized and powerful asset. The fight for pet of s s spilled out onto the streets becoming symbolic of the struggle between two venezuelas one left behind find oil field modality the alba looking to keep its place and its control within it. Caracas was a tinderbox of competing ideals back playing for the very idea of that his way. Finishing up once in a huge to more everyday demonstrations in the street. And going to meet offloading the Person Injured party. But it was an opposition rally it was moving in the hundreds of thousands towards the palace in order to us to resign. But the palace was surrounded by backers of we were childless though going to resist this other. People that were on the buildings shooting. We dont know who they were. Several civilian fell bit of both sides. So obvious call the army to send the pants in the street to stop the people. Army so sorry this is a political problem. We are not sending the folks on the street to stop the people. That was a coup that was really when the moment the cool happened was when his minister said. I cant go out. The army had been scarred by the handling of the car so unrest in one thousand a. But its high ranking been conspiring with elements of the elite establishment deposed by chavez and together they plotted his downfall. We started getting reports. In the fall of two thousand and one that you know this guy that guy the other guy are planning a coup. Charles ship iraq had taken his seat is the u. S. Ambassador to venezuela just three weeks before the coup against president chavez a coup that was far from secret it becomes like background noise if were hearing this everybody in venezuela is hearing it as well the executives have been there is there were in the queue the church was in the cool the cardinal of course was in the cool. The into benoit the president the government is was in that cool and so became clear that they were planning something and the u. S. Ambassador who was in venice while at the time was openly collaborating with the opposition i did not the u. S. Government did not organize plan implement. Authorize a coup ok and if i have im not organized enough to have organized a coup in three weeks chavez was forced out by this coalition of you know these opposition groups allied with these dissenting military high ranking military officers who had forcefully gone in and taken him against his well. Chavez had been ousted taken into custody and flown to an offshore military base. Petro com mona the head of the Venezuelan Chamber of commerce but they come ross was now hastily sworn in as interim president his presidency would last only hour as. When this huge as demonstration comes in just simply drives carmona and his government out of the president ial palace. Military since a helicopter the pick up job is childish gets back to the president ial palace. Is Something Like a movie. It would come good in the helicopter and then by the people of waiting for the. Go to sleep when youre president of the. Within forty eight hours of being overthrown chavez was back in power. Eight months later his authority would be challenged once again. Sir offices of the Earth Company seem to have been involved in the coup but in any case chose didnt feel Strong Enough to oust them from the company and what they did was. Continued to conspire to make a bit of coup thats really with it. So what was a bit cool an oil lockout. This is not a strike. This was the result of an action taken by executives and by high Oil Executive officials to actually lock out employees to bring production to zero to try to crash the economy in venezuela to put the economy on its knees. The National Oil Company along with the Union Federation and the chamber of commerce conspired to bring venezuela to an economic standstill with the way of bringing down the chavis. The strike seemed to be a failure they were unable to stop production theres a new sense of pay their base that comes out of the strike that pay their base are now belongs to a larger number of venezuelans than rather the symbol of a privileged status for a small select number of individuals. Who got chavez had health and now at the beginning of two thousand and three the president s resilience and tourists. That leave no buddy buddy with their little everything thats a lesson for you on a plane literally going to come out here you know the feeling the feeling. So he went to cuba. And cuba came up. With a bunch of new social programs. And he started to implement these new social programs massive new social programs. For health care for access to food for. Or scholarships we have a whole raft of these socalled mysie own is the social programs which give people Citizenship Rights Identity Cards access to job training access to breakfast clubs University Systems so this is a very comprehensive effort to deliver basic social services what this is doing though is essentially Still Using Oil as that redemptive quality to bring social change. Bring in social change deepening the dependence on oil and we can do this while the prices of oil are hard. He had access to fame of good borel as if it was going out of fashion so. He decided the guard was the moment to radicalize the process. In two thousand and seven with the price of crude oil six times greater than when he was first elected to Office Chavez embarked on a nationalization drive to play a little bit of mass audiences young but little bit but clearly the business although he renegotiated Oil Contracts and brought power and Resource Companies as well as Telecommunications Groups and banks on to stay tona ship and in his view under the will of the venezuelan people. Is trying to continue on with this grassroots governance by the more entrenched he became in power the more sort of the further away he drifted from that initial model that had been so widely accepted and you know beloved by the people or oil prices began to decrease people began to say wait a minute before its all gone im going to get my piece of it when china as it first comes to power he had said that essentially there was going to be you know a hard hand annoying fist against these problems of corruption which had been sort of hurts from the point of view his mo but the reality was that absolutely nothing was done. As the integrity of his government with it so too did the president s