that's not exactly my point we meet with global newsmakers and talk about the stories that matter how does their own. pressure is mounting on nicolas maduro the u.s. imposes tough sanctions on venezuela's oil industry and a move aimed at forcing the president to step down but will he and how far will washington go to change the government in caracas this is inside story. welcome to the program i'm richelle carey venezuela's economy has been in crisis for years hyperinflation is skyrocketing millions of people have left the country and the president hasn't been able to fix it now the u.s. is hitting nicolas maduro even harder where hurts and a bid to get him out of office it's imposed sanctions on venezuela's state oil

company blocking seven billion dollars in assets and is recognizing the opposition leader is interim president washington's called on the military which is so far standing by majority to accept a peaceful transfer of power and warned otherwise there could be consequences and now is the time to stand for democracy and prosperity in venezuela i reiterate that the united states will hold venezuelan security forces responsible for the safety of all u.s. diplomatic personnel the national assembly and president going to do any violence against these groups would signify a grave assault on the rule of law and will be met with a significant response church very took action against venezuela's state owned oil company a device to help prevent the further diversion of venezuela's assets by former president majority. the united states is holding accountable those responsible for

venezuela's tragic decline we will continue to use all of our diplomatic and economic tools to support interim president quite oh the national assembly and the venezuelans people efforts to restore their democracy president arroyo responded by vowing to take legal action against the u.s. it doesn't want to have this shows that their objective is to take enriches what is the objective of the government of the united states take the properties from venezuela the riches of venezuela the finnish brothers money and last run they aspire to take away our country and israel has the world's largest proven oil reserves even bigger than saudi arabia but it is rapidly running out of money to pump it out of the ground it was producing more than three million barrels of oil a day in the late one nine hundred ninety s. but outputs been down by more than half sales dropped last year to just over one million barrels the lowest in almost thirty years and israel its biggest customer is the u.s. which accounts for around forty percent of its exports five hundred thousand

barrels a day the u.s. ascensions will cost eleven billion dollars in lost revenues but even without sanctions well production is expected to decline dramatically this year with forecasts of a drop of three hundred thousand barrels a day. let's bring in our guests now here in doha is hiero lugo a condo director of executive education and graduate studies at northwestern university here in qatar and from tape or india by skype is charles shapiro former u.s. ambassador to venezuela and from london is diego moya composts he is a principal analyst for country risk at i.h.s. market in the americas team and we appreciate all of you for joining us diego i want to start with you how significant are these sanctions. well differently significant bet is where the main source of revenue the steel sector it represents twenty five percent of g.d.p. fifty percent of if the revenues are ninety seven percent off for an exchange so

essentially sanctions own business where the oil sector is a game changer. in the past hour there's been some more clarification from the u.s. that says that they will actually allow that as well as opposition to still have access to certain accounts and certain properties so charles do you expect there to be more clarity and more tweaking about the sanctions going forward but i hope so because that's news to me and i'm sure exactly how we would do the important point is exactly this is where this is where it gets foreign exchange. the oil it goes to china and russia is to pay back loans the not really a cash for the united states to the exports united states are the same sources of revenue from the oil sector and i'm glad you brought that up so yes

we're the u.s. is going to be pulling back other countries are going to step in what are the implications when it comes to places like china and russia and india charles. how many right now negative newspapers here are already going to go to the bargain oil from because we're doing in the imports oil china imports oil a baby needed but it's not. so. how do how. the markets will react readings them so presumably other countries will buy it all out but divided because transport costs. shipping oil to india should be what china is much higher than shipping oil go across the gulf of mexico to louisiana to go to god like you're away and weigh in on that as well what other countries benefit from this from the sanctions.

well whether come to harm by the sanctions was certainly q what do you worst main source of revenue obese movement is the export of professional services and i when i talk about the export of professional services i mean not only medical doctors of these broadly advertise but in delhi in security operatives on the ground so clearly these would affect. us main source of revenue which is much higher than what they receive from tourism from remittances so you would certainly have an impact with this and for doing what the ambassador have just say it but it will it will be force to boot i took a piece all in the market but a significant these come and plus transfer costs it will certainly undermine their capacity to get it right revenues and to keep up with expanding on the most important thing i think here to keep the loyalty of the military and the police all

