>> what do we want? >> justice. >> when do we want it? >> now. >> explosions going on... we're not quite sure - >> is that an i.e.d.? >> the followers of late president and their political opponents have been in near constant struggle for a long time. throw in the plummetting price of oil and taking venezuela main and only product for international sale a currency melting down and you get a country on the brink. of what? tough times in venezuela. it is the "inside story."

>> welcome to "inside story." the coo leader turned elected president, led venezuela away from the caribbean nations and making peace with the united states after the thank you multiof the cold war. he made friends with cuba and iran and even the kim dice nasty in north korea. and sold oil on generous terms to poor neighbors. during those years, venezuela manufacturing declined, the government spent ver shsly.

then he died after a long bought cancer. the vice president a much less politically skilled figure took his place and the price of oil tumbled. from a hundred dollars a barrel to $30s a barrel and the antiforces persuaded suffering venezuelians the revelation had its chance and failed. the opposition has a strong ma superiority in the congress. it is starting to look like like the jig is up. tough times on venezuela. we have a look at the mess unfolding in south america. >> these are the streets of downtown. supporters of the president came to condemn the renewal of a

decree with the u.s. and ruling that venezuela is a threat to their national security. these were those same streets when the late president was in power. it was a time of plenty. funded by record high oil prices. it was also the time when the leader was making the calls. today, venezuela is ranked as one of the worst managed economies in the world. the food sold at regulated prices is hard to come by and for some harder to pay for. people are not going to the marches because they are standing line outside of the shops and hoping for food, if you march you are not getting the food for your children. in the oil rich nation is protesting is a luxury. this avenue would have become what is known as red tide with hundreds of thousands of supporters attending to defend

the revolution. in the area where the opposition is holding the rallies, it is no difference. just like no different today at the twin march that the opposition has called to demand the president resign. >> i came thinking this was going to be huge, but there was a poor turnout. maybe it is because the media is controlled by the government and they don't know about it. >> street demonstrations and political rallies are a part of the landscape for decades. but today, a lack of unified leadership and repression has left the people feeing powerless and unable to seek out change peacefully. >> and joining me an associate professor at new york university and author of urban particular

politics and the making of modern venezuela. and former member of the venezuelian congress, welcome to you both. well, the new congress took its seat at the beginning of the year, the opposition majority, what are they empowered to do and what can't they do? >> well, they can actually do a number of things under the constitution and empowered to promote changes, particularly in the economic front where the crisis is really putting venezuelians to suffering. but unfortunately, there is a dead look in between the powers, because there is difficult space for dialogue between the branches and this confrontation and anything that the congress tries to do ends up in the hands of the supreme court and the chambers are packed but the then majority in the assembly with a

very solid threat of people that are somehow committed to the government's position. hasn't the supreme court ruled because of the economic crisis that the president has more power, emergency power? >> yes, the constitution is providing a mechanism of economic power. he's asked for additional power and the assembly had the authority to agree or not, approve or not, and it went to the constitutional chamber and they said regardless of what congress wants the president can move forward. the question is whether after 30 days, which the the constitution t government has to come back to the assembly or to the congress and asking renewal of those powers and needing approval from

the assembly and they are t not going to get it. this is basically a situation where the constitutional chamber has been stripped of the powers of the assembly. the interesting thing to note is this supreme court of vepz over the past couple of weeks in december of last year had apointments of new justices who are now there sitting and the interesting thing some were former candidates to the assembly that lost the election and now sitting in the supreme court and ruling from the constitutional chamber. it is unthinkable. you don't see that happening any other places in the world, i would say, these days. >> professor, the new assembly declared intention to remove the president, can they do that? >> yes, they can do that.

