time for hardtalk welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. there was a time last year when it seemed that president maduro‘s grip on power in venezuela was loosening. yet here we are, two months away from a presidential election with maduro oozing confidence and his opponents seemingly in disarray. my guest today is one diehard anti—regime activist, david smolansky, who was the mayor of a district in caracas until he fled the country to escape a jail term for aiding the street protests last year. why does venezuela's opposition so consistently promise more than it delivers? david smolansky in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for having me. we're glad to have you on the show, albeit via satellite in washington, dc. how does it feel to be a venezuelan, a politician, an activist who currently is living in the us capital? do you feel uncomfortable? obviously it is not comfortable because i want to be in my country. i am a public servant. i was removed from office with no justification at all. but at the same time, i have prepared myself to be in exile because i know that this regime does not tolerate anyone who thinks differently. you were the mayor of a district of caracas. a district where we saw mass street protests in the summer of last year. the government accused you of using your powers to aid and abet the protests — rather than keep the streets clear, you encouraged the protesters to block the streets. is that true? it is not true. firstly, our laws and our constitution guarantee the right that any citizen may protest. every protest that i had in my district in caracas was peaceful. it was nonviolent. the hospital of my town, el hatillo, had to tend to hundreds of students who were wounded at the protests because of the oppression of the security forces. maduro does not tolerate any mayor for the position. 13 mayors in the last four years have been removed. we represent 10 million of the population of venezuela, that is one third of the venezuelan population. as you say, the supreme court removed you from office. it did not remove you from the country. that was entirely your decision as it became clear that you are going to be imprisoned for 15 months on these charges of aiding and abetting the protests. you did not stay to face the music, you chose to flee. i wonder, in retrospect, given that some other venezuelans, politicians including leopoldo lopez, the leader of your own party have taken a very different decision, they have chosen to stay and fight, do you regret your decision? i do not regret. i went to clandestinity for 35 days. when i was in clandestinity, security forces were looking after me. my family was threatened. my team was also threatened. i decided to flee the country because i think i can do more in exile to recover democracy and freedom in venezuela. it is a very personal decision. i do not regret it and i have a history with this because of my grandparents who left the soviet union in 1927. my father left cuba in 1970. now i had to leave venezuela in 2017 so i know what it is to flee a country because of dictators. i do take that point and i am very aware that it is easy for me to sit in a studio in london and second—guess a very difficult decision that you had to face. i return to the leader of your party, one of the leading opposition figures in the country, leopoldo lopez. he — i know this myself because i visited your country and had some experience talking to lopez's family. he made the decision to stay and fight. he ended up in detention for an awful long time and is currently under house arrest. in many ways i think many venezuelans would argue that that enhanced his credibility. you were one of the youngest opposition mayors in all of venezuela, a rising star in the party. i wonder if you think your credibility, in some ways, has been damaged by fleeing, first to brazil and then to washington, dc? first of all i have to say that leopoldo lopez has shown courage. he is a brave man, our leader in voluntad popular, the name of our political party. and when i decided to flee the country i was able to talk to him and he supported the strategy. i am not the only one from our political party in exile. secondly, i am not concerned about my credibility because at the end of the day, you build credibility when you have clear convictions. my convictions in washington, dc, brazil or anywhere, if i go, is the same as they are in venezuela. i work really hard to recover democracy, to recoverfreedom, to recover security and being able to return to venezuela, being part of that generation that will rebuild our country that is suffering too much of a humanitarian crisis. your country is suffering. the economy is in a terrible mess and poverty rates are frighteningly high and people are struggling for food and basic medicines. yet, the protest movement, which was so strong last year and saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of caracas and other towns and cities, it has dwindled to nothing. why? because maduro was against the wall and he used weapons, he used guns and he used bullets and he used all the forces to keep power. last year i was on those protests. 