02/16/21 02/16/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> trump stormed our house and we defended our house. he violated our constitution and we defended the constitution. they tried to trash our democracy and we revived it and we protected it. amy: democratic lawmakers have announced plans to set up a 9/11

comm@@sion-style panel to investigate the deadly insurrection at the capitol on january 6. we will speak with nation journalist elie mystal about why he wants to see donald trump in jail. and then we will speak to ecuadorian presidential candidate andres arauz, a protégé of former president rafael correa. arauz won the first round of the election after vowing to fight austerit poverty, and the pandemic. >> there is no doubt, we are in first place. we have received an overwhelming vote from different parts of our country. as i said earlier, it is a victory representative of the national territory. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. house speaker nancy pelosi has

authorized a 9/11-style commission to further investigate the january 6 insurrection, as well as the actions that led up to it. this comes as calls are growing for the criminal prosecution of former president donald trump as one of the last paths left to hold him accountable after saturday's vote in the senate fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to find him guilty. seven republicans voted with democrats to convict. among them, north carolina senator richard burr. on monday, north carolina's republican party formally censured burr over his vote, joining similar votes against senators bill cassidy of louisiana and pat toomey of pennsylvania. republican officials in maine and utah are also considering censure votes against susan collins and mitt romney over their votes to convict trump. after headlines, we'll have the latest on the fight to hold trump accountable for the insurrection and the fht withinhe republican party over trump's legacy.

a massive arctic air mass settled over the central united states on monday, spawning deadly accidents, leaving millions without power, and breaking records for snowfall and low teeraturesrom nebraska to oklaho to texas. in houston, 1.4 million people remained without electricity for a second straight day after the city recorded an all-time record-low of just 17 degrees. this is houston mayor sylvester rner. >> iis a systemwe failure acss thetate. these e not rolling blaouts. these are wer outes a a huge scale. amy: climate scientists a severe winter weather has become much more frequent as the arctic forms rapidly due to human activity. the united states recorded 989

deaths from covid-19 on monday, as the daily death toll fell below 1000 for the first time since november. the seven have a day average of new cases has dropped from january's high to less than 100,000 per day, but remains higher than a second search of use infection seen last summer. in louisiana, officials have canceled mardi gras events, including today's fat tuesday celebration, one year after mardi gras became an early super-spreader event. here in new york, governor andrew cuomo is facing an investigation for not initially reporting close to half of the 15,000 coronavirus deaths at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities during the pandemic. on monday, cuomo acknowledged his role but stopped short of an apology. >> we should have provided more information faster. we were too focused on doing the job and addressing the crisis of

the moment, and we did not do a good enough job in providing information. i take total responsibility for that. amy: republican state senators are calling for governor cuomo's impeachment. they're also demanding a special session to strip cuomo of his emergency powers -- a call that at least 14 democratic state senators have joined. democrat jessica ramos tweeted -- on "people died and cuomo lied. then he had the gall to write a book." it's a reference to cuomo's best-seller "arican crisis: leadership lessons from the covid-19 pandemic" -- which does not include information on how many new york nursing home residents died of coronavirus. the world health organization has granted emergency use authorization to the oxford/astrazeneca vaccine. it just the second covid-19 ccine after pfizer's to be approved for the who's cova initiative aimed at bringing back -- vcines to lower income

countries across the world. on monday, the new head of the world trade organizatn warned against vaccine nationalism, saying attempts by wealthier nations to work vaccines would backfire. >> the pandemic is a problem of the obe. taking desperate nationalistic with regard to vaccines won't work this time. amy: theanaging director of the world bank. on monday, she became the first woman the firstfrican apinted to lead the world trade organization. in northern iraq of us elaine contractor was killed and nine people injured monday in a rocket attack on a u.s. military base in the city of erbil, the capital of iraq's semi-autonomous kurdish region. a little-known shia organization calling itself guardians of blood claimed responsibility, promising it would carry out more attacks targeting the u.s.

occupation. "the new york times" reports that taliban fighters have surrounded major population centers across afghanistan as the biden administration weighs whether to honor an agreement with the taliban to withdraw the remaining 2500 u.s. troops by may 1. on monday, nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg said the u.s.-led military alliance was not ready to withdraw from afghanistan. >> noel he wants to stay in afghanistan longer than necessary. we will not leave before the time is right. amy: earlier this month, congressionally appointed panel known as the afghanistan study group, recommended the biden administration should renege on its agreement to withdraw from afghanistan by may. the u.s. is removing yemen's houthi rebels from the government's list of foreign terrorist organizations, reversing a last-minute move by the trump administration which yemenis and international aid groups warned would only worsen the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe.