the security apparatus which basically other ones who are not only running the economy but also the ones which are in control of contains even the rest you know sort of perverse relation where the same people who control the economy the same ruling elites are the ones which are in charge of law and order and are the ones which unfortunately are repressing business with this protesting in the streets demanding free and fair elections and charles i'm glad you brought up the military we're going to come right back to that the first i want to. your your sister my understanding your sister is and then as layla right now what is she experiencing while all of my family most of my family is in venezuela they're struggling you have professionals who are earning trying to live with ten dollars a month eight hundred people so far has been have been apprehended by the government there in prison protestors in prison the moment they say over seventy people killed since the twenty third of january from protests so from i think

crackdown on the normal people and there's a high. humanitarian crisis i was there last year i went to the border with colombia in the north with my cow and you saw the little lines queues of thousands of people waiting to cross to colonia some of them walking to places like distance like chilling on forts just to form the humanitarian crisis that we have which is you know of portions that the country never ever experienced in its history you know mentor or we played a little bit earlier some of the things that some of the comments he was making when he's telling the venezuelan people that this is about the u.s. taking our country from us other people that that will resonate with tyra well very few of course the. stronghold of people who believe what the government said who follow the media the state controlled media and the government has a conflict from a media that was very critical of him now to a media that is almost completely loyal to him or very censored so

a lot of he still have a stronghold i think they have a minority strong home let's not forget that this star this crisis started in two thousand and fifteen when the venezuelan government on their mother auto refused to recognize that the new power of the national assembly which was elected by the majority of people have been a sailor and then create a super imposed national constitutional congress and it's like if the prime minister of britain refused to recognize the parliament and then simply created a supra parliament on top of that in a recollection in which in which that's where the crisis started when you start ignoring the rules of law or the rule of law and you don't i said the resource that you laws which are very small has lost huge ground particularly was always its popularity has been tied to the oil revenue so. in a way it's not new in the one nine hundred seventy s. when venezuela had

a huge oil boom well certain parts of the provisions were very pop. and when the oil boom came down they lost power in ninety six when the oil came down when this one has always been very dependent on oil perhaps not as much as today is dependent on oil and and one of the promises is created all these social programs which seem very good for many people outside because they see that they were addressing poverty but actually did they not solve the structural problems that create poverty levels of productivity were very low the injuries more lots of nationalizations of companies were. exacerbated the problem just just to mention one example when in one thousand nine hundred eight when it came to power there were eight or nine companies that produce corn flour which produces a particular food call a part which is central in the diet of the venezuelan seven there were nine companies that produce from those nine companies seven were nationalized by the. by the chinese himself one left closed down and there is only one left which is the

whole of the private company from the seven companies that the government that's not a single one is producing most of them how close down that's the origin of today's problem it did or why has production dropped off so drastically over the years in venezuela. well these has been the direct result of widespread corruption and big beast management firms which charges and then we modal that's what has led to a currency to asian or production continues declining systematically when charles came to power in one thousand nine hundred nine approaches to the three point four million barrels per day do years ago it stood up two point four million barrels probably at the moment as you refer briefly is around one point two millibars per day and expected to go down at the three hundred thousand barrels per day and in these has been the result of widespread corruption and big mismanagement. there the

also the all national oil company. at the moment easing the hands of the military always top management are active members of the military and these are people who might who has granted power over the old services equal to ports airports imports of food or by sea goods these are the people who basically have benefit have profiteered from a complex patronage system or a location of refresh of dollars and the same people based i mean they are in command which runs economy we crunch the whole sector some of these factions not all but some are in bowls with drug trafficking fuel smuggling illegal mining and human trafficking and always leave these are the guys who currently continue support the mother who took an hour or so what incentive to come in the main obstacle. what is sensitive about the position of minutes what incentive do those

people people they are talking about that you're describing what incentive do they have to turn on him. well that's the main problem they have little incentive to withdraw support from hutto because they fear that not only the political and economic influence will be beenish but also more importantly that they will be held accountable for corruption for illicit activities i and i'm talking about drug trafficking illegal mining fuel smuggling human trafficking very serious crimes and also of gross human rights violations in containing a street brought this not only the groom away from brought this but also wafer brought this in two thousand and seventeen two thousand and fourteen and they brought this which venezuelans are staying because of shortages of food or basic goods because of the collapse of the whole system because most of these mundell enough to keep up the nation programs because of lack of water supplies constant them frequent electricity blackouts like those gas which is what most when is when

