♪ amy: from the sundance film festival in park city, utah, this is democracy now... government is preparing fofor a u.s.. military invasion of venezuela. amy: venezuela accuses the united states of preparing a

military invasion to topple the government of nicolas maduro. this comes shortly after secretary of state mike pompeo tapped elliott abrams, a veteran of the u.s. dirty wars of the 1980s in latin america, to be hihis speciaial envoy to venezu. >> elliott's passions for the rights and liberties of all peoples make him a perfect fit and valuable and timely addition. he will be a true asset to ouour mission to help the venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country. amy: we will speak to o prize winning investigative journalist allan nairn about venezuela and elliott abrams. >> he was always very passionate and committed. committed to what? to mass killing in the service of what could be defined as u.s. interest or even u.s. whim. witht had nothing to do defending the liberties of people. it's more like defending the liberties of generals and

corporations and dictators. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. one day after announcing sweeping new sanctions on venezuela's state-owned oil company pdvsa, the u.s. said tuesday it was giving opposition leader juan guaido control of venenezuela's assetsn the u.s. russia has condemned thehe u.s. action, calling the sanctions "illegal interference" in venezuela's economy. russian n foreign minister sergi lavrov accused the u.s. of a attempting to profifit froe crcrisis, as american compananin venezuelela are exempt from the sanctions. pdvsa subsidiary, citgo, also operated across the u.s. in venezuela, the supreme court barred opposition leader juan guaido from leaving the country tuesday and agreed to freeze his assets.

prosecutors have launched an investigation into guaido, who last week declared himself venezuela's interim leader during a large opposition protest to president nicolas maduro's leadership. meanwhile, the u.n. is calling out the violent crackdown on protests, which they say has resulted in 40 people being killed. venezuelan ambassador to the united nations blasted the u.s.'s hypocrisy on tuesday. >> what does this government want? this government that doesn't recognize treaty, the doesn't recognize any of the agreements made around iran and signed by various european countries that launches a trade war with china that threatens russia with a nuclear war. that attacks in a very sadistic manner migrants from central america who arrived there. who has built a wall. a criminal wall sequesters

children to make them suffer. children of migrants and this government would have any moral authority to impose any diktat on venezuela? amamy: in ththe u.s., democratic lawmakers are hitting back at national security adviser john bolton, after he was photographeded holding a notepad with the words written "5,000 troops to colombia." democratic congressmember gregory meeks posted tweeted a photo of a yellow note pad on his desk with the handwritten words "president trump does not have the authority to invade venezuala" the photo caption reads:s: "sine we're s sending cables by legal pad now. #yellowpadding" we'll have more on the situatatn in venezuela after headlines with investigative reporter alan nairn. (vo vo vo vovo) [504]intelligence

(anchor) >> it is unlikely to give e up s nuclear production capabilities because its leaders view nuclear weapons as critical to regime survival. not he also said iran is --ducing a nuclear weapon coats also said iran is not producing a nuclear weapon. trump withdrew the u.s. from the landmark 2015 iran nuclear deal last year, despite international condemnation of the move and u.n. inspectors saying iran was adhering to the deal. on isis, coats said the group still has thousands of fighters in iraq q and syria and are "vey likely" to launch attacks on u.s. and allied targets. last month, trump announced he was withdrawing all u.s. troops from syria, declaring, quote "we have won against isis. we've beaten them, and we've beaten them badly." intelligence officials did not signal the situation at the u.s.-mexico border as a major security threat, despite trump repeatedly saying it constitutes a national emergency.

on tuesday the u.s. launched a sweeping policy. to honduranturned ---- a hondun n asyl s seeker to memexico. acting u.s. defense secretary patrick shshanahan announceded tuesday y 'several thousasand' e troops would head to the u.s.-mexico border. 2,400 troops are currently stationed at the border. nearly 6,000 u.s. troops were sent to o the border at the heit of trump's anti-migrant campaign in the run-up to the midterm elections. (vo vo) in honduras, a judge found opposition lawmaker and prominent police critic maria luisa borjas guilty of defamation tuesday. camilo atala, president of ficohsa bank, sued borjas after she publicly read his name from a list of suspected masterminds in the 2016 assassination of renowned indigenous environmental leader berta