health. Chavez was suffering with cancer and could no longer keep his ailing condition hidden from the venezuelan people. In october two thousand and twelve still frail from intensive treatment chavez won a fourth term as president by march two thousand and thirteen he was dead. Its impossible to underestimate the effect that the death of. The horror of the one saw on the streets. At the same time as the split ration of some people really was explicit tip of the venice well as we had with the thousands lined up to see him his body lying in state. Others in miami and others and that i celebrated. And decrease the dies with you who was willing through his charisma and through his money and those two things disappear in two thousand and thirty they didnt set any money aside in a Sovereign Wealth Fund on a Rainy Day Fund you know so they got money in case things go down everybody in the oil industry knows oil prices are cyclical. The use the period of the oil boom from two thousand and four to two thousand and fourteen to six to pull the public theyre the biggest sucker in venezuelan history is the guy whos going to follow chop as president and thats exactly what. Nicolas maduro a former bus driver and trade unionist it served as foreign minister was handpicked by chavez as his successor. Now apparently. You really will have more will remember borrowing by. My dear i was no chavez is narrow election victory in april two thousand and thirteen and the deepening economic crisis would herald protests from a restive population. And over a new challenge from an emboldened opposition. When the dollars to the price start dropping the government was inside had a severe death. And deny her the enough dollars to buy the food imports in the medicine and force. A whole wave of protests or roles in this context. What we have joy in the first couple of years of the manure of presidency is the opposition use of protest and street mobilization as a way of discrediting and diligence mys in the government becomes the key opposition tool the protests are sidetracked by these more violent sectors who are looking for an incident the. Protests against crime against Food Shortages and against Economic Hardship all ultimately protests against the mature of government. Violence was met with violence clashes between protesters and state forces would leave dozens of venezuelans dead. Modo has no support the only support them a hoss is the Repressive Forces of the state the military the police and the paramilitary groups. And parliamentary elections held in december two thousand and fifteen the opposition Democratic Unity roundtable that had included parties such as acts young democratica and cafe secured a two thirds majority in the National Assembly. Convulsed by the prospect of the opposition blocking government appointments as well as dictating policy president lied to and manipulated Supreme Court appointments and manufactured a ruling favorable to his objective to nullify the National Assembly. And thats where some of us began to see these transgressions into you know a more author a tarion type of government less democratic. You know then clearly weve stepped beyond the bounds of democracy and far beyond the participatory democracy that the ball of our own revolution had proposed to build in the country. In may two thousand and seventeen amidst continuing protests against his government but during announced plans to hold elections for a new legislative body was. The constituent assembly would have sweeping powers to rewrite the constitution and dissolve the opposition led National Assembly. Such plans would lead to three months of sustained clashes between antigovernment protesters and the governments own forces this mass protest was met with massive massive repression in the end a hundred thirty five people were killed fifteen of them all on july thirtieth twenty seventh in the day when the National Police took them to somebody who was elected. Fifteen thousand people were injured six thousand people were put in prison it was a repression of a scale that the country had never seen. Two thousand and seventeen would continue to be a year of contested elections the constituent assembly would be boycotted by the opposition leaving the two out loyalists with total control. The Ruling Socialist Party would also win eighteen of the twenty three governorships in the gubernatorial elections in october. Contested counts and procedural irregularities dog the elections that were claimed as proof of chevys most enduring appeal by madeira and gave cause for the opposition to call for more protests and more. On rest. In two thousand and eighteen the year of another pivotal president ial election the will divide a fractured nation once more the battle for venezuela goes on. People need to be expressed politically all the dissatisfaction in the rejection that they are feeling and the desire that they have put political change and i would i would say big wanted to mock the democracy and position hasnt known how to put their act together to give that strategy and that political expression because that is not going to come from the government they are all forty. Is there any way any chance that you can have the opposition and the government have any type of talks negotiations what is clear throughout discussion is that through the decades you have had a pos struggle you had a power struggle playing out this is a deeply divided society can these forces that have been opponents for so long. Coexists currently they are negotiating and i think. Theres a willingness on both sides to come to an agreement because the economic crisis has been dealing been going on for so long and people will tend to blame her for that although i think you know the us and the opposition bear a large part of the blame for the current economic crisis venezuela is in a kind of semi civil war situation right now with the opposition from the us u. S. Is putting tremendous pressure with its financial sanctions against in this way that were cannot refinance its debt that has having an Economic Impact as well as of course the ongoing kind of. Tremendously high inflation which i think is partly also the governments fault but the combination of these factors is going to cause a lot of people to say you know we give up were going to vote for somebody else i think