this comes as the u.n. warns hundreds of thousands of children in yemen could die this year from severe acute malnutrition unless they receive urgent care. the world food program cut food rations to millions last year due to lack of funds. this is abdul malik al-wahedi, the head of a sana'a hospital malnutrition ward. close there are several reasons for the increased malnutrition. for example, the withdrawal of eight organization, the rising price of oil, and organizations that no longer provide medication, basic nutrition needs. food, especially in conflict zones. amy: in the morocco-occupied western sahara, renowned sahrawi activist sultana khaya was brutally assaulted last weekend by moroccan agents in her home in the city of boujdour, where she and her entire family have been held under house arrest since last november 19, days

after the renewal of armed conflict in the territory. on federal 13, sultana was waving a large flag from her rooftop when boujdour's police commissioner hurled a rock and struck her in the head. videos and photographs of the assault and of khaya's head injuries went viral. the next day, dozens of sahrawi women approached the family home in solidarity but were beaten away by police. as sultana protested her house arrest, the same police officer struck her in the back of her neck with a nightstick, and she again passed out. khaya's family is worried about her injuries but say that morocco-run hospitals are not safe places for sahrawi activists, and police have not allowed the family to summon a doctor to the house. in 2016, democracy now! interviewed sultana for our documentary "four days in western sahara: africa's last colony." you can watch the film at our website democracynow.org. in the democratic republic of congo, at least 60 people were

killed and hundreds more remain missing after an overloaded ferry boat capsized in the congo river. officials say the modified whaling vessel had about 700 passengers on board, and that so far only 300 survivors have been found.

profound absence of humanity. last summer, racial

protests erected -- erupted. a viral video shows white police officer derek chauvin kneeling on floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, while floyd repeatedly gasped for air and said, "i can't breathe." in new jersey, advocates are demanding the firing of two paterson police officers involved in the beating of a muslim, arab-american teen this past december. osamah alsaidi, who was 19 at the time of the assault, posted the video on social media. the video shs officers kevin patino and marcos martinez apprehending alsaidi while he's walking. one of the officers is seen repeatedly punching alsaidi, who is then tackled to the ground, where the officers continue to beat him. alsaidi was reportedly later diagnosed with a concussion and head trauma. the council on american-islamic relations said in a statement --

"to see such a reprehensible attack happen at the hands of those who supposedly serve and protect paterson residents is more than disheartening, it is revolting and deserving of immediate punishment." the new jersey attorney general's office has launched an investigation. and in guatemala, dozens of girls and women led a bike caravan in guatemala city saturday, protesting skyrocketing violence against women, children, and youth in the country. the protesters rode their bikes to the constitutional plaza, lining up in front of the presidential palace, where they were met with police. chants of "we just want to play in peace" echoed through the crowd of young girls. >> no more missing girls. we demand justice. amy: protests erupted following the recent killing of eight-year-old sharon figueroa. her body was found last week in the northern region of petén, -- northern region of guatemala after being missing for two days. in 2020 alone, nearly 500

femicides were reported in guatemala, and at least 60 children were killed. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. when we come back, democratic lawmakers are setting up a 9/11 commission-style anil to investigate the deadly insurrection at the capitol on january 6. we will speak with "the nation" magazine elie mystal about why he wants to see donald trump in jail. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "speaking to the spoken" by the legendary drummer milford graves, who died last week at the age of 79. he was a musician, professor, medical reseaher, herbalist, and martial artist. he spent years studying human heart vibrations to better understand music ceiling potential.