caceres. borjas wasas formerly a high-ranking official in the honduran police force. human rights groups have condemned the case and the 'chilling effect' of such lawsuits. the honduran 'committee for freedom of expression' said tuesday's verdict poses 'a grave threat to democracy'. in brazil, police arrested 5 people over the devastating dam collapse in minas gerais last week that killed at least 65 people, with nearly 300 still missing. 3 of those arrested work for vale, the mining company that owned and operated the dam. the other 2 worked for a german company that carried out inspections on the dam last year. the news comes as families of the victims have started holding funerals for the deceased. residents and workers are demanding justice for what they say was a preventable disaster. meanwhile, local indigenous communities are decrying thehe environmental effects of the dam breach, which dumped millions of tons of iron ore wastete onto te land and into waterways.

>> we lost the equilibrium of our reserves because the river was everything. we bathed in it. we washed our clothes. we get really sad with this tragedy that the white man caused with our nature. in mexico, workers in the border city of matamoros say they have reached a deal in 27 out of 48 assembly plants that are participating in a massive strike that saw nearly 30,000 workers walk out on friday. workers say their demand for a wage increase of 20 percent in those factories was met. matamoros, which is located south of brownsville, texas is home to dozens of factories, or 'maquiladoras' owned largely by u.s. and european companies.

lawmakers narrowly failed to improve and arraignment -- approve an amendment to avoid a potentially devastating no deal breaks it. -- brexit. in cameroon, opposition leader maurice kamto was arrested, as the government cracks down on unrest after last yeyear's disputed presidential election. kamto's lawyer said the arrest was due to opposition protests over the weekend. security forces reportedly responded to the protests by firing live bullets. meanwhwhile, the committee to protect joururnalists is callilg for the release of journalists theodore t tchopa and davivid eyengue nzima who were arrested, alongside kamto, whilele coverig an opposition gathering. back in the u.s., the polar vortex enveloping the midwest is causing record lows across the region, , with tememperaturess dipping in se e areas clududing detrtroit, dipping below tempereratureses in antarctica. the wind chill temperature in chicago hit -49 degrees this morning. president trump used the extreme weather gripping the midwest to

once again deny climate change, tweeting monday: "in the beautiful midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. in coming days, expected to get even colder. people can't last outside even for minutes. what the hell is going on with global warming? please come back fast, we need you!" meanwhile, raging wildfires raged in australia has caused record-breaking heat, bringing about widespread power failures. a federal grand jury has filed 19 new charges, including hate crimes, against robert bowers, the accused gunman in last year's mass shooting at pittsburgh's tree of life synagogue. on october 27th, 11 jewish worshipers were shot and kililld in what has been described as the deadliest anti-semitic attatack in u.s. history. the indictment against bowers cited his online attacks on the jewish charity, hias, including posts frfrom the day of thee shooooting.

(vo president trump ally and former adviser roger stone pleaded 'not guilty' to lying to congress, witness tampering and obstruction tuesday at a federal court in washington. stone was arrested last week and indicted as part of special counsel robert mueller's investigation. in chicago, police are investigating a hate crime against actor jussie smollett, after 2 men violently attacked him on the street tuesday. smollett is a star of fox's hit tv show 'empire'. the attackers s shouted racist d homophobic slurs, "poured an unknown chemical substance" onto smollett and tied a rope around his neck. the actor is said to be in hospital in good condition. responding to the news, naacp's derrick johnson said, quote: "the rise in hate crimes is directly linked to president donald j. trump's racist and xenophobic rhetoric. it is dangerous for any society to allow a tone of divisiveness and hatred to dominate the political discourse."

democrats s have selected former georgia gubernatorial candidate stacey abrams to deliver the response to president trump's state of the union address. the address will take place next week, after being delayed due the government shutdown. stacey abrams launched fair fight action, a voting rights advocacy group, in november. the group is suing georgia election officials for mismanagement of the mid-term elections. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow.org, ththe war and peace report. i'm amy goododman. the united states is continuing to ratchet up pressure on the venezuelan government in an attempt toto topple e president nicolas maduro. on t tuesday the state departmet announced it is giving control of venezuela's u.s. bank accounts to opppposition leader juan n guaido who declard himselelf to be president last week. this came a day after ththe u.s. imposed a de facto embargo on

oil from venezuela's state run-oil company. the u.s. has also refused to rule out a military invasion of venezuela. on monday national security adviviser john bololton was photographed holding a notepad on which he had written the words "5,000 troops to colombia." earlier today venezuelan president nicolas maduro tweeted quote "people of the u.s., i ask for your support to reject the interference of donald trump's government in making my homeland a vietnam in latin america. don't allow it!" on wednesday, maduro told a russian news networkrke was open to negotiate with the opposition. meanwhile at the united nations venezuelan ambassador jorge valero questioned the moral auththority of the united state.

