Humanitarian crisis at home, international involvement, and the effort to restore democracy. This is an hour. Thank you to the press club. It is an honor for me to be here to discuss the venezuelan crisis and have a q and a session with all of you. Before going forward, i would like to give you details on how i got here. Born in venezuela but in a small town, far away from the capital. A small village and i had the opportunity to go to a Public School in venezuela. I went to caracas because they didnt have a university in my small town. And had anolarship opportunity to come to the states. At 14, i was demonstrating on the streets, proclaiming venezuelan rights and in a certain way, warning to the venezuelans and the International Community that we were facing a dictatorship and in 2014, the regime decided to issue an order of arrest against me. Only for defending venezuelan rights. After that, i spend more than 100 days in hiding inside of venezuela. They were trying to capture me. Violent resist through attempts of arrests inside venezuela. They didnt capture me at that and after that, i received many threats against me, against my family. My wife was pregnant at that moment and they were harassing my wife, my family. After that, i decided to leave my country. I would say this has been the most difficult decision i have ever taken in my life. I came to the states in 2014. Since then, i have been in exile and i have been working internationally to denounce what is happening in venezuela and at the same time telling the people what we represent for the future of venezuela. My son was born here so i have an american now. He is with my exile. I am not totally free, to be honest. I am not totally free. I have been forced to be out of venezuela for political reasons. In my view, that is unacceptable in the 21st century. This is not the country we deserve. We deserve a continent of democracy and freedom and that is what we are fighting or. We are fighting for universal principles. We need to keep defending those principles and values. So also, i want to thank all of you because, as we know, we dont have the freedom of the press in venezuela or freedom of speech in venezuela. The people know what is going on in venezuela mainly because of you. I want to thank you because of that. We are talking about the suffering of the venezuelan people and in a certain way you have been putting in the headlines what is going on in venezuela and the type of dictatorship we are confronting. Having said that, i would like to highlight the context of the venezuelan crisis so that you may know. After that i would like to give you an overview of where we are and then open for the q and a session. The first point i would like to make is that we are facing the worst humanitarian crisis in our recent history. We have not seen this in the past, in the continent. You know all the numbers better than me. The Economic Contraction is close to 60 . Twice the size of the Great Depression during the 1930s here in the states. States. The inflation projections the last one i saw was 10,000,000 . We have a lack of food and medicine and people are dying because of that. I can resume saying that we are counting the loss of life in venezuela and that is the reality. Probably the most visible thing you can see the crisis is the millions of venezuelans who have been forced to be out of the country like me. 4 million so far. If maduro continues in power, that number could go up to 5 million. If we do our projection for the next year, by the end of next year is close to 8 million. This is the largest refugee crisis in this continent. The continent has not seen this in the past. It is the second one after the syrian refugee crisis and it could become the first one across the globe. We need to stop this. We need to stop this. It is enough. The people of venezuela are suffering. The people of venezuela are divided. They are looking for a Better Future because they dont find a future inside of venezuela. With this situation, this will be my second point, the only way keep this in mind. The only way to resolve the venezuelan crisis is taking out maduro. Taking maduro out of power. Putting an and to the dictatorship in venezuela. It is the only way to resolve the crisis. Restore democracy in our country. That is why we have been fighting in our country. At the beginning of this year, the interim president juan guaido assumed the presidency of venezuela following a constitutional procedure. I would like to be clear on this. As you know, maduro conducted a fake election, declared by our National Assembly as illegal. There was a vacancy in the presidency of venezuela. According to our constitution the president of the National Assembly has the obligation to assume the presidency of venezuela. In other words, juan guaido did not have any other choice. He automatically becomes the president of venezuela. That is why we are claiming the legitimacy of the government of venezuela. That is why there is only one legitimate president in venezuela and this person is juan guaido. The president of the National Assembly and the speaker of the house, now he is the interim president of venezuela according to our constitution. It is not fair to say that he has been selfproclaimed as the president of venezuela. No. He was declared president of venezuela according to article 233 of our constitution. We have an agenda to solve the venezuelan crisis. This agenda has three main points. One is that we need to end the dictatorship in venezuela. The second one, we would like to set a Transitional Government in venezuela and we would like to call for a free and fair election. This is our agenda. This is the agenda set by venezuelan and by our leaders. That is why we have been asking for the support of the International Community, to back the agenda set by venezuelans. Having said that, it is important to mention this will be the third point the