they have a series of means to enact it. they have laid out they are going to pursue a full out strategy and incorporating seeking to rewrite the constitution and recall of the president, and also saying to keep the streets warm, but noted, that strategy is not to be effective. >> but in a country as divided as venezuela, that is not the end of the argument surely if they have their way and the president leaves the palace, that is only the beginning of something, rather than the end of it, isn't it? >> absolutely. this speaks to the point of the former guest, one of the reasons we haven't seen the measures on the part of the opposition are because of the black block ateds coming from the power and the opposition hasn't put forward any credible or coherent plan to

attack the dire conditions that the venezuelians are facing. that battle is left to another time to see who actually is going to shake out and control venezuela going forward and we are not sure who is going to take what measures to right the economy. they know what they are against, but they have the present something they are for. >> there are lines presented throughout the campaign, the government keeps claiming that the reason that the economic in bad conditions is because of the drop in the oil prices, it is a true that the oil prices dropped in over half, in addition to the drop of the oil prices, over the past 17 years, venezuela's economy is -- by the government.

private enterprise is prevented from developing itself, and what you are seeing here is not only a problem because of the oil prices, it is a result of a situation no local or no national production of anything. no products that venezuela produced and exported it is importing coffee and together with oil, venezuela was always a coffee exportering, what is happening here, the opposition said that in many ways you have to restore, reempower the venezuela private sector so they can in my ways tackle this problem of production. in the oil sector, look of investments in oil are preventing the oil industry to increase production or engage in an alternative path to recover the financial situation they are going. there have been signals of what the opposition proposes to do, but really what happens is that

the pathway to promote changes starting with the president depends on recall referendum facing a number of block aids and different obstacles. >> we'll pick up there after the break with the quality of daily life for the masses of people. tough times in venezuela. stay with us, it is "inside story."

>> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look.

>> you are watching "inside story." we are looking at the deepening cries crisis in venezuela, the store shelves empty and political turmoil and the dropping price in oil combines to bring tough times. our guests are still with me. professor, what is the consequences for the average venezuela on the street with the currency, and there is said to be more on the way. >> well, the consequences are dire, the fact that as a result of currency exchange controls that are in place for 12 years

in yenz venezuela, the distortions in the economy resulted in minor production levels and relying on the imports. what that means is that inflation in venezuela is high for a very long time. the fact of devaluation is going on and the formals devaluations are behind of what is happening on the streets, people have to wait in long lines to find subsidized products and then turning to the black market. not just in food, but in medicine, which is a really dramatic crisis at this moment, people are just not able to access medicines. >> in countries where there are

current controls. we are forced to get creative and one of the things that happens is a secondary market starts up and people that are lucky enough to have the currencies with neighbors or dollars, change those at a very preferential rate. venezuela ans suffering the most don't have access to the other currencies. >> no, they don't have access to that and for every control, whether the control of currency or the control of any other price of a good or a services in venezuela, which translates into scarcity for the common citizen there is black market. that is cost prohi bib tif for the common citizen. the problem of building a transition is you have a system

of prices, costs and salaries, wages, which is based on the fiction that the dollar is equivalent, there is an exchange range of six to $1. that is fiction. and then, you have the black market, which probably gets or puts the dollar at a rate of a thousand per dollar and other official rates that the government has. so whatever you place your new value for the u.s. dollar in the u.s. economy, you have to think about the devaluation of five, six, seven, ten or 20 times for the price of the goods and services in the economy. the salaries are calculated structured based on that fiction. inflation is high and people

can't afford with the current salary what they need to survive. you need more than 7 minimum wages to pay for the basic goods that a family needs and then, if you make the adjustment in the dollar and in the prices that you need to do, 3,000 percent in dollar terms, then what's going to happen with the salaries. you have to some way match wages to that increase in prices and that's going to create a spiral of inflation. people can't afford to pay whatever they could later find if you made the adjustment. venezuelians are in desperate need for a transition and that requires understanding dialogue of all of the political forces and the productive forces in the country and that is one of the more difficult scenarios that you can think about in venezuela