major opposition protests are planned today. on tuesday the office of the un high commissioner for human rights, criticized the venezuelan government for cracking down on earlier protests. according to the un, at least 40 people have been killed and 850 detained since the recent round of anti-government protests began. president trump also weighed in on the situation on venezuela writing on twitter today quote "maduro willing to negotiate with opposition in venezuela following u.s. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues. guaido is being targeted by venezuelan supreme court. massive protest expected today. americans should not travel to venezuela until further notice." on tuesday vice president mike pence met with members of the venezuelan opposition at the white house. trump's new special envoy to venezuela, elliott abrams, also took part in the meetings. elliott abrams is a right-wing hawk who was convicted in 1991 for lying to congress during the iran-contra scandal, but he was later pardoned by president george h.w. bush. abrams defended guatemalan dictator general efrain rios montt as he oversaw a campaign of mass murder and torture of indigenous people in guatemala in the 1980s. rios montt was later convicted of genocide. abrams was also linked to the 2002 coup in venezuela that attempted to topple hugo chavez. abrams' appointment has sparked alarm by many in the human rights community. well today we spend the hour looking at the crisis in

venezuelela and the e appointmef elliott abrams as specl enenvoy. we are joined by prize-winning investigative journalist allan nairn who has closely tracked elliott abrams' record for over three decades. allan is two-time winner of the george polk award and a recipient of the robert f. kennedy memorial award. i spoke to allan earlier this week from jakarta indonesia. he began by talking g about the significance of the appointment of elliot abrams. >> what his appointment reemphasizes, it was already obvious, was that the u.s. is trying to overthrow the government of venezuela and that it will be willing to use violence, to use military force if necessary. that's what abrams and indeed u.s. policy has been all about. i think their first preference would be to have a successful covert operation. mike pompeo when he was in charge of the cia all but stated it publicly. at one point when he was

spspeaking in aspen at one of ,hose gatherings of the e elite he gave the rough outlines of an operation in coordination with u.s. allies like columbia to topple the maduro government in venezuela. now just recently the night himselfuite go declared as the new president of venezuela he was on the phone with mike pence directly. the wall street journal broke the story. hence was directly talking to him and the next day he declares himself as the president of venezuela. incentivese offering to venezuelan army officers to come over to their side and hoping the u.s. can reestablish control of venezuela in that manner. if that fails i think there is a

chance that the u.s. would consider an invasion of venezuela. this would not be the first or even the second or third reference of the pentagon or the cia or the state department. but it might be very attractive to donald trump for several reasons. campaign, heg the said to the victor belong the spoils. you have to go in and take the oil. call this a trump doctrine. venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves. very often oil is used as the explanation for the motor for u.s. invasions and foreign policy and i think it's role is usually way overblown. people give it too much weight. in this case it might turn out to be very relevant given that trump has that doctrine and is now personally in power.

secondly, politically, trump needs a new war. himas been stuck with for being in the embarrassing position of just being able to continue the old w bush and obama wars. there is a consensus among u.s. mainstream historians that no president can be great unless he has a war. they say this all the time. and trump now of course is in some logical difficulty. action where the u.s. went into venezuela in spectacular fashion, did it quick in the style of the u.s. ,nvasions of grenada or panama didn't get bogged down. just went in for a few weeks, killed without restraint which is the doctrine trump is now applying to u.s. forces worldwide. he's basically told the cia and the pentagon, don't worry about any constraints on civilian