complexity of our crisis. As you know, we are facing a brutal and criminal dictatorship. Dictatorship that, in our view, has been involved in drug trafficking, Money Laundering, illegal transactions, human right abuses and links to terrorist groups. There is no doubt this regime is sponsoring terrorism in the region, particularly inside venezuela. The president from columbia has said that the top leaders of the eln are in venezuela and committing crime inside of venezuela and also in columbia. Actually, they put a bomb inside of columbia this year, killing many people in columbia. Also, they have a presence in 12 states in our country, doing illegal activities inside of venezuela with the drugs and the illegal gold transactions. As you can see, this regime is affecting not only venezuelans and neighboring countries, it is affecting the region, it is affecting the security of the region. If we do not stop this, we can be facing a difficult situation in the near term that will affect not only neighboring countries but also the United States. That is why this crisis has become complex. Also, it is important to mention that the support of cuba and russia has added an additional element to this crisis. In some ways, cuba is exporting the knowhow on how to repress and control the society in venezuela. They have been given support to the maduro regime. This has to be taken into account if we want to have a peaceful solution in our country. The fourth point i would like to make is, we have denounced this. You may know who i have mentioned but it is important to highlight that recently, the u. N. Higher commissioner of human rights released a report saying what i am saying right now. The highest Human Rights Institution in the world has said that the maduro regime is a mafia. A criminal organization. They are willing to kill people in order to preserve the power, that they are willing to control our society with Food Distribution. That report states that there is not a single right that is not been violated by maduro. Think about any ride. Right. That right has been violated by this regime. These reports say clearly that the maduro regime has killed in 2018, they killed, they assassinated close to 7000 people. They have persecuted. They have put people in jail, they have tortured people. They have played with the Food Distribution to control the society. The report is quite important because its coming from an independent institution that is recognized worldwide. Fifth point. So far, 55 organizations have destinations nations have recognized juan guaido. As the interim president of venezuela. This is quite remarkable. I have not seen this since world war ii. Different circumstances, different time, different moment. Im not trying to compare the moment. This is an Important InternationalCoalition Supporting a venezuelan political movement. I have not seen that. The most important democratic countries are supporting our movements in venezuela. We have preserved that coalition so far. We need to keep that coalition. Of course, the u. S. Has become an important ally with us. They are working to increase the pressure against the maduro regime. We need to show the change in venezuela. We are supporting a peaceful transition and that situation is sending a clear message not only to our supporters, but to our allies and to our military forces. So we have altogether, just working with the International Community a transition in our country. The seventh point. The role of our mission. Since i got this position, i have been working with the International Pressure and working together with the International Community preserving the coalition. Second. How to alleviate the suffering of the people. We are looking for humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering, not only of the venezuelans outside of venezuela. But also for those inside the country. Third, how to protect our asset, as you know we are working with citgo. We control it. It is the most important asset we have outside venezuela. We have appointed the new board. We have protected citgo. For the future of venezuela and to be ready for the recovery. The fourth point that im doing in the mission. How can we protect the citizens of venezuela . You are in the u. S. Who are in the u. S. We have worked with the administration in affect thing the expired passports. Now we are working to avoid deportation of venezuelans. And the last point i would like to make today before going to the q a is where we are where we are. Just think about about december 2018. Where were we in 2018 . The beginning of 2019. We didnt have any strategy. We did not have a clear issue. Clear leadership. A clear unification of the Democratic Forces and that is in venezuela. And now, six months later, think about that, where we are now. Where we are now. We have clear, united, Democratic Forces. We have a clear leader in venezuela, who is juan guaido. Let me tell you more. Juan guaido has become the most popular president in venezuela in the last 20 years without appearing on national television. Only using social media. The regime now has access to the internet. Society, aunited United Government under the leadership of juan guaido. This for me is the most important. That is why i am fully confident that a change can take place in venezuela. The majority are looking for a change. Venezuela says that in any fair election, we will come to power. We will win that election. 