and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. house speaker nancy pelosi has authorized a 9/11-style commission to further investigate the january 6 insurrection, as well the actions that led up to it. this comes as calls are growing for the criminal prosecution of former president donald trump as one of the last paths left to hold him accountable for the attack after saturday's vote in the senate fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to find him guilty. seven republicans voted with democrats to convict. republican senate leader mitch mcconnell was not among them. but during his speech saturday, mcconnell intimated trump could possibly still be held criminally responsible in a court of law. >> in the language of today, president trump is still level

for everything he did while in office. as an for near citizen unless the statute of limitations is run, still liable for everything he did while in office. could not to do it with anything yet. yet. amy: for more, we are joined by elie mystal, the nation's justice correspondent and author of the magazine's monthly column "objection!" his recent column is titled "republicans won't convict trump -- because they won't convict emselves." elie, in the lead up to this, you wrote a column headlined "i don't just want trump impeached. i want him jailed." and you aredgu- "trump should be charged with incitement of criminal acts, at the very least. trump is not a defeated politician. he is a criminal on the loose. he must be treated as such." can you take that further? >> i think the house impeachment

managers laid out very good criminal case against donald trit was that the standard they had to meet for impeachment. they just d that for fun. the senate could have convicted without criminal liability, but jamie raskin and the other managers laid out a fairly good case for criminal liability days -- ace on his speech on january 6 that was incendiary. the days leading up to january 6 and how that could potentially be enough to indict him for criminal incitement. i'm not going to lie. it is difficult, and it should be difficult, to incite -- convict anybody for incitement based on words. but telling people, let's go storm the capital this not

protected speech. what trump did is much closer to unprotected speech than it is to protected speech. i think there is a case for indictment. i think we should at least try. republicans have found this country so completely, that now it is up to law enforcement is the only place i can try. amy: picking of law enforcement, the d.c. attorney general and u.s. attorney are possibly weighing incitement of violence criminal charges against trump. you explain what that would look like? >> the d.c. attorney general, they still have not arrested all of the people who stormed the capitol. they've only arrested about 200 of the 800 people that stormed the capitol. every person who said put in

that building is a criminal. -- every single person who set foot in that building is a criminal. the current law enforcement has not gotten around to indicting all of those people. they have a lot of work to do beyond former president trump. however, once they do the bare minimum, which is finding a churchill 800 people who stormed the capital, then they can get around to trump. the standard is the right standard for a criminal case. brandenberg determines how speech is protected or unprotected. trump likely failed all three elements of the brandenberg packed. what he said was likely to cause violence, likely to be interpreted by the crowd as a call to violence. it was likely to incite imminent

lawless acts -- literally to march down the street that day, and in fact, did cause emmett action. one thing i want people to remember when thinking about this as a criminal case, what did he expect them to do at the capitol? if you think about a free speech rally or a protest rally, there was nothing organized at the capitol. there was no slate of speakers at the capitol. when he tells us to march down to the capitol to cheer on the republican colleagues, there was no way for those -- that was a closed session of congress. when he tells them to march to the capitol, where there is no permit or set plans to go see a closed session of congress, the only thing they could do to carry out his wishes was to illegally trespass into the building and do what they did. that is a key element for people to remember when trying to determine whether or not his speech was protected or should

be protected or not. amy: can you talk about what ron johnson is now saying? the very close trump ally, wisconsin republican senator, who was mocking any claims that this was an armed insurrection, saying -- i mean, you have the images of the gallows that were erected, the zip ties, the hurling of fire exposures, using baseball bats to smash windows, throwing flags like spears at police officers and beating them with these flagpoles, these stun batons that clearly in the waistband of that man who is sitting in nancy pelosi's office as they steal things from her

office. but there you have ron johnson just weeks later -- >> i have never lived one day of my life as much of a coward as ron johnson. i don't know what it is like to be that afraid of the truth that you're willing to light of people about -- like to people about what they saw with their own eyes. as you pointed out, it was clearly an armed insurrection. the first guy through the window was wearing tactical gear and carrying a confederate flag. the first guy through the window -- thahe had to break down. this was an armed rebellion. there is no denying that. republicans are invested -- this is why you need -- this is why

even though we can talk about the strategy of impeachment, this is why you need an impeachment trial to establish the record, why the investigation needs to happen into what happened. you need a public record of what went on because republicans will try to memory hold the entire day. like, it doesn't work for them to acknowledge that day existed, so in the republican mind, we did not have a leap year, we had a skip year according to republicans. that is how they're going to try to make the rord think and that is why we need a commission like the trial to remember what happened. amy: interestingly, you have jim jordan, like many of the conservatives, saying cancel culture is the biggest threat

facing the united states. while one state party, republican party after another, censures those senators who voted to convict donald trump. >> is a great way to expose the republican hypocrisy. there is nothing more cancel ist than sintering people fowhat they voted on or what they said when their job is to vote and say things. it is just another way to understand the republicans are hypocrites. it is what the republicans are doing is pathetic, frankly. i do give, almost grudgingly, credit to the republican senators and the republican congress people, the few, the proud, who are saying enough of this at least here in the end.