is used to cook and this is. what we've seen in minutes well out of this stronger the brought this the stronger have been the repression by the police and the military now has to be i have to precise now these are the ruling elite from the high military command but the rest of the armed forces the meal rank the rank and file suffering from the same prolife as the rest of the venezuela's m p's are the people which could make the difference indeed in the following days especially if brought this convene escalated escalating if they can do you mean strong international support to restore course you do should undemocratic order and to pave the way for a democratic position because in the end what business what is want. what they are demanding is street protests in the streets and what the international community is calling for if everyone for elections we don't in the pending electoral forit the we the national service so let's hope ok so that they will the conditions you described have been have been happening in venezuela for quite some time and what national scary advisor john bolton said he said it will make

a big difference to the united states economically if we have american oil companies and vested and produce the oil capabilities in venezuela charles wanted to put this question to you how much of this is about democracy and human rights and how much of it is just about u.s. businesses look yes this is different in the israel u.s. oil companies helped develop the fields for the for better basis for venezuelans. then israel is oil supplies the united states is in instance for terms less important as united states is producing more oil i don't think that's really the issue what i do. and i can't we both and mine i don't want to. we read behind his words. but u.s. companies and the united states itself are standard ready to help rebuild or in

israel your question earlier about the military when they have to be taken twice now being it's not united states along the chart of every major latin american country under the european union collectively u.k. germany france spain individual australia i'm more going to i don't get i can't list. said if the elections are called this week they will withdraw our recognition. from the duro i mean so these people have to be really concerned on the one hand about what's going on internationally and on the other hand by the economic crisis in the country and we all that it what point will that create the kind of chaos which is not necessarily going to the generals but where the the junior officers and enlisted

troops take action against the git go. hiero do you think that support for quite a while will continue to grow to think that he has the means to galvanize support i'm i think it all depends on the next move i will i will strike a note of caution here about shane expected that the military will immediately crack down i mean the military minutes will have been preparing for this moment for some time and i'm not talking about military terms of talking about for example developing the other community for you know which is extra huge. operation in the amazons to produce. or to extract gold and struck rainier ohman and other minerals this is completely controlled by the ecological disaster but they're getting a lot of money from it a huge amount of money are going illegally through that there's. been shipped at

the moment there's no control over this other community and so the military has been prepared also remember that the cuban intelligence forces g two are very present within the venezuelan are four missiles in they have. deeply penetrated the un forces so i would be cautious about expecting that the military will just crack up at the moment or that the there are been some of the military pronounce in self but it hasn't been us wily aseptic why i don't know is at the moment very popular because for a while a lot of the hopes of the venezuelans have been dissipated by the failure of the protests of two thousand and seventeen to to bring back. into the country so why dog came suddenly one of the things which was very strategic when wide open here is that it was not a very well known leader so the government was on able to demonize him as they have

done or imprison him as they have done with all their leaders so it's surely this guy appears so the. i mean he's still very very popular but venezuelans a lot of the benefit of the position is very divided a lot of them have been collaborating with the government and that has to be recognized so one way though people can lose patience if they don't see change quick enough and the chavez government is playing with time and that's in their favor i think ok. do you see what obeying in a position to to take this moment to seize this moment and and gather more support . yes absolutely but first i want to agree with what has been mentioned about the un forces ok young forces are one of those situations which is more under surveillance under spear nash not only way that humans but also by the stronger countering daily u.s. military aid you see the is he so for them it is very difficult to state something or this report something different than the state of school or these means for the

meet ranks of the troops to the union or officer so far will be seen is not me trying to contain and shows the mutiny we've seen which on the twenty five twenty first of january and years before we got hold of barak's. got to come to what he wrote police officer or carberry has been done these contain that these actions have only served for the upper ranks to purge the armed forces from and the mother and the chinese to ranks and your terms have been proven challenging for them have been buker a lack of coordination pure communications a lack of support of the upper rungs how made it very difficult for their actions to succeed unless. there is something that proves to have overwhelming. support from all the meat rungs it's unlikely to succeed and i think that's why all the international communities align an effort to try to support its weight and to