120 consecutive days. from april one tojuly 30 we were on the streets, nonviolently, and over 130 people were killed. as a mayor i had to bury five of them. the world needs to understand that venezuelans, the vast majority, disapprove of this regime. we have not been able to change maduro because he is using weapons to keep power and unfortunately part of the armed forces, i'm not saying everyone, but part of the armed forces act like a political party with weapons which is something dangerous for people, as i said before, for people who are suffering and have to flee the country. you say the world needs to understand. i think one thing the world are struggling to understand is what exactly the strategy of the opposition is. i am looking at quotes here from the man we discussed earlier, leopoldo lopez, also mayor ledezma from caracas, also henrique capriles, another opposition leader. all of them were saying last year that these protests will continue until we bring maduro down. but there we have it — nicolas maduro is still in power. there are no more street protests and the opposition just last week was actually in a dialogue, a negotiation with maduro. so what is the strategy today? first of all we have had protest. just a different protest. the ones we had last year, they were mainly political protests. but if you see the all the protests we have had in 2018, it is desperate people looking for food, looking for medicines and maduro has also repressed innocent people. second, the negotiations in the dominican republic, which i must say, i disagree and in my opinion that was a strategy from the regime to gain time and to keep power, at the end of the day it did not have any agreement. the opposition went, they did not sign an agreement because we do not have free elections. the majority of the candidates are inexile, are injail, are ruled out to compete. the political party has been illegalised so you cannot go to an election where the only one who can compete is nicolas maduro with a referee playing for him. isn't this the point i am getting at? there is deep division and some might say chaos within the opposition. you have julio borges, who has appeared on this programme, one of the opposition leaders who was adamant that they should go to dominican republic and explore possibilities with the regime and then you have others like yourself saying no, that is a crazy idea. there is no coherent strategy or vision within the opposition. i say this after the dialogue, as someone who is part of a political party, you must be disciplined and i was. unfortunately there was no agreement at all. but i must say something. i think media, and the international community, all the time are talking about the different criteria that the opposition has which in my opinion is good because that is democracy. no—one is talking about the divisions in the regime. the minister ofjustice, miguel rodriguez torres, he went out of the political party of the regime. also that happened to the attorney general, the ex president of petroleos de venezuela also is critical to the regime. i look more to the fractures in the regime. in my opinion it is good to have different criteria from the opposition but i agree with you that we need to have one strategy. and our strategy at the moment is that we are not going to elections because there is no guarantee. it is not free, it is not fair and as i said before, the candidates are exile, imprisoned or are banned. but that would be a big mistake because nicolas maduro is now adamant that the elections will happen on april 22. he says, and i quote, "we should be united as venezuelans, putting aside our differences, putting our country first and showing what really unites us." he says he welcomes a challenge from anybody in the opposition who chooses to stand against him for the presidency. it is not going to look good, when you are the champions of democracy and yet you refuse to take up this opportunity to defeat maduro at the ballot box. you are a champion of democracy if you go to an election that is democratic. we do not have that in venezuela because there is no independent institution and as i said before, the political party for the opposition and candidates are ruled out so we must be coherent. and to be coherent is to say we cannot go to the election unless we have the conditions. we are not alone in that. france, spain, the united states, canada even colombia have said that they will not recognise elections in venezuela. last week, the european parliament, with a landslide 480 votes in favour, condemned that call for election and said that sanctions must be expanded after they sanction seven high officials from the regime. so almost nobody in the world is recognising the election that we are having in venezuela. isn't one of the problems here that despite the massive economic problems facing ordinary venezuelans, many of your countrymen and women do not trust the various leaders and figures in the opposition to deliver a better, fairer venezuela than the current regime of maduro? i will quote you one respected analyst of venezuelan who lives here in london at the university of london, 0scar guardiola—rivera. he said this. "the majority of venezuelans fear the return of the right wing to power, more than the alleged incompetence of maduro." the majority of venezuelans are surviving. unfortunately, people are not living in venezuela, the people are surviving. the majority of venezuelans wake up every day looking for what they will have for breakfast, the majority go to bed very worried because they do not find a medicine to cure a member of their