casualties that may have existed before. do what you will. in afghanistan he celebrated the dropping of what was called the mother of all bombs. explosive which is the closest conventional explosive that you can get to a nuclear weapon. this was dropped in a mountainous region of afghanistan. trumump was crowing ababout it afterward. a a quick invasion with massive force that s succeeds s in toppg is theuroro g government kind of thing that could in theory be attractive to trump and it's also the kind of thing that i guarantee you would be praised to the heavens on cnn and on msnbc. this would be a sweet political victory for trump. whether it's actually possible to pull off a quick successful military invasion of venezuela is entirely a different question

because it would face major resistance even with some of the army had already switched sides to the u.s. side. there would be a lot of people who would want to resist it. that reality case in venezuela today is very duringnt than has been earlier years of the bulgarian momoment in venenezuelala. -- the rest always of care at all about elections. they don't care at all about the poor. completely fake elections are fine w with them. the u.s. elections not long ago finished ratifying a fraudulent election in honduras where hernandez imposed himseself for reelection andnd he did that wih the assistance of mike pence and others. they don't care about the poor. chavez anded hugo

the bolivar and movement from the beginning. in 2002 even though chavez had not long before then reelected in a completely clean vote for years the carter center and other international monitors who went to venezuela was reporting that their electoral system was in that e era, they did a clean count. they were not rigged electionon. despite the fact that the chavez adadministration was making gret strides in raising living , startingfor the poor to lower the levels of malnutrition, starting to raise the levels of general health or maybe because of that, the u.s. a coup moved back against chavez that was ultimately unsuccessful because the population and much of the security forces rallied to chavez's side and they thwarted

the u.s. effort to oust him. today it's a different situation. the u.s. has been trying to undermine the venezuelan government ever since the chavez years. as has the venezuelan oligarchy. in fact, not longg after the which wased coup backed by the u.s., the rich of venezuela went on a capital strike. they purposely shut down their businesses and it had a huge impact. they succeeded in shaving something like 27% off the grocer mastech product of venezuela -- gross domestic product of venezuela which is astonishing and catastrophic in a short time. even that failed to topple chavez. in the conditions we have today where maduro does not have near the popular support that chavez did it where he has really been running the country into the ground and using the fact that

the u.s. is trying to undermine the government as a universal excuse for everything, for his own incompetence and corruption and brutality against protesters in the streets. 's government, the maduro government is in a rather weak that theand it appears population is becoming rather divided. for years the opposition in kind of awas classical rightist latin american force with the rich, ,he very rich, the oligarchs the top p businesssspeople peope aligned with manany sectors s oe middle class. now it seeeems that opposition s spread and there are many poor people who are part of it. the majurons government is rather weak and vulnerable to being toppled. it's not impossible as it was in previous years under chavez.

but even though much of the u.s. news coverage and many of the u.s. analysts note the fact that a lot of poor people are now joining and going into the streets protesting against maduro there is absolutely no ay that the u.s. will allow poor people's movement. imagine if such a thing came into being. a poor people's movement in venezuela that wanted to oust majuro but replace it with a new policy that was also pro-poor and sought to gain justice. there's no way the u.s. would tolerate that. the u.s. will insist that a new opposition that comes to power be controlled by the far right elements who represent the very rich and who are willing to take instructions from washington as was clearly illustrated in the pence and the -- hence

newly proclaimed president of venezuela. what i think the proper role for is tos. at this moment lift the sanctions, lift the currentlyld that is increasing the level of hunger. misery inlevel of venezuela that was already caused by the incompetence of this government. the u.s. has done everything they can to increase it. just in the past few days the u.s. has been moving legally to block the venezuelan government from using $1.2 billion worth of gold which it has stored in london. and in doing this they are being backed by the opposition. and this will mean less money

available in venezuela to buy basic provisions. basic supplies, food, medicine, etc.. first left the stranglehold. secondly disavow the invasion option. some people in the democratic party float the idea of the u.s. trying to be the mediator in finding a political solution is for venezuela but that's not appropriate. the u.s. has no standing to be a mediator. the u.s. is on one side. they are on the side of the right and the rich in venezuela who are trying to trouble -- toppled his government. the u.s. is trying to overthrow the government. they can't be a mediator. thes somewhat comparable to israel palestine where for years the u.s. has claimed to be an honest broker between israel and the palestinian and in fact