it is late in the game to join the side of truth, but i do give them credit at the very end at least for doing the right thing. amy: let's go to south carolina senator lindsey graham speaking on fox news sunday where he falsely claimed there were grounds to impeach vice-president kamala harris. that she would be next. >> i condemn what happened on january 6, but the process they use to impeach this president was an affront to rule of law. he's the first president to be impeached without a lawyer, without a witness, without the ability to confront those against him. the trial record was a complete joke. hearsay upon hearsay. we have opened point doors box to future precedents. i don't know how kamala harris doesn't get impeached if the

republicans take over the house because she actually helped out rioters. we have open pandora's box. amy: senator graham seemed to suggest vice president harris could be punished for expressing support for a bail fund for black lives matter protesters in minnesota last summer. who were protesting the police killing of george floyd. elie mystal? >> it is interesting, right? i wonder w she would to the person who is vice president as opposed to the person is president now? oh, yeah, she is a black woman. the racism of that man is so on display every day. it is not ok. these people are so openly and bitterly racist, it is bothersome.

however, there is funny here. lindsey graham wants to impeach a black woman for illegal acts. bail is legal. why th think this was a bad thing is inseparable from the racism. whether or not you think the reasons for bailing someone out our good or bad, paying someone's bail is clearly legal. that is why we have it. we have entire organizations called bill bondsman whose their whole job is to pay people's bail. but there is a political reality here, too. something i think democrats are quick to forget. of course of the republicans take back control of the house, they will impeach people. of course they will.

they would have impeached hillary clinton if she had won the presidency for think she did as secretary of state. they would have impeached her for benghazi. and if not, they would have impeached her for other things. the republicans have no shame. the republicans have -- for the rule of law. all the republicans know is power and they use that power completely whenever they have the chance. make no mistake, if the republicans ever control the house again, they will impeach whoever happens to be the democratic president if there is still a democrat in office when they controlled the house. amy: interviewed ralph nader on friday, strong proponent of having witnesses. you, too, feel the democrats failed in that way, that having witnesses come forward could

have made the difference. >> ok, there's a slight difference. i don't think witnesses would have made a difference and the outcome of the trial. because republicans are racist to the core, hypocritical to the core, dishonest to the core. nothing was going to change the republicans minds. we could have called 100 witnesses and they would've done the same thing. jamie raskin was right about that. you cannot change republican mind. the difference is that i don't live my life based on what the republicans think or don't. if only do what republicans allowed me to do, instead of having a law degree, i would be shining shoes. i don't live in the paperag that is "what will lindsey graham do next" because i don't care about that. what i care about is the american people. i do think bringing witness, bringing live testimony to bear would have highlighted even more

americans the level of danger this country was placed in an exactly who placed them in it. there are some procedural issues -- mccarthy. fine, don't call kevin mccarthy. call the cops on the stand. eugene goodman, what happened to him that day. put him on the stand. put one of the staffers that had to been hours hiding under a desk, put one of them on the stand. do everything you can. the point of this impeachment trial -- the point was to expose republicans for the dirt they do. and witnesses would have done a better job -- amy: it did change some republicans. the louisiana senator cassidy,

the north carolina senator burr . >> ok. i think the actions changed their minds, i don't think it was the impeachment trial. stacey plaskett was great. the impeachment managers were great. i don't think it was the strength of their legal arguments that made richard burr -- i think what ppened is donald trumpent a mob to kill congressman to the workplace, and a couple of republican senators are like, that's not ok. amy: so let's talk about some of the information that has come to the surface about the insurrection participants. "the new york times" reporting at least six people were part of the mob entered the capital work working for security. huff post reporting at least 57 state and local republican officials rent the capital

