yes but so far made no mention of the violence or suffering of the people as in africa chinese influence in south america is expanding fast especially in venezuela . besides money china has also been helping the mature regime in another important way it's now venezuela's biggest provider of arms including weapons for crowd control which have been proving so effective joining the current unrest still to come on counting the cost of a wake up call for the mining industry in brazil one of the worst disasters in the nation's history puts the spotlight on the world's biggest producer of iron ore. but first more of our top story venezuela there things like rice cooking oil and other basics are in short supply people have to scavenge for food according to reports parts of the coastline have become havens for ex fisherman turned pirates but as well and smugglers in twenty nine thousand are exchanging drugs and guns for

things like nappies and on the other side of the equation the rich and powerful in venezuela are known as the bully but gays many of them are high ranking military the u.s. alleges that they've been stashing their money in safe havens like u.s. luxury real estate in places like miami well oil isn't the only resource in venezuela the country claims to have the world's fourth largest gold mine there were reports this week the president nicolas maduro is getting ready to ship twenty tons of gold out of the country the bank of england has blocked matilda's officials from withdrawing one point two billion dollars worth of gold that's being stored in its faults but joining us now from london is diego campos diego is a principal analyst for country risk in the americas team at i.h.s. market good to have you with us. so we have u.s. slapping sanctions on venezuela a country which relies on oil for ninety five percent of its foreign currency earnings in order to pay for imports this great confusion in the energy markets at

the moment and just how to trade in venezuelan oil what's going to happen. well certainly the sanctions on the old sector are a game changer you will make it very very difficult for the administration of boodle to get access to the proceeds of this sales. of oil and certainly these going to accelerate pressure for him to step down to go where are venezuela's assets right now unknown billions of dollars hidden in possibly u.s. real estate rumors of gold reserves being flown out of the country pirates in the caribbean we're hearing about at the moment where is or this money well there are the reason why venezuela signal me seeing such a dire state is because of years of widespread corruption among gorgon officials and big mismanagement some of these prophecies have been laundered in

different places in the caribbean in european countries even in the u.s. in some latin american countries and. it's at the moment difficult to precise exactly where these assets located and who has been operating a front man for man your mode of thought of going official but what is clear is that the national assembly menace whaler which is controlled by the opposition and which is the only legitimate democratically elected institution in the country how to use lated to establish the necessary make any sense so that these assets could be frozen abroad and be channeled to be administration or one way or the head of the national somebody who has stepped in. and who has been. recognized by the us make gonna buy most of the american calling trees and many e.u.

countries and i think. the first steps towards trying to get control of these assets we think that the fact that these gone trees have recognized the administration was all we making more easy for al thora these of those going to have to frozen those are said but separate and up those asses who did which did do we long directly to the organ of venice weight up to stay don't want bodies i mean refineries bank accounts. and so on the us treasury and the us in particular is thinking the necessary steps so that the revenues and the doors of those us it go directly to administration or what under your so to make it more difficult for mother world to govern we have to remember this by difficult motors not be recognizing their nationally he's still in control of government functions and enjoys the support of the military at least until now

and the fact that way though will access these funding for he's deeply amount which are being recognized by these countries and to for humanitarian aid are great steps towards not only baby in the way for a democratic transition but also to generate an influx of revenues for where you go to ministration to get a really good to talk to your counting the cost many thanks for being with us. i think they are always a pleasure now it's being called the most hated company in brazil violate the world's number one all producer is being held to account for its role in a dam collapse an industrial accident which has devastated a local mining community it's feared that more than three hundred people have died buried under tons of toxic sludge and there's growing anger because this is the second time in five years that valets mining waste has devastated the local environment. as are reports from burma deal in brazil.