family. i know that to be true because i have seen it for myself. yeah. my point is many of the poorest people in venezuela do not see that the opposition coalition groups have an agenda which is more likely to deliver them an easier and better life than the chavista government. we have had an agenda. we had 120 days of protest last year. those negotiations in the dominican republic were the last chance to have free and fair elections. we're did not go to these election. and now we are discussing in different ways how to face these challenges. do you want to hear my opinion? i will tell you on this programme. my opinion is that we need to go to an election by ourselves, as we did last year on the 16th ofjuly. you can correct me, but we need to do that. we need to elect our president, our vice president, the minister of foreign affairs, someone responsible for the economy, and we have something really unique in a dictatorship. we still have the parliament, and that parliament could swear in a new president. 0k, imagine you did that. what policies would you actually pursue? i want to put you on the spot on one particular policy, and that is, would you back much tougher international sanctions? for example, united states, where you are today, they are looking at deepening the sanctions regime to stop it targeting known individuals at the top of the regime and actually consider an oil embargo. now, what would you as an opposition figure in america, what would you say to the idea of that kind of much more tough sanctions regime imposed by the united states? 0k, let me go part by part. first, it would not be that symbolic, it would have the support of the people, the support of the parliament, and the support of international communities. so, we could get maduro against the wall again. second, i think that it's important to keep the sanctions, not only from the united states and canada, i think it's important what the european union said last week. and also, it's something that i would like to propose, latin american countries that could, uh, for example, restrict the, umm, flights that some of the high officials do in latin america. that would be really important because many of the high officials and their families have their properties and bank accounts in latin america. and third, the oil embargo. i me is something that, it sounds, in my opinion, out of context in this moment. why ? venezuela has, as you know, the biggest oil reserves in the world. we should be exporting at least 5 or 6 million barrels a day. now we are exporting just a million and a half. i mean, the person that has embargoed our country, maduro, is destroying venezuela. you are in washington, dc, have you had contact with senator marco rubio from florida? i haven't talked to him personally. i havejust been in washington for three months. so i have had talks with the, umm, part of his staff, but i haven't known him personally. rrght, but his staff, the other day rubio tweeted this. "the world would support the armed forces in venezuela if they decided to protect the people and restore democracy by removing this dictator." do you support that kind of language coming from an american politician? i think what is really important for venezuelans is we need to persuade our soldiers to be institutional. unfortunately, our venezuela right now has 2,000 generals, that's more than the whole navy. and those 2,000 generals are allegedly linked to things very dangerous, such as trafficking, money laundering, and corruption. but the low and middle range of our soldiers are suffering like any other venezuelan. they suffer from hyperinflation, that is predicted to hit 18,000%. if we persuade them to be institutional, to obey the laws in the constitution, i think we can have a change in venezuela. you have not really answered my question so i will ask it again, this time with the words of secretary of state rex tillerson. he said "in the history of venezuela and other south american countries, oftentimes the military is the agent of change when things are very bad." a clear implication he thinks that time has come in venezuela. i put it to you again, the americans at the very top level are suggesting the time has come for an army rebellion against the regime. do you back those calls? are you pleased the americans are using the language? but, as i said before, i mean, i wouldn't get to the play of words here. what i'm clear, and as someone who had to work with police, and with that police, we had to work sometimes with the national guard, we need our soldiers to obey the constitution. we need our soldiers to obey the laws. we need them to be institutional. and if they... what you... if they do that... what you are repeatedly avoiding is any mention of the us role. people like you and the opposition who end up in washington, dc, are painted by maduro and his allies as people who are fellow travellers with "imperialismo," with the traditional us interference in venezuelan affairs. if you cannot defend that language from washington, perhaps maduro has a point. as i said before, i do not have any problem to repeat that we need to persuade our soldiers to be institutional. the problem is that, in the history of latin america, we have talked all the time about coup d'etat. in my opinion, in venezuela, we have continuous coup d'etats. for example, the election on april 22nd. historically, presidential