pay their way for a democratic transition in minutes with a for one way to when we don't is a fresh face we've been given this wonderful he should. he's very well respected by the venezuelan border it's us a man of consensus but he's also better will respect by the so-called radicals because he's part of the interaction of two thousand and seven which basically played a key role and not the role even adjoining the populations he will society events he stood in street brokers so he's very well respected by more than its radicals but i think we have to be very clear that where you go is a means to an end way though basically has assumed that entering prescious your bennis will not and not proclaiming the surface wrongly to me how for trade and by basically even compliance with article two three three of the constitution which says that basically when there's a power vacuum the head of the national assembly in this case one way or need to

step in i'm call for elections does basically what happened after my little initiated a second term not recognized by the international community broadly he's too soft they're going to soften nineteen should have not also been recognized by international community because there were also allegations of fraud by any case there is no these put up there to soften a team elections where it is the result of a fraud so what i mean he's white also aim is not to conduct a long term government he say that basically two critical issues are real very lections and i end up ok let me bring it out let me bring in higher again u.s. president has sad that he is keeping all options on the table that includes not necessarily ruling out some sort of military intervention would you would just let your family who is in venezuela actually want something like that. well i think i think they want back to more prosy and i think this current situation is also

a stain of all nobody wants to kill it nobody wants to have this and them violent and sometimes i wonder because i hear many voices in the us calling for ministration to back off and that's that's a legitimate call however i also want to hear those same voices calling for my daughter to pass by cause this situation can easily be so or solved by mother stepping down and calling for election and respecting the results of two thousand and fifteen going back to legality it's as simple as that so i think the what the majority of the business along people want they want peace but they also want to have a normal country a country in which you actually can buy food that you don't have to live on fourth and go all the way walk into produce because you can't keep your family fed your family in venezuela so i think. i don't think it's a very helpful thing to create a saudi court to me between invasion or not invasion you know i think there's some interesting movement today the russian government in

a note of internet financial notes say they were expecting for venezuela to honor its debts something that was very interesting because in the in this moment it's basically a coded message to say whoever comes afterwards will have to pay us what they owe when it's allow us to answer some of the discussion but i don't think that the sense of when i was there in minnesota is that the majority of the people want a restoration of democracy the majority of the people want. a compliance with the rule of law and they want to have back a country in which you have a normal life you have a normal life in which you don't have power cuts in which you go to the supermarket and your salary is enough to buy enough food to have to feed you and so that's that i think is what this woman's want ok and that will be the final word and thank you and thank you for sharing with us what's going on with their family there we really appreciate it thank you to all of the. legal a condo charles shapiro an accomplice thank you. thank you for watching as well he

can see the program again any time if you visit our website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page facebook dot com ford slash a.j. and side story you can join the conversation on twitter as well i had a list at stories from richelle carey the entire team i for now. in the next episode of science in a golden age i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars during the medieval islam a period in the field of medicine. saw instant to be a good subject to bring different people from all over the world to go to the home to search become a chicken. the more i learn about food the more i respect science in a golden age with professor jim miller on

a just. this part of south london is home to people from all over the world you might assume this multicultural pockets of the capital is entirely against a brick say it's often portrayed as a defense of whites brits i'm. not so but this nigerian restaurant there was a quiet satisfaction of the prospects of the u.k. cutting its ties with europe. rage offering a life. for calm british glad new words for breakfast not because i've been finnegan's than whites will give was this leverage in time for treatment opportunity i walk. with arabic and religious and visit derives to live in united kingdom after astrologers to the point in the twilight when people come from europe to come to the country to visit just as they're going to go out into. a

field. i feel jealous about. britain's prime minister gets approval to renegotiate that deal now she has to convince the e.u. . this is. also coming up as president appears to offer an olive branch to the opposition even off a new crackdown on the country. looking johnson accused of profiting from war crimes by doing business with israelis in occupied palestinian territories. celebrations as cattle reach is the first. in the u.a.e.