the first funerals are some of the first victims to be recovered and identified the whole town of bora geno is grieving their brothers and sisters sons and daughters were employees and subcontractors of valley the company that owns the mine where the dam burst. we didn't hear anything from the company if we had looked for him his body would most probably still be in the mud after the accident we wanted information. francis was thirty four years old married and with a four year old daughter. this is how many people would ever be found how many fathers mothers and kids how we going to cope now i don't know how i will cope but my brother how will his daughter cope without her father how my father being about his son. dozens of bodies have been recovered but many hundreds more remain unaccounted for. we don't have space for more than three bodies in the funeral parlor so many people are gathering here i might end up doing

a collective funeral in the sports center when i think. emergency teams are still involved in the rescue operation although most say there is little hope of finding more survivors. after the tragedy the morning this is a mining town and it's a small town where everybody knows everybody else and with many many more funerals to come the anger people here feel is only going to grow there are already signs of it at lessons not learned at insufficient investment in safety it's mostly directed at the mine known as the same part owners of a nearby mine were at dam burst in two thousand and fifteen killing one thousand people and causing immense environmental damage. in others and is profoundly religious country have their own way of showing their grief and support was local usage year we came from a nearby city to give emotional and spiritual support to these people who are suffering so we brought donations to but we're mostly here to hug and console on

neighbors mining is the region's major employer amidst the grief and the recriminations the brazilian government the mining industry and this devastated community must now tackle what is emerging as one of the biggest crises in the country's history. joining us now from one of service is humana blanco is the head of latin america research at various maple crossed a risk analysis and forecasting company good to have you with us brazil's frozen more than four billion dollars worth of assets the company itself has said that it's going to spend more than one billion dollars decommissioning dams like the ones that failed it's somewhat worrying is that that there are potentially more disasters like the ones like the one weeks we saw that could happen. well you know our research at various shows that community opposition and community concerns around mining largely relate to water management issues across latin america one of

those issues is how water is stored and disposed after it has been used in mining operations and of course you know in the case of brazil in and in this particular decision in question there's a lot of work that will need to be done around regulations and enforcement and how the industry responds to this disaster to prevent future ones from occurring again is this a test case for the government environmentalists worried that president bush tomorrow will open up the amazon to more logging. production. this is a timely reminder of potential disasters what lessons will president bush norah take from this well it remains to be seen if the government will respond to this disaster by reevaluating its own environmental policy the question then becomes you know the risk threats in brazil increased enough. you know

with very responsible business plans environmental management mechanisms would not want to go into these environmental sensitive areas that the government is planning to open up to the sector and the other question is can the government actually implemented reform program around environmental regulation and e.c. environmental regulatory processes or will the government have to go back to the drawing board because of not just investor pressure and even sector pressure because of course the mining sector you know really works very hard to to try to mitigate this perception that all its operations are environmentally damaging when many responsible companies operate in this country's. in a safe manner but there will also be a lot of social pressure even from potentially the president support base if these are communities that are exposed to mining operations and have concerns about

potential environmental disasters following the scandal which which ultimately took down the last government what's your gut feeling about what's what's going to happen. well even in the perspective of you know government stability going forward projection indices which look at the six month outlook and the two year outlook we actually see the stability of this government strengthen over the six month period the simple reason for that is because it's a new government in power with a new support base in congress and it's not facing the potential risk of impeachment that we've seen in brazil over the past three years on a pretty recurring basis both for dilma rousseff and nischelle turner the question then becomes what happens if this government is unable to deliver the reforms and the changes and improvements it has promised for example on the security front or an economic growth and when we talk about corruption

a corruption is in brazil is not linked to one particular party or one particular administration alone it's really an entrenched problem in the political class and of course there are members of the new administration who are being investigated for corruption and new allegations are emerging every day against different members of the new government so really we need to look at how those investigations devolve and whether a threat emerges more in the medium term so we're looking out at one or two year outlook rather than in the very short six month term. show for this week if you'd like to comment on anything you've seen you can treat me. on twitter but please use the hashtag a.g.c. to see when you do or you can drop us a line counting the cost of. email address. as always there's plenty more few online a. c.t.c. that takes you straight to a page and you'll find individual reports links even entire episodes fears

a catch up on but that's it for this edition of counting the cost i'm adrian finnegan from the whole team here and thanks for being with us the news on al-jazeera is next. the plundering of armenia's natural riches as uprooted residents desecrated the habitat of some of europe's most endangered species. but a remarkable campaign by local residents is challenging the miked of the country's investors and pinning high hopes on its newly elected prime minister people in power investigates armenia mining out the left. on.