everyone knows the u.s. is on the side of the israelis and against the aspirations of the palestinians to have their legal rights under international law enforced and to regain their political sovereignty. and yet they claim to be a mediator. the u.s. should not try to claim to be a political mediator in venezuela either. need an you would outside party that has some credibility. maybe a figure like the pope or some outside countries who could play that role. a couple of years ago the pope was involved in such an effort but he received no backing from the u.s. at the time because they don't really want a political solution that leads to a truly open political field were all options are available. where perhaps maybe a different government but one that is pro-poor and anti-u.s. could gain power. if you had a genuinely open alitical process in venezuela

political outcome like that is certainly not inconceivable but the u.s. would never tolerate that. they are now trying to engineer to regainthe u.s. control and to do that they will be willing to use violence as necessary and for that abrams is the perfect man for the job. investigative journalist allan nairn. we will be back with him after break. amy: this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodmaman. as we continue to look at the crisis in venezuela and the new u.u. special to venezuela, elliott abrams, we return to m my inteterview with prize winning investigative journalist allan nairn. wasas the key man in reagan administration policy toward central america. when the administration was abetting what a court recently ruled was a genocide in wasemala, when the u.s. backing the army of el salvador in a series of death squad assassinations and massacres and when the u.s.s. was invadining nicaragua with a contrtra force thth went after what one u u.s. general described as soft targets meaning civilians. things like cooperatives. back during came the george w. bush administration, joins the national security council and

was a key man in implementing the u.s. policy of backing israeli attacks against gaza when the u.s. refused to accept the results of the gaza elections. where hamas defeated fatah in a vote and instead a abrams and company backed the war operation to overturn the results of the election. backing the forces of mohammed a dumb blonde. some commentators have said abrams is not a trump guy. he represents traditional established u.s. foreign policy. and that's true. the problem is that that u.s. policy has been to a bit genocide when the u.s. feels it's necessary. , thee case of guatemala abrams and the reagan administration were approving the shipment of weapons, money,

intelligence in the ovovisio of political vever tohe a armof guatemal as they were sweeping through the northwest mayan highlands wiping out 662 rural villages by the army's own account. capitated children. crucifying people. using the tactics that in this era we associate with isis. 1985e particular case in and activist who for the relatives of the disappeared named rosario was abducted by the army. she was raped. her mutilated body was found alongside that of her baby. the babies fingernails had been torn out. but what a modern army when asked about this atrocity said, they died in a traraffic accide. when elliott abrams was asked about this accident he affirmed also that they died in a traffic

accident. this activist raped and mutilated, the baby with its fingernails pulled out. abrams says itit's s a traffic accident. it's very parallel to the stance abrams took on panama when noriega, the cia backed dictator of panama who was involved in the drug traffic who the u.s. later decided to overthrow. when the forces of noriega of ducted a panamanian dissident and cut off his head with a kitchen knife, jesse hehelms of all people try to investigate in the u.s. congress and elliott abrams stopped him, saying no, we need noriega. he's working with us. in the case of el salvador, after the massacre where a u.s. trained battalion massacred more than 500 civilians, slitting the

throats of children along the way, abrams took the lead in denying that such a thing had laterappened and he described the results of the reagan administration policy, his policy in el salvador as a fabulous achievement. the el salvador truth commission had issued a report saying that 85% of the atrocities had been committed by the armed forces and its death squads. death squads which had a particular practice of cutting off the genitals of their victims, stuffing them in their mouths and putting them on open display on the road sides of el salvador. when i appeared on the charlie rose tv show with elliott abrams i suggested that he put -- be put on trial. that he be brorought beforore a nurnberg style tribunal and

tried for his role in facilitating war crimes and crimes against humanity. he dismissed the idea of him being put on trial as the chris but he did not actually deny any of the facts of what he has done. all necessary in the context of the cold war. so this is elliott abrams who has now been put in charge of key aspects of the u.s. pololics toward venezuela. amy: let's go to that clilip. 1995.as in march of i think you have to apply uniform standards. president trump once talked about putting saddam hussein on trial for crimes against humanity. if you are serious you have to be evenhanded. i think we have to start talking watermelon and u.s. o officials on trial. i think someone like mr. abrams would be a subject for such a

nurnberg style inquiry. i agree the democrats would have to be in the dark with him. congress approved the sale of 16,000 m-16s to guatemala. 88 --and >> i invite you back to discuss what he did. >> it is ludicrous to respond to that kind of stupidity. this guy thinks we were on the wrong side in the cold war. a b he personally was on the wrong side to i am one of the millions of americans -- ofsupporting the massacre peasants, that's a crime. that was elliott abrams responding to you on pbs on n te charlie rose show. your response. think what he said in our