insurrection, must all called resign. two have stepped down i believe it this point. for to commissioner sponsored buses for people to d.c. he said, "maybe there are some liberals that would like to see their heads cut off." let's talk about the oath and the actual number of law enforcement people like caldwell who have had top security clearance, who worked for the federal government. in the end, they had to put national guardsmen through the test and remove something like 12 of them that they might have allegiances to the white supremacists who were rioting. >> white supremacy in law enforcement are kind of the same thing. they work for the same people. they are the same people in many

cases. it is not all of them but enough to make a difference. it is not one bad apple means we should all ignore -- should people not care if that that apple kills us. it is one that apple spoils the bunch. law enforcement is spoiled by white supremacy. they are in every police organization in this country. until we we them out, we cannot have justice and law enforcement. not into we flood them -- you have to weed out the bad apples before they kill people. the rights on january 6 exposed just how intertwined some in law-enforcement are with very

openly white supremacist and violent organizations. that the feature of our law enforcement system and led to the death of black and brown people. and we tell people this. we complain about this. what is going happen now? we will prosecute. we will prosecute all of them, we will prosecute some of them. the kinds of screening and whatever that went into the national guard to make sure none of the actual defenders of the inauguration were part of the what's up from assist groups, are you going to keep doing that? -- white supremacist groups, are you going to keep doing that? are they going to screen everybody for white supremacy to make sure none of them are members of both keepers or unfair's book sharing? are we going to do that or not?

and the answer most often in this country is that white people will not do that. will not think it through. will not do what is necessary to protect us from them. amy: elie mystal, thank you for being with us, the nation's justice correspondent and author of the magazine's monthly column, "objection!" his recent column is titled "republicans won't convict trump -- because they won't convict themselves." next up, we speak with ecuadorian presidential candidate andrés arauz. he won the first round of the election drove out to fight austerity, poverty, and the pandemic. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: he founded the latin music

label going credited for bringing salsa to worldwide audience. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. ecuador is preparing to hold a partial recount of its february 7 presidential election. the left-wing economist andres arauz placed first securing nearly 33% of the vote, but fell short of the 40% needed to avoid a runoff. arauz has pledged to end austerity measures imposed by ecuador's right-wing president lenin moreno, who did not seek re-election. it remains unclear who arauz will face in a run-off election on april 11. guillermo lasso is currently in second place with 19.74% of the vote. he is a right-wing banker running for the third time. indigenous candidate yaku perez who ran partly on an

anti-extraction platform has 19.38% of the vote. the frontrunner andres arauz has been described as a protégé of former ecuadorian president rafael correa who led the country from 2007 to 2017 and has been credited with lifting over a million ecuadorians out of poverty. arauz served in correa's administration as director of ecuador's central bank and later as minister of knowledge and human talent. arauz just turned 36 and would be ecuador's youngest president if elected. correa has been living in exile -- korea running for vice considered president on a ticket with arauz. but correa was prevented from doing so because he faces an eight-year jail sentence on alleged corruption violations imposed by the moreno government. the election comes as ecuar is facing an economic and public health crisis. at least 15,000 people have died in ecuador from covid-19, but

the actual number of deaths is believed to be far higher. the country recorded an excess toll of 40,000 deaths last year. millions of ecuadorians have fallen into poverty over the past year. we are joined now by ecuadorian presidential candidate andres arauz, who is on a short visit to the united states. he is joining us from new york. we welcome you. it is great to have you with us. >> it is good to be here. thank you for the invitation. i am glad to be sharing here in new york and with possible investors here in new york. amy: because the ecuadorian community here can vote? >> yes, they can vote abroad and they can also elect senators to our national parliament. that was one of the innovations of the 2008 constitution was to

-- 2008 constitution. amy: talk about the problems ecuador faces, why you ran, what it means to become as you call yourself, a heterodoc economist. we will talk about who you might face in the runoff. but this dramatic crises that ecuador is facing right now from the economy tthe pandemic. >> we are facing the double crisis. basically, one of the pandemic where the government was absolutely negligent regarding its management. we have the highest death toll after peru in the world. this is a very serious case. our numbers do not match the efforts. there have only been around 4000 vaccines that have been delivered for population of 17 million plus. basically, the public health

system has been under the strain of austerity. there have been over 6000 public servants in the health system that have been fired during the pandemic because of stringent austerity policies that have had a huge impact on the population, increasing poverty and inequality. we have to face these two crisis simultaneously, and we're proposing an aggressive investment plan including emergency aid to the most vulnerable. we also