earth. every attack in europe creates fear and division amongst its citizens. stories of loss go on told. a sweeping association of islam with violence leaves

european muslims facing the stock reality of being ostracized by the very communities in which they live love and moon the tragic loss of life twice evict and on al-jazeera. as politicians in washington the fights are over a border wall we talked to the people at the center of the story many of then just said oh no it's very dangerous since the money comes out and it's not it's a very safe place migrants smugglers and people who live along the border. are all just zero. venezuela's nicolas maduro rejects calls for early presidential elections on the day of mass rallies for and against his presidency.

well you're watching al-jazeera rheims the whole raman live in doha coming up in the next half hour the central african republic the government and several armed groups reach a deal after years of fighting. also to washington pulls out of a cold war era nuclear weapons treaty russian dollars suit plus chilling rhetoric from a group accused of bombing a cathedral in the southern philippines al jazeera speaks exclusively to find to. welcome to the program tens of thousands of people have been rallying in venezuela for and against the government of president nicolas maduro is showing no signs of backing down from the standoff with opposition leader. despite two more defections from the military or latin america to lucien newman has more or caracas i

looked and sounded like a carnival my goodness whalen's for as far as the eye could see answer an opposition leader call to increase pressure to force president nicolas maduro out while get out anyone else any other alternative is better than this government they've been in power for twenty years and done nothing but starve us. after years of frustrated attempts they feel changes in the air. this time is different because we have to help before the country's carnage. this is the last march we have to go to vote. just hours earlier an air force general defected. the first top ranking officer to do so since wide all offered them an amnesty a stinging blow. at the military's of oil is crucial to his political survival.

this is. on the other side of president gathered his supporters. never give in to pressure from the servants of the u.s. empire as he calls the opposition one of the rejects demands for a new presidential election he's offering an alternative. i agree that the legislature should be religious by the country and that we hold free elections with guarantees and may the people decide on the national assembly. want is for my. self proclaimed interim president announced his next move the imminent arrival to

the border of humanitarian aid for venezuela's most needy i say that earlier al jazeera asked him if he would. allow the aid to cross into venezuela from neighboring colombia and brazil. i hope that the patriot takes over in soldiers who respect the constitution will withdraw the support of majority and give it to the people of venezuela who need food. as the power struggle continues all eyes will soon be on the border see how this latest challenge to the embattled government plays out to sea and human al-jazeera. venezuelans who fled the. protests in several countries including spain chile and neighboring colombia one million venezuelans of resettled over the past few years. i far from home but close to the fight against president nicolas maduro thousands of in his winnings abroad join their fellow countrymen protesting. in countries

across the americas in europe this was the scene in madrid central square they chanted we want freedom but i the signs read no more my daughter and peace justice and democracy in venezuela. in capital santiago the demonstration was led by. the woman chosen to represent a parallel government there but the leader of the opposition and self-proclaimed interim president. of the you know the office whalen's are dreaming of a return to venezuela we are very grateful to chile which has welcomed us in a very nice way of returning to finish its archery a dream that those protesting in santiago say requires an end to my daughter's government. ask this government to leave to be supported so many teddy and ate. and we can return to our country. more than three million venezuelans fled the

economic and political crisis in their country since two thousand and fifteen in search of food work and. protesting in the country that has received most refugees said it was their duty to continue putting pressure internationally. sanctions imposed by the united states will force them to step down i think this is the only way and finally found a way to get rid of my daughter. ok there's a renewed sense of optimism and hope among. the ceiling they say that for the first time regina change in venezuela is truly within reach. just. as a journalist. still has a lot of support from the venezuelan people. at the moment it's very very difficult

