bloomberg is in washington, d.c., where he will be endorsed by d.c. mayor murel vowser. wouch live coverage of this event at 1:05 eastern on c span 3. what has happened in the past years to change the original intent the framers and the historic meantion of the phrase high crimes and misdemeanors. >> the issue in this senate was not whether a crime was committed. it was whether the charge was a high crime. when this impeachment began it was whether a crime was required. >> it need not be an crime. by all scholars, all scholars in our history, except for mr. dershowitz. >> the impeachment trial of president trump today at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2, on

demand at c-span.org/impeachment or listen on the free radio app. venezuelan officials and lat ip american scholars talk about the political and humanitarian situation in venezuela. they spoke at an event hosted by the strategic and international studies. welcome, everybody, to csis. i am moisis. i am fellow of the america's

program. unfortunately due to last-minute travel issues joanna mendelson from the american university who was going to join us is not going to be able to make it anymore. i would like to mention that we're mindful that this is an all-male panel and we're doing as much as possible to include women in our events, especially when we discuss venezuela we like to discuss how the various crises affects men and women different and it's important to see how it can be beneficial to all venezuelans. we're discussing today the implications of reciprocal assistance, known as tr. for a quick background, the united states and 11 other nations invoke the tr real treaty to facilitate response to the crisis in venezuela. as the first step on september

23rd of 2019, 16 out of the 19 member countries voted and agreed to impose targeted sanctions on individuals and entities associated with the government of nicklaus maduro. they also pledged to meet again within two months to discuss additional measures. i think these deliberations have potential implications for u.s. policy. this is why we're here to walk us through all of those implications of what the treaty means and how this affects the crisis. so -- and this is not only a timely issue, because interim president juan guide doe is meeting with leaders at davos, but because the treaty sheds light on what is left on the policy in venezuela. because we have already done so much. but this treaty particularly kind of give room to more options. and that's where we want to get into. i think there are two big

questions for this discussion that i want to make sure that every single one in the room leaves with clarity and some with ers to those two big questions. the first one, basics, what is the rio treaty and what are its implications in addressing the crisis? and what is different from the rio treaty compared to the sanctions and diplomatic measures that we already have i am pose today to the maduro regime, how it makes our international response differently. we have a great bench, a great panel today to tackle those questions. thank you, all, ambassadors, for joining. you all have their values with you so i won't go through them. i want to thank ambassadors, two permanent to the oas, and ambassador brownfield to join us, ambassador tar ek, we will start with you.

thank you again for joining the. t the floor is yours. >> i want to thank csis and myis rendon and his team for hosting this. the rio treaty known in spanish as moisess said as tr has become an important tool to the government of juan guaido and of his international campaign against maduro and his criminal regime. venezuela announced under chavez in 2012, claiming that was an imperial instrument of the united states. on june 23rd of last year, the national assembly of venezuela approved a corporation to the tread treaty. since then we have con sooend the meeting of consultation of foreign minsters and implemented two resolutions aimed at eroding

maduro support base. despite this, we can't yes scape reality. mad uro remains in power. and his regime shows signs of its dictatoral ways. the treaty was considered in a different era. at that time the war was settling after world war ii, and the conflicts were fought by states in battle fields. in conventional battle fields. economies were smaller. the worlds were far less connected. and the most important technological advance in the field of communication were difficult work of very difficult taxes and controlled by few countries or a few companies. without leaving an era of conflict between states and known-state actors, that's you,

and there are new technology too. the globalization of criminal enterprises like drug cartels, have allowed the rise of organizations that -- the war's largest corporations. we can say the same about terrorist organizations which have activities not limited by the state borders. terrorist groups such as the faurk, the eln, and hezbollah, which have proven to be worse for global powers are now operating in venezuela. furthermore, we live in a world where a small group of people with access to the internet technology can weaponize public opinion and influence the masses at the very, very low cost. this is evidence of a global disinformation war that is more efficient than traditional propaganda. the world has seen a

proliferation of fake sites, user accounts or content, that target the public with devisive messages. last sunday, mos 'em broad to the spanish newspaper el pais, we have seen russian hackers have formed confusion in societies to create doubts about what or who to believe, to deepen the conflicts that exist, or invent new ones. to promote some political actor and destroy the reputation of others. all this they can do, and they do, not only in the neighboring countries but in any country in the world. hackers and russian bots have intervened in catalonia, brexit, germany, france, he estonia, an lot of more countries.

it is not only the advanced use of what the russian government calls political technologies. they also have the ability to use cyber waepz to attack the electrical networks, communication, transportation, or financial, in another country. a few days ago, sunday, "the new york times" diplomatic correspondent wrote that watching political unrest explode across south america this fall, official of the state department noticed a nearly singular pattern in anti-government protests that otherwise had little in common. in chile, nearly 10% supporting protests in late october originated in twitter accounts. >>. we're going to break away to go live to capitol hill where nancy pelosi is holding a press conference. >> impressionat