at maduro and thinking, here s a guy that we maybe have to do business with. yeah, and i think that s unfortunate, stephen. and i think that s putting profits and oil before democracy and freedom. and i think that s hypocritical at many times. i believe that the west, i believe that democracies, i believe that the free world needs to engage with determination against autocratic regimes, and thinking that there are some good dictators just because they have oil and that they can supply some stability of oil that they won t, because maduro won t do that, is something that in the long term will be against the interests of the united states and the free world. that s why, in our view, as venezuelans, of course, but also as a believer of democracy worldwide, we need to engage in pushing towards the democratisation of venezuela as the main priority or, i believe, should be the main priority of the united states and europe. of course, we all know. just on the diplomacy here, do you think, in
just the power of maduro, but also the international support that maduro has gotten. we have received international support from the us, from europe, from other countries, mostly in diplomatic support, in political support. however, maduro has the support of china, of russia, of iran, of turkey, of belarus, of cuba in ways that are not comparable to the type of support that we have. well, we ll get to the international situation and diplomacy in just a second. but let s just stick with what s happening inside venezuela. you re popular will party, and let s remind ourselves that you, in a sense, were the mentor tojuan guaido, who back in 2019 was declared by the national assembly as the interim president of venezuela by the opposition movement. you were a key player in that, but i m just wondering how disappointed you were at the end of last
american service people to further your efforts at a coup, a disaster, a fiasco. also the way that you and others have tried to run some of venezuela s external assets, including, for example, a fertiliser company in colombia, which is now shrouded in allegations of corruption. to the venezuelan people and the outside world, you appear to have failed to be credible. well, in fact, there has been mistakes, as you very well mentioned. i want to make very clear that the one case that you mentioned as i stated last time we spoke, we had absolutely nothing to do with the group of mercenaries that came to venezuela in 2020. this is something that came up in our last interview. and i want to reiterate that. guaido, myself or our party had nothing to do with that. with respect to the management of assets, there are different approaches to that. we were able, guaido was able to safeguard one of the largest
opportunity that they had to give their people the possibility to choose their way forward. we don t have that luxury in venezuela. we don t have free and fair elections. so you ask me what do you need. i understand, leopoldo lopez, that it always, in the end, for you it comes back to democracy. and i am very interested to note that in the last few weeks you have been working with a series of international pro democracy activists trying to establish a network, a worldwide network of democratic activists who are sharing knowledge about confronting authoritarian regimes. ijust wonder, given everything we ve talked about, and let s face it, the fact that you haven t managed to deliver democratisation in venezuela, certainly not in the way that you d hoped, what can you teach democratic activists in russia, iran and elsewhere? it s not about teaching anybody. it s about sharing, because none of this
amongst many ordinary venezuelans now with this insistence that sanctions must continue. well, i think that s not understanding, stephen, with all due respect, the origin of the crisis. the origin of the crisis was not sanctions. the migration crisis, the economic crisis, the humanitarian crisis started way before the imposition of sanctions. so the reality is that maduro is a criminal, he s a crook, he s corrupt. and all of the administration of a hitherto very wealthy country we were producing 3.7 million barrels of oil 20 years ago, now we re producing less than 500,000 barrels of oil per day. venezuela is no longer an oil economy, and that s all because of the corruption of maduro, not because of the sanctions. sanctions are a means to an end, and they need to be put in the table for negotiation. and as the united states has been very, very clear, and we hope they commit to what they have been saying publicly, is that sanctions will be lifted if, and only if, there is meaningful