they are only solution for venice where are negotiations for a transition to democracy meaning dressing nation of mother little free and Fair Elections. Supervised by International Organizations and to get a new path to democracy. Personally i think that the elections are already very guaranteed in terms of their security and protect protected against fraud but they could have additional controls and that could happen and then that might be a way of moving forward but it all depends again on who the opposition candidate is and if they can actually challenge the bowler and so to Speak Movement which is still very substantial and honestly is that existence between that that support the revolution and those that oppose a or is it always going to be like this in venezuela is zero sum game for survival i think that the people that are the top of the of the government dont have any. This position for changing their points of view and so there is no way we can go to a democratic transition but i think one could say the same thing about the stubbornness of the opposition i mean to have taken also very extreme very hard line positions that make negotiation extremely difficult so i would. Like for Fair Elections known to me it was a resignation that. I was in a cable back but thats what theyre about but that is not all and thats what im saying table im sorry but thats an example of for things to free the prisoners to recognize a National Last somebody to give a crown a gram of their of a Fair Election but the fourth and. And to respect International Law and to call for human rights i dont but its not that i think resignation agreement is possible but so far the demonstrations and all of the what the demands on the. Resignation of. Regimes are democratic is right. Im not saying that they cant i mean saying as long as they maintain that position and the agreement will not happen if you ask for a resignation of on officer a public officer thats your right loose im not saying its not their right im just saying that no agreement will be reached on that basis but that is not on the table of negotiation i repeat they are all for things that on the table and negotiate the resign is not on but thats part of an agreement is possible in that sense but not on the positive a little bit but many hundred residents and just say what is it you said you recognize a National Constituent assembly the opposition cannot recognize a National Constituent thats simply because its completely destroys democracy their main issue is that their government has the National Constituent assembly with were in super constitutional power that can. Decide whatever it wants to decide to suppress govern orders to suppress mayors to. Change it out of the National Assembly whatever it was you dont have any control social control on that body that is the body of the very notion that. The fist of that they dont ship i mean theres many different responses to but i mean one of them is of course that this was an elected body even though the government i mean the opposition boycotted that election once in a democratic election after by general needed something really do need government regulation to slow that opposition could have wanted as you know its funny that that is a. Good basis of democracy is one one citizen one vote. We are talking about toobin is with us the upper middle class in many ways thought that they owned the Venezuelan National project it was their project. It was their notion of a country because in many ways it was part of their property their privilege their position and that other in this way that was always an uncomfortable attachment that even this when i was always there but not part of the national narrative. That venezuela that was historically you raced out of the dominant narrative in the oil years that venezuela that exists in that one shows that surround us in almost every other major city in venezuela that venezuela which includes a very diverse segment of the population and who solve their lives improved under the charges. And goes well beyond what Business Vision wise for venezuela. But a lot of this is showing is that the movement wasnt Strong Enough to survive on its own without its leader. This is a regime and their rules according to the right they have to move because they are the successes of tones that inherit his legacy. How is it possible that a participatory democracy thats supposed to be grassroots based and government of the people can survive with just the people was really led by a leader. Because no one can fill the shoes of a child as. Were dealing with us a very Fragmented Society it comes from two different lived experiences there is no going back to pre nine hundred ninety eight and preach obvious venezuela has been transformed it has changed what it will evolve to remain cities. I guess. Hello there weve had some very active weather over parts of australia recently seen over the southern parts of queensland where weve seen some of the most active weather doesnt show up very well on the satellite pictures of it but what its given us is some very active thunder and lightning very intense displays there over surface paradise now i think over the next few days it could well be some more because its going to stay hot here so they could well be more fun to storms elsewhere well its not looking too bad at late there were the around thirty one and force in perth were looking at around twenty seven there are some showers in the land and those could give us one or two rather heavy downpours but around the coast mostly staying fine unless youre in tasmania now as we head across towards new zealand here all the wet weather has cleared away and for most of us here should be fine over the next few days but weve got to watch this system very closely this is a storm gaeta has crossed tonga and is gradually edging its way towards the west it should stay to the south of fiji fiji will just see the outer bands of cloud of rain so we could still see some flooding here but the worst of the storm shouldnt hit us even further towards the north and theres plenty of wintery weather again for us in japan most of that is in the west further east it should be relatively mild at ten degrees there in tokyo. This is aljazeera. Hello im Maryanne Demasi this is the news hour live from london coming up in the new