exchange speaks for itself. i should note that just last trial at a genocide which i testified and gave evidence the court ruled that tot the guatemalan army did the miami shield people and others of the mayan population in guatemala, the court ruled that that constituted genocide. and they said this genocide was carried out by the watermelon army in accord with an essentially at the behest of u.s. policy. u.s. intererests. wass strong as the case back in the 90's when i argued on the charlie rose show that abrams should be put on trial now it's even stronger because you have the predicate of this genocide finding by the sayining thatrt

genocide derived from u.s. policy. intos not even getting what he did with el salvador and panama and nicaragua and palestine and other places. amy: let me play for you what mike pompeo's head when he announced that elliott abrams would be the point person on venezuela. >> elliott's passion for the right of all people makes him a perfect fit to the value of all people. your response. >> abrams indeed had passion. he had a lot of passion and he is also very intelligent. was backing the guatemalan army in what has now been revealed as genocide, when

to back and even in some cases do joint interrogations with the death squads abrams was very passionate in saying the weapons and the money got through and in persistently going on american television on shows like nightline and really crushing the weak kneed democrats who would be brought into debate againstt him because abrams woud always make a principled case for what was in effect u.s. support for mass murder and genocide in central america. at the time for example in el salvador one of the immediate political issues was the government of the president and the army behind him was being essentially all but run by the united states and rebels were challenging him trying to

overthrow him. abrams would say to the democrats so are you saying that we should let the president fall? and let el salvador go communist? and the democrats would crumble in the face of this argument a d ththey know, we are not saying ththat. andave to keep hihim in power abrams would say how can youou keep him in powewer if we don'tt back the salvadoran ararmy? he w was always very passionate and committed.d. commmmitted to what? committed to m mas killing in te service of what could be defined as u.s. interests or even u.s. win. him. though it was portrayed as a battle to help el salvadodor and guatemala and iraq were from becoming wings of the soviet union anyone familiar with the facts on the ground new that that was ridiculous. that is not at all what was at stake.

what was at stake was a battle between local oligarchies who were driving the poor peasant and small working-class majorities in those countries to the brink of hunger and in some cases over the brink. half of children in the poorest areas were dying before the age of five. people who dared to speak up against the oligarchs who were imposing these economic conditions or against the army were snatched, abducted by u.s. backed death squads. the guy who was the creator of the salvadoran death squads described this to me in great detail in 13 hours of interviews. he actually showed me a silver metal which was presented to him in the oval office for what was called exceptionally meritorious service. originally starting in the administration of president and. this continued all the way into the time of abrams.

that's what the u.s. was doing and that's what he was passionately defending and it had nothing to do with defending the liberties of people. it's more like defending the liberties of generals andd cocorporations and dictators. back after the break. amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue to look at the crisis in venezuela and the new u.s. special envoy to venezuela

we return to my conversation with award-winning investigative journalist allan nairn. let's go to what happened in iran contra in the 1980's. elliott abrams was found guilty of lying to congress i think twice. president george h.w. bush pardoned him. why was he lying to congress? >> he was lying to coverer up te fact thatt t the reagan administration had an operation which he w was part of. an operaration led boliviver n h to s supply arms to the e u.s. created ninicaraguan contrtras o commit aggressioion against ninicaragua,, to invade nicaraga and go aftfter those soft targes galalvane u.s. general descriribed a soft targets. they were doing it illegally because congress had prohibited the u.s. from doing that but the

reagan administration and abrams and his colleagues just decided to ignore the legal mandate of congress and go underground and in order to go underground they to get much of their money from of all places iran which was a harsh declared u.s. enemy at the time and they did a complex deal where they got money from iran from letting arms flow. they used that to ship toto the contrass and d the contras were able t to continue their atrocities and they eventually succeeded. the e contras evenally succeeded in temporarily bringing d down e sandinista governmnment of nicararagua. a v veryhis is inteteresting point, very relelt today with muellerer investigation. what abrams was charged with and