these days. >> you are lucky to have a car with a big gas tank they are filling up and headed for the columbia border and tell the gas in your car for ten times more than you paid for it. >> absolutely. the government increased the price of gags like 6,000 percent, it is still the cheapest in the world, by far. this points to a larger reality that was mentioned before, it has to do with the idea of specific measures, everyone knows has to be taken and extremely politically costly and nobody is talking about taking them. the opposition lacking a clear message of what it is going to do. when it comes to power and

devaluation. will they increase the price of gasoline to a market rate that is internationally viable, itchn't heard that. what are they going to do in spurring the productive economy. part of the reason that the people are not taking the streets to support one position or the other are the lack of the alternatives. absolutely there are these kinds of distortions that are at the heart, and contributed to them and imposed them over time and created they economic crisises, but the real problem has to do with the dependency on the oil. i want to talk about the end game and given how you are describing the country today.

>> you are watching "inside story." the ambitions for venezuela and the influence extended for beyond the country's board herbs

and using the oil reserves he made friended and aided the economies of many. when latin america was souring on the economic ideas, chavez made the partnerships. chavez forged a particularly close relationship with castro. and working in the venezuela government and providing lots of oil on the easy terms to a cuba that really recovered from the loss of the super power economic support from moscow. with cha vez gone, what now. what could we see in the coming year, destabling to the neighbors, or the caribbean.

>> all those are possible. what we are seeing now in venezuela is political paralysis. we have a weakened government and divided opposition despite its strong showing in the last elections we have desperation in the streets and marked by not protests, but protests over the daily sufferings of life. it is unclear where that's going. the explosive protests like we had in 1989 and that is a scenario that could lead to instability to venezuela and regionally. >> a lot of people that can have left the country and leaving behind a lot of poor people seeing no way out. there is almost a million venezuelians that have past 50 years or so, now representing a huge -- that we never thought

when we realized the potential that venezuela has as a country. you mentioned the impact in the region, one thing is on one side of venezuela you have columbia, who is cull min nating, finishing and apparently with success a peace process that setting columbia in a different scenario than it was. then you have cuba, they are transitioning out of the depend ensi with venezuela with this new opening between the u.s. and cuba that president obama is promoting and he's going there next week. so the cubans are looking north. columbia it is already standing on its feet with regards to the peace process and then to the caribbean, the problem was it was depending on venezuela

because of the oil for them. but now, alternative energy, and cheap oil is resolving the problem that venezuela was once resolving for them what. is happening to venezuela is that just what is unthinkable, is that venezuela, at the same time, it is much less of impact of what it was when you thought it about a few years ago. the other thing i have to say is that venezuela has become a very important passage for narco operations and organized crime because of the weakness of the laws. >> so the threat there is becoming more established state.

>> thinking about the solutions to move ahead. the governor on the other hand, i want to disagree with one thing, the opposition is looking divided but at the end it is not as much divided at the government itself. the government is divided. the opposition faces the problem of leadership because of the calculations about the possibility of becoming the next leader. the men that challenged the -- structure to mobilize is a very powerful voice as it is, they are in the streets and promoting a recall referendum. it is written in the constitution. it mobilizes people. it gives the citizens a pathway to resolve the crisis and has

the merit if it happens, in the last two years of the presidency, it could provide for a transition because the vice president and the new coalition could finish with this program of transition and if it happens before you have an election to choose -- so i think that is a path that he has signalled to venezuela and the world which is respectful if i was a member of the government i would take his word and walk through the path at the same time walking through the election system. >> i want to thank the guests, that's the "inside story" story. join us tomorrow for a preview of president obama's trip to cuba. how do reopen a relationship

that was all but dead for over 50 years. thanks for watching. good night. ight. >> this is aljazeera america, live from new york city, i'm tony harris. congressional grilling, rick snyder with lawmakers on capitol hill. over failures in flint's water crisis. pumping polluted water. and find innings a new study. water appears to be leaking from a nuclear facility in miami and threatening the florida everglades and