still to see how wrong why they were expected to govern a country away he had no control of the institutions and no control of the armed forces and so i think president or is actually in a. relatively decent position let's say not quite as weak as the international community maybe but i'd like to see me where we've seen erratically across the country in the last week by pro-government forces which have been very heavily attended as well the march in caracas today by the pro-gun forces was definitely about one hundred thousand potentially two hundred thousand people. here it was definitely much smaller than the opposition march without a doubt and but we have seen regional migrations of pro-government forces which are sent clear message that nicholas miller certainly not known. to africa now where

the government of the central african republic because struck a peace deal with fourteen armed groups it was agreed in sudan's capital khartoum a week of talks backed by the united nations and the african union was slim and christian fighters have been in conflict since twenty thirteen thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. an alliance of muslim rebels known as the seleka overthrew president of france what was easy is government in twenty thirteen a few months later rebel leader. was sworn in as interim president but he was forced to resign after fighting between the seleka and christian fighters also known as the anti black continued the un sent in the peacekeeping force to support african union and french forces are already there and since then cease fires have been signed and violated all sides have been accused of war crimes in mali cheers is an assistant professor at george washington university she says achieving peace in central african republic will provide stability for the surrounding region.

they're at a point now where the peace agreement a lot of it was also hoping for they hadn't seen that yet though the u.n. security council or the government wanted to have the embargo the arms embargo lifted it was unanimously agreed to to extend that embargo for at least one year from today to see how this peace agreement works out but i mean it's not it's not a very broad full time but there's there's high hopes because the first time that there's been direct talks with all of these these different players fourteen militia groups of course as well as the government the u.n. with their their mission there as well as the african union are looking to come to some sort of agreement and because at the end of the day the central african republic is very very very should teach it in the region its neighbors of course uganda neighbors the democratic republic of congo which is also seeing you know some issues after their election results that came at the beginning of last month and so it's really a power player in the region and hopefully we're at

a point we can see some stability belgium has agreed to take informal ivory coast president laurent gbagbo after his acquittal by the international criminal court has been seven years in custody in the hague walls the first former head of state to go on trial at the i.c.c. he was charged with crimes against humanity after violence erupted following the disputed twenty ten election under his conditional release back there will not be allowed to leave belgium u.s. envoy stephen the bagan is expected to arrive in south korea ahead of a meeting with south korean officials but again this the region is in the region to discuss the next steps of dismantling north korea's nuclear weapons program president trump is planning a second summit with north korean leader kim jong il the exact date has yet to be revealed. one day after the united states said it was pulling out of a landmark one thousand nine hundred eighty seven nuclear treaty with russia moscow

is doing the same and abandoning the agreement is raising fears of a new arms race really chalons reports from moscow. vladimir putin held a meeting with his foreign and defense ministers on saturday shown on national t.v. and he explained what russia would do now that the united states has pulled out of the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty that's to come solution. we will do it this way our response will be symmetrical our american partners stated they will stop their participation in the treaty so we will also stop they stated that they will do research and development of arms so we will also do the same he also said russia would not get into a costly arms race with the west that doesn't mean that russia won't pile into new weapons development just that initially at least it will try to do so with an existing defense budget years of military modernization have siphoned money away from social spending and with the real incomes of russians for willing for five

straight years now more defense spending is unlikely to help me putin's falling popularity defense minister sergei showing who recommends a land based version of the caliber cruise missiles russian ships have launched against targets in syria also a land based medium range hypersonic missile the new frontier in missile technology and there's the land based cruise missile russia already has according to the us this has a range that broke the terms of the i.n.f. treaty and was the reason washington gave for pulling out of the agreement there will be more briefings with and we're going to travel to military sites and factories where they produce these weapons to scare the europeans and the and the world public opinion that they should come to terms with russia should make deals with russia not ignore russia because russia has terrible things putin says the

door is open.