have urged the venezuelan military to support the opposition leader juan guaido as interim president. the ill—nation lima group called for a change of government without the use of force and said president nicolas maduro's administration should lose access to venezuela's international assets. theresa may is heading to northern ireland where she'll tell business leaders that she's determined to find a way to deliver brexit and avoid a hard border with ireland. on wednesday she'll hold talks with the different political parties. police in belgium are hunting a gang who used the sewers to break into a bank in antwerp. it's thought they tunnelled from sewage pipes, boring into the vaults and making off with the contents of at least 20 deposit boxes. the sewerage company said the risk from gas and flash flooding made the heist extremely dangerous. you are up—to—date with the headlines. it is about 4:30am in the

morning, i have to break it to you. it is time now for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. right now, venezuela is in the grip of political and economic chaos. two men are claiming the presidency, protesters are out on the streets and the international community is divided in its response. well, today i'm in miami to meet christian zerpa. until december, he was a justice on the venezuelan supreme court. now he's one of the highest—profile defectors from the maduro regime. so does this erstwhile insider believe the socialist revolution is in its death throes? christian zerpa, welcome to hardtalk.

let us begin with your personal story. here you sit with me in miami and yetjust a few short weeks ago, you were a justice on the venezuelan supreme court. you could have stayed in your country to fight for truth and justice. you ran away. why? i understand very well that it is very dangerous to be an opponent of the maduro regime. dissidents, as you say, are in prisoned. you were not a dissident. you were an extraordinarily loyal functionary of the government. you accepted a position

in the supreme court and you were chosen because you had been so loyal for so long to the chavista revolution and to nicolas maduro in particular. you weren't a dissident, you were a loyalist. but this is important because it's important to get inside the mindset of people who still today in venezuela are working for the maduro regime. did you continue to stay loyal because you had, relatively speaking, a good salary, your family was being looked after, you were inside the system. so, in a sense, you couldn't — or maybe you felt you couldn't — afford to leave, to make trouble, to run any risks, is that why you stayed so loyal for so long? but with respect, your situation was very different to those venezuelans who are suffering real starvation. i mean, we see from the figures that have been put out by the un that up to 10% of children in venezuela today are suffering severe

malnutrition. we know that millions have had to flee their country because they are going hungry. according to one estimate there are now nearly 3 million venezuelans who have fled the country. medicines are in short supply in many of the country's hospitals and yet you still sat on the supreme court, issuing yourjudgements, loyal to mr maduro. did you not feel that what you were doing was fundamentally wrong? while you tell me about the dangers of being a dissident and how difficult it is, i am also thinking that you sat on the supreme court at a time when the judicial system, with your court at the very top, was locking up many dissidents and opponents of the government. leopoldo lopez, for example, he was locked up. i could list a whole

host of venezuelans, brave venezuelans, who dared to voice political opposition, who were imprisoned, convicted by courts, ultimately the supreme court. you sat there. you are guilty, yourself, of putting dissidents behind bars. you're part of a system. and also, if you tell me, oh, i was involved with elections. the supreme court declared that the election of 2018, president maduro‘s re—election, the court was perfectly happy to accept that result when every international observer said that the vote was rigged, that it was completely illegitimate and unacceptable. so even in your role supervising elections, time and again, you were avoiding all responsibility to tell the truth. are you saying to me that maduro‘s re—election in 2018

was legitimate or illegitimate? was that election free and fair or was it rigged? have you discussed with the us authorities — because of course now you're now living in florida, in exile — have you discussed with them giving evidence and sworn statements about what you describe as the systematic corruption at the top of the regime? you've talked about the chiefjustice mr moreno, you've talked about the president and the president's immediate family and his close associates, and you have suggested that they are all part of a corrupt system. what evidence did you see of wealth that was being acquired by people at the top of the government? do you also feel guilt, guilt that you served that regime that you now describe as illegitimate and corrupt? you served it for so long. how much guilt do you feel? let's talk about the situation in venezuela today.

just a few weeks after you left the country, juan guaido declared that he was the legitimate president of venezuela. he, of course, was the president of the national assembly and argued that maduro‘s election in 2018 was completely illegitimate which you today have agreed with, and he said, therefore, he was the legitimate president of venezuela. do you support his claim? but your former colleagues in the venezuelan supreme court have frozen his bank accounts, they have barred him from travel, leaving the country. he is under enormous pressure today. you know the supreme court very well and you know president maduro well. is it your impression that they will do everything in their power to destroy juan guaido right now? what do you think president maduro is going to do now?