pled guilty to was the most trivial aspect of both the contra operation and the whole u.s. policy in central america which he was the brains behind. the most trivial aspect. just the fact that he lied to congress trying toto cover upp e money transactions. he was never charged by the u.s. prosecutors with providing weapons to terrorists which is what the salvadoran army and the guatemala army and the cia backed u.s. created contras were behaving as at the time, terrorists, i.e. those who kill and torture civilians for political purposes. he was not charged with that. he was not charged with abetting crimes against humanity or genocide. just with the most trivial aspect because that's the way systems work particularly the u.s. system. , toorimes that are too big

enormous, too much of a threat to the survival of the system itself like the support of genocides overseas cannot be charged. if you commit a more petty offense, got help you. you could be in real trouble. that seems to be the fix some of the trump people are in right now. trump is currently snatching children from their parents at the mexican border, increasing the pace of bombing a and therey civililian killings in iraq and and aand afghanistan whole host of other things. and abrams hideaway also perhaps relevant to what's going on -- by the waylso perhaps relevant to what's going on today was pardoned by bush and the person who was pushing the was bar, at

that time the attorney general and now trumps incoming attorney general. but abrams although he pled guilty to the technicality of lying has yet to face real justice. just as the u.s. generals and like president reagan. reagan never faced justice and abrams has yet to face it but they should. why can't the u.s. become as civilized as guatemala? guatemala succeeded in mounting a genocide trial against their former dictator. the general who was the key figure in the massacres. the firstcted him time. they sentenced him to 80 years. the oligarchy demanded that the verdict rolled back. then thelled back and trial was restarted from the halfway point. he had died by that time but the

renewed trial still brought back the verdict saying the army had committed genocide in accord with u.s. interests. in this was done in the context of a deeply c corruptpt w watern government that is at that moment trying to amend the laws of guatemala so that all the convicted war criminals can be freed from jail with the support of president trump at this moment and with key outside support from president netanyahu of israel who is loving the trump administration on their behalf and with mike pence acting as the point man. the current automotive government is trying not only to free the war criminals from jail but also to shut down all of the prosecutors within guatemala. some of them you and that prosecutors who have been prosecutining preresident m morf guatemala himself and other

oligigarchs and mimilitaryry pee for corruption. they are trying to in some cases through the prosecutors out of the country. in other cases fire them and in all cases strip away their police protection so they are standing there defenseless in the face of the mafias and drug dealers and corrupt politicians and oligarchs they are trying to prosecute. all of this now being backed by trump. of politicalkind context that the brave survivors of the abrams backed atrocities in guatemala. attorneysof honest and prosecutors and judges in guatemala were able to achieve the political miracle of mounting these genocide and crimes against humanity trials and actually convicting and jailing a number of high-level officials. so if they can do that in guatemala why can't we do that here in the united states? why can't we at least aspire to

that level of courage and political consciousness and civilization? i remember as the verdict was being read i was in n the courtroom. i was thinking my god, imagine if this were done in the united states. imagine a trial in texas of bush jr. . for a rock or of obama -- iraq or obama for the drone killings or a figure like elliott abrams for guatemala and el salvador. and it really was inconceivable in the current political moment in the united states. but i think we will get there and we should take the example of the courageous survivors and lawyers of guatemala. bolton on go to john fox business. >> we are in conversation with major american companies are either in venezuela or in the case of said go here in the united states -- citgo here in the united states.

venezuela is one of the three countries i call thehe troika of tyraranny. ifw wl make a big difference we can have e american oil companies really invest t in and prododuce the oil c capabilitien venezuela. it would be good for the people of venezuela. the quote of john bolton on fox. you have the net states imposing sweeping new u.s. sanctions on venezuela's state oil company. >> that statement from bolton is remarkable and it sounds like he's implementing the trump doctrine of to the victor belong the spoils take the oil. because what he is proposing is the policy overturn of the chavez movement.