in a grudge match. the british parliament has given the go ahead for tourism a to return to brussels and try to secure a better deal one of the u.k. prime ministers most important negotiating tools was watered down as m.p.'s voted to reject a no deal breakers it not even barbara explains what it means for the u.k. and how the e.u. has reacted. oh. outside the u.k. parliament the debate was fierce that is jesus bricks it is still as divisive as ever and as the prime minister opened the debate on plan b. she referenced the enormous defeat the commons gave her withdrawal agreement two weeks ago the vote was decisive and i listened so the world knows what this house does not want today we need to send an emphatic message about what we do want

to hear the opposition labor party back to an amendment ensuring parliament would get time to vote on ways to prevent a no deal breaks it that plan was defeated but another simply rejecting no deal passed so the. key is have it so did a government backed amendment calling for the so-called irish backstop to be replaced with unspecified alternative arrangements but the european union has consistently said the backstop must be in the deal as an insurance policy to prevent border checks returning between island as an e.u. member a northern ireland up to breaks it on tuesday the french president at a summit in cyprus was unequivocal come to europe and as the european council has clearly indicated this withdrawal agreement negotiated between the european union and the u.k. is the best deal possible and it is not to renegotiate. the e.u. second most senior brics it negotiator has said events here in westminster feel like groundhog day or an endless loop but amid daya warnings from businesses and

the health sector about the impact of a no deal scenario time is certainly not standing still for tuesday was meant to be about parliament giving us an idea of what kind of a deal it would be prepared to back but now we know they'll be weeks more deliberations here and it's looking more and more likely that the u.k. will have to ask the you for an extension to article fifty buying itself some more time. for. the team barbara al-jazeera london journal is outside westminster in central london join us now to resume a now faces a huge challenge to convince even leaders to reopen negotiations but they've already said look there's been no revisions to the deal. yes that's absolutely right i mean look i think that that events are going to move now quite quickly she's got two weeks to reason may to go to the e.u.

get an announcement on the deal and bring it back to palm by february thirteenth already as soon as this off to noon perhaps she's going to invite jimmy coburn the opposition leader for talks he's indicated he's open to meeting her to discuss the way ahead and i think the strategy that the government is it is working on now essentially involves going to the european union and saying look we now have a majority parliament has spoken for what it does want to see and essentially what that is is that we draw an agreement as it stands in most part respecting the divorce agreement the amount of money that would have to be paid respecting citizens' rights in hans now with workers' rights and environmental protections but with this controversial northern island backstop that many fear could track this country in a customs union indefinitely if trade talks future try talks fail the backstop needs to be replaced or at hans with so-called alternative arrangements and the thinking here is that in fact in the past the e.u.

has withheld key concessions because it doesn't believe she has the majority to pass a deal she will say there is now this majority the problem of course is that the e.u. has steadfastly said and reiterated in the last twelve to twenty four hours that can be no reopening of the withdrawal agreement bring you go. the backstop has to stay there because it protects the interests of the republic of ireland an e.u. member they may be room for talk of legal codicils to attach to it to try to find the intentions of the parties or changes to the political declaration but no changes to the deal fundamentally into reason may has promised m.p.'s that that is what she will come back with that's where the problem lies gena just very briefly tell us more about this proposed alternative then to the backstop because nobody quite knows what it's all about. look it's just one of a number of potential negotiating positions there's no idea whether this can fly with the european union it's come from across party group of senior m.p.'s that

essentially says look we'll keep the withdrawal agreement in large part will extend the transition period to the end of twenty twenty one after which if there's no future arrangement in place will revert to w t o rules it's the sort of no deal scenario that a lot of people are so afraid of now but it builds in a three year period to prepare for it it's got a lot of support among serious committed bricks just because it represents to them freedom and sovereignty but of course for the e.u. it doesn't preclude a hard border on the island of ireland necessarily and that is with that particular line of negotiation it's quite likely to fall to join up thank you. as well as president nicolas maduro says he's ready to negotiate with opposition rival one going though he's declared himself interim president maduro made the offer during an interview with the russian news agency r i a the kremlin is one of the do as most important allies he also said u.s. sanctions on venezuelan state and all company and legal well live to reach islands

in moscow now or so what else has been saying to this russian news agency that. it's a pretty extensive interview and it covers a lot of different things as you have just said one of the things nicolas maduro has offered is to sit down with the opposition and trying to hash things over with them now is this an olive branch or is it and attempts to play for time to take the sting out of the opposition in a very delicate moment for nicolas maduro well we'll have to see what happens with that but he has basically said that yes there are various governments around the world mexico europe why bolivia russia the vatican some european governments he says who are supportive of dialogue he's sending official letters to them so that they can support this in a format that they want when they want. and where they wants he has also said that

there should be no new presidential votes that the presidential election that took place less than a year ago were legitimate they legitimately elected him as the leader we don't need to revisit that he said he also said that he would be open to new elections for the national assembly now remember that as one who is the head of the national assembly so that coup.