because of course, mr guaido has won the support of many nations around the world including of course the united states and many countries in latin america, but the response from maduro has been to talk about us imperialism trying to illegitimately remove him from power. he has said they are trying to get their hands on our oil, just like in iraq. he has said, if they try to overthrow me, get me out of power, it will be worse than vietnam for them. so do you believe maduro is committed to staying in power, confronting the opposition and doing whatever it takes to maintain his grip on power? the truth is, there are long—standing suspicions inside venezuela of american motives and now that donald trump and his team have imposed punitive new sanctions on venezuela's state oil company, that's going to cost the country billions of dollars,

it going to mean the desperate state of the economy is going to get even worse. do you support american sanctions? do you support america's talk of military options being on the table? but would you accept that mr guaido has to be careful. he has already spoken to donald trump by telephone. we know that today, here in miami, other venezuelan dissidents are meeting vice president mike pence. if the venezuelan opposition is seen to be too close to the trump administration and to the united states, that may well raise suspicions back home in venezuela. it may allow maduro to use this narrative about us imperialism? is that a danger? you talked about the venezuelan military and how important they are going to be in the next phase of this crisis. do you believe there's evidence that there are divisions in the military and that there are some who want to now

come out and supportjuan guaido? here's what a former maduro loyalists, who fled the country in 2015, hebert garcia plaza, here's what he said recently. he said, "right now the venezuelan armed forces do not have the capacity or indeed the desire to confront the population in a massive protest." ie, he is suggesting that, if millions come out into the streets, the army will not use repression to try and keep maduro in power. do you agree? what do you think is going to happen in venezuela? do you think the country is going to sink into civil war? but i want to end with this thought, if i may, mrzerpa. you talk of democracy. you were not a democrat. for many, many years you were a loyal member

of the socialist government which in many parts of the world is described as a dictatorship. you served that dictatorship. now you talk about democracy. are you saying to me that, as far as you are concerned, the socialist revolution and the authoritarian government in venezuela is basically over, it is finished? you said a few days ago, "if i go back to venezuela right now, i would be a dead man." do you believe you will ever go home with your family? christian zerpa, i thank you very much for being on hardtalk, muchas gracias. hello.

monday saw a transition to much milder weather across much of the uk. tuesday though will start off on a pretty chilly note, at least first thing. this picture was taken on monday evening, by one of our weather watchers, in hertfordshire, showing that the fog's already been forming. so i think we are likely to start with quite a bit of mist and fog around, also some frost here and there, first thing tuesday morning. rain will move in from the west later on in the day, so we'll see those skies clouding over. a clear start for many of us. you can see the the blue colours indicating where the lowest of the temperatures and the frost will be. there's also going to be some fog problems, particularly through the vale of york, also through parts of southern england, perhaps east wales as well. through the day, we do start with that sunshine for much of scotland, northern england, eastern england too. but you can see the cloud rolling in from the west, ahead of the arrival of some wet weather. so later in the morning, there'll be some rain

for northern ireland, wales, the south—west of england too. that rain pushing its way eastwards through the day. eastern scotland and eastern england should stay mostly dry, although skies will cloud over and temperature will range between around 6—12 degrees on tuesday afternoon. now, we'll keep all the cloud and the outbreaks of patchy rain overnight tuesday into wednesday. still quite a breeze too. so for many of us it will be a reasonably mild night but where we do see those skies clear, particularly in the north, could just be a touch of frost, but generally a frost—free and a mild start to your wednesday. now, through the day on wednesday, showers from the word go across the north—west of the country. initially some rain in the south—east too and that's down to this weather front that you can see on the map here. it is clearing its way off towards the south—east and then we're all left with this westerly flow of air. so quite a showery scene for northern ireland, western scotland too. and through the day, we'll see some of that rain in the south just pushing back in, so a bit of a soggy afternoon, i think, for south—east england, the london region and east anglia too,

but elsewhere actually some sunny spells coming through and temperatures not far off what we'd expect for the time of year. between around about 8—10 degrees for most of us. looking ahead now towards the end of the week and things will turn increasingly unsettled. we could see a spell of rain, perhaps even a bit of snow over the hills, moving through into the early hours of thursday morning. so overnight wednesday into thursday, chance of seeing a little bit of hill snow here and there. through the day on thursday, then the worst of the rain and hill snow should clear away. and then again we're left with a westerly flow, a mix of sunny spells and a few scattered showers but it could turn quite stormy, quite windy and unsettled as we look towards the end of the week. that's it for now. bye— bye. this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: theresa may's heading for northern ireland, saying she's determined to find a way to deliver brexit and avoid a hard border with the irish republic. 13 latin american countries and canada call for a peaceful change of government in venezuela and urge the military to back juan guaido, as interim president.

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