he's talking about overturning the oil policy that existed before chavez came to power under the previous essentially you directed conservative governments in venezuela. the chavez came to power oil company in venezuela was already nationalized. he inherited that. he didn't suddenly nationalize an oil industry that was controlled by american operations. by hisalready done predecessors. proposingis actually in n the change traditioional economomic policyf venezuela and also by the way, the idea that the venezuelan oil company is some alien force to americans is not true. many of your viewers have probably into it used to be called city service, what now

are called citgo gas stations across the united states. citgoare the stations of which is the american subsidiary of the venezuelan state-owned oil company and they have been doing business in a normal business fashion in the united states for decades upon decades. another thing that's interesting about that comment from bolton is if you really studied it doesn't even have an economic rationale. thinking you are just in strictly self-interested economic terms for the united states as an entity. that wouldn't even make sense because in today's world your worst enemy will still sell you oil at the market price. and there's not a whole lot of betweence economically controlling the oil fields that'sf and find the oil produced by them on the open market regardless of does the

production. the discipline of the market ensures basically a uniform price that is determined by the market and not by the political wishes of the oil producer. that's the way it works in today's world. so the reason for bolton advocating having the u.s. companies coming in and in the oil is more political. giving the u.s. a source of leverage. goiding where that oil can and how the oil revenues can be firstecause up until now under chavez and continuing under maduro, the venezuelan government, the bolivar and government has used oil revenues for several political purposes. one is to fund social programs that have helped the poor and in

fact that was the specific reason that the rich went on strike against chavez trying to bring down the economy because they objected to the oil revenues being used for social programs for the poor. they wanted the oil revenue to flow somehow into their pockets and secondly venezuela has sometimes used that oil revenue for foreign political purpose is. they assisted haiti in providing oil to haiti and canceling haiti's oil debts a number of years back under chavez when haiti was in particularly dedesperate straits.s. even in the united states. even in boston. congressman joe kennedy, the former congressman years ago established a program in boston to provide low-cost heating oil to his lower income constituents in the boston area and part of

the way he did that was by an arrangement with the venezuelan oil company. so if you had american corporations in control of the venezuelan oil these kinds of medical choices could of course the reverse. in raw economic rationale terms it wouldn't make sense at all. i think veryold revealing initiative by bolton and it shows where the u.s. is going on venezuela now. it shows the u.s. is seeking to impose what is really a radical rightist revolution on venezuela. they are not just proposing to overturn the economic legacy of chavez but e even of his more coconservative predececessors. they are talking about privatizing the oil. and by the way the economic policy of chavez and later maduro is depicted in the u.s. press as being communist or even

socialist to a very strong extent. but it actually isn't. if you look at the figures of how the venezuelan economy operates the government controls about a third of the private corporate equity in venenezuela. the level of government spending for social programs in venezuela is not that much higher. it's only two points higher than the level in the united states. there are all sorts of private businesses that operatate freely and in fact in the past few years as the crisis has intense side while many of the private business people oligarchic types have been hung the opposition, others -- funding the opposition, others have been cozying up to the maduro government and there have been

deals between them. what venezuela basically has is a mixed economy. there has been a big emphasis on doing things like encouraging cooperatives and so on. but in recent years it's been run into the ground in part by bad decisions. there was a catastrophic monetary policy they adopted for wherea few years venezuela on anti-imperialist revolutionary grounds adopted the monetary policies proposed by the u.s. right-wing politician ron paul. and they kept the currency exchange rate fixed with catastrophic consequences greeting this massive gap between the official exchange rate and the black market and that ended up benefiting rich

to buywho were able imports. it completely disrupted the rest of the economy. far fromeen really afar leftist government. award-winning investigative journalist allan nairn speaking to us from indonesia. he is a two-time winner of the george polk award and a recipient of the rf kennedy journalism award as well as the dupont columbia toward. to see all of our crisis on the coverage in venezuela go to democracynow.org. we'll continue our coverage of the sundance film as tomorrow. democracy now! is accepting applications for a full-time one year paid news fellowship. details are online at democracynow.org. democracy now is produced by mike burke, dedeena guzder, nermeen n shaikh, carla wills, tami woronoff, sam alcoff, john hamilton, robby karran, hany

massoud, charina nadura, tey-marie astudillo and libby rainey. mike di fillippo and miguel nogueira are our engineers. special thanks to becca staley, julie crosby, hugh gran, david prude, ariel boone, vesta goodarz and carl marxer.

♪ thank you for joining us on nhk "newsline." i'm in tokyo. we begin in venezuela where political chaos continues. the self-proclaimed interim president has called on the public to take part in anti government protests. guaido says he has the full backing of u.s. president trump. thousands of people protested on weda