80 of the people are looking for a change. We have the support of the people. That is quite important to keep in mind. We have the strategy. We have the government. We have the people. We have the leadership of juan guaido. We have the support of the International Community. We know control assets outside of venezuela. We have a difficult struggle to restore democracy in venezuela. Now we see the other side. Maduro has no future. He is surviving in power. He is part of the past. He is not able to resolve any problem in venezuela. Maduro knowscle of that. That is why im confident we have an opportunity to produce that change. Its there. We need to take advantage of it. This is a right time to make the determination. We do not have any other alternative. We dont have any other option. Keep our determination internally on the streets, mobilizing our people. Mobilizing to put more pressure using that institution and increasing the pressure of the International Community. We are in a better position. You is becauseg im not part of the interim government of venezuela. A change is occurring inside of venezuela. But also inside the regime. You that something is going on inside of the regime. We have the opportunity to talk to many of them. Many ofe negotiating them are still inside of the regime. We are still having contact with some of them. They know that maduro is not going anywhere. It is a path where something has to be done. As you can see, majuro is weaker. We need to preserve our unity, we need to preserve the leadership of juan guaido, we need to preserve the National Assembly and we need to increase the pressure from the International Community. This is not a single event. This is an ongoing process. If you view it as an ongoing process, that is what i have been saying, that we are in a better position than we were six months ago. And we will continue to do so until we restore our freedom and democracy to resolve the venezuelan crisis. Thank you very much. Feel free to ask any question you may have. I am open for a q a session. Thank you very much. Thank you, ambassador. [applause] i just want to reaffirm our longstanding ground rules and guidelines for newsmakers, which is questions are only acknowledged from the members of the working press. With that, be sure to announce the organization you represent. First, i would like to take a few questions. The first is from anthony from the Washington Post who covers venezuela from miami. He asks, sir, one of the doubts surrounding the oslo process to strike a transition deal is whether the opposition is truly united behind a common position. Can you address the comments by some members of the opposition who did not seem to recognize the legitimacy of these tall . Andegitimacy of those talks describe how the force of any deal could be implemented without the full backing of the opposition. About thecan say mechanism is the following. All the pressure we have implemented inside and outside of venezuela has forced the regime to sit there. Otherwise, the regime would not have affected that. That is one point. Mechanism is a mechanism, it is not an objective. They wanted to sell it as a final objective. It is not. Its not a solution. The mechanism is to achieve an objective to the clear venezuelan crisis, which is having free and Fair Elections in our country. The regime has not presented any solutions are far, any solutions so are. Any solution so far. There will be another round this week. I do not want to go into details. I dont want to affect those conversations. We have presented that solution on the table. We would like to see a peaceful transition in our country. That is why interim president juan guaido has been using that any mechanism to facilitate that transition to avoid the suffering of the venezuelans. That is the main objective. This is the solution we have presented. If they are not willing to move in that direction, it will be very complicated for the venezuelans, and keep this in mind, the only obstacle for peace in our country is nicolas maduro. He is not presenting any solution to the crisis. Actually, he did not recognize the crisis before. This is a manmade disaster created by maduro, and they havent resolved it and havent presented any peaceful solution in our country. So we will continue to put all the pressure we can to find that solution and i hope we can achieve it. Of course when you put this in the context of the past, they have manipulated this mechanism in the past, trying to divide the opposition, in this case the interim government, trying to divide the International Community, trying to stop the International Pressure. We need to be aware of that and thats why its important to mention that the European Union has stated that if there is no agreement they will impose more sanctions on the regime. Because they will not have another manipulation. I have some more questions that have been sent, but i would like to open the floor and remember, brief, succinct questions. No speeches. As of the guidelines. Thank you. Which organization do you represent . Yes, yes. So, you just mentioned that there is going to be another round of talks this week. I know you cannot provide us with details but if you could let us know when it is going to take place at the end of the week and where it is going to take place, thank you. Amb. Vecchio as i said, i do not to comment on the details because that will be announced by the delegation. So i would just wait. Sorry. Sorry. Im gonna try to ask two questions if that is ok. Im wondering if you support any sort of military intervention either by the u. S. Or the International Community in venezuela, and do you support temporary protected status for venezuelans in the u. S. . Amb. Vecchio the interim president juan guaido has made it clear he wants to find a peaceful solution. The only obstacle for peace is nicolas maduro. He is not presenting any solution, so thats what we want to achieve, a peaceful solution. At the same time, we are dealing with a criminal organization. As i said before, they have been linked to terrorist groups, drug trafficking, human rights abuses, illegal transactions. And we need to take that into account because this is a threat against not only venezuela, but the security of the region. The interim president has made it clear he is going to explore any option to protect the people of venezuela, but we have to understand