elections are always at the end of every year and are called six months before. so, when i say that we need to persuade our soldiers to be institutional, umm, i do not regret that. and to be in the united states and called imperialist, that is something that, to be honest with you, i do not want to sound rude, i do not care, because the country has been intervened with cubans, the chinese and russians are also playing very hard in our country, taking our oil. the problem in venezuelan needs to be solved by venezuelans, but at the same time, we need help from the international community, especially to recover the economy and solve our humanitarian crisis. we will end with this point. there you have been sitting in washington for the last three months doing the best to play an external political role, raising the profile of the opposition campaign against maduroyou disappointed with the international community. as you say, russia, china, they are still backing maduro. many leftists in latin america and europe and elsewhere still backing maduro. are you fundamentally disappointed? i'm not at all. i have to say the international community has been really active in venezuela, especially in the last month. just what you saw in the european parliament last week, 480 parliamentarians voted condemning the call to elections in venezuela, including, including, left—wing political parties. when you see president santos in columbia saying he will not recognise the elections when brazil is helping all venezuelans fleeing the country in the north of brazil. so, i am feeling for the first time that we are not alone, we are not isolated as the opposition, and we have to see that the things going on in venezuela is not a threat to venezuelans. the regime of maduro is a threat to the region. and the maduro regime, i have to say, is the biggest crisis in the western hemisphere. we have the end it there, but thank you very much for coming on hardtalk. thank you very much for having me. thanks forjoining me. time we updated you on the weather prospects for the whole of the british isles for the next few days or so. wednesday started in a pretty wild and woolly way across the north—western quarter of scotland. as ever, our weather watchers were there to capture the evidence for us, but things improved dramatically. come a little further south, not far really, troon beach and ayrshire. the difference, you had to get rid of this big old weather front which really made a difference. started dry enough across the eastern side of the british isles but, as that moved in from the west, it brought quite a bit of cloud and rain. thankfully that's moved away. thursday starts on a brighter note for many, a drier note, though not necessarily, because certainly across western spots, particularly the north—western quarter of the british isles, there will be showers. elsewhere, bright enough and breezy sort day. quite a few isobars on that chart, and it makes a difference whether you are in the northern half of the british isles or the south, because further north, you are in the circulation of the big area of low pressure — there's quite a bit of wind, and it's got quite a bit of northerly in it, which makes it feel that much cooler. come a little bit further south, and a little ridge of high pressure is trying to calm things down. still breezy. there's a lot of isobars on that chart. the wind an ever—present right across the british isles. but i think the bulk of the activity found across the north, so if you are spending the day across southern parts, and here i'm showing you the real detail — it's almost like, if you need reading glasses, we've just put them on to see exactly where those showers are, and you can see them peppering through western scotland and northern ireland. the bigger picture, yes, we know there are words on that page, but we take those glasses off and we get the overall sense of what's going on. here are those temperatures. five, six, seven in the north, ten, 11, possibly 12 in the south. taking you out of thursday, pushing on towards friday, not a great deal changes, save perhaps a greater influence from this little ridge of high pressure coming across the southern half of the british isles, killing off what showers there may have been on thursday. less in the way of breeze, but there's just not enough influence from that ridge of high pressure to keep this rain away from the western side of scotland, maybe later on into the fringes of northern ireland, but the temperature differential just beginning to ease up here — seven or eight in the north, ten or 11 in the south. what about the weekend? it starts off none too badly. it's not wall—to—wall sunshine, but i need you to keep that little area of low pressure in mind, because it may on sunday give some parts a little bit of rain. otherwise, it's not a bad weekend. this is newsday on the bbc. i am sharanjit leyl in london. at least 17 people are shot dead at a high school florida. a former student is arrested. it is over for south africa's embattled president, jacob zuma. he says he will resign. i'm rico hizon in singapore. morgan tsvangirai, the veteran zimbabwean opposition leader and prime minister, dies. and globally, more than a0 million girls marry each year as children. we speak to a child protection advocate who says this needs to stop. live from our studios in london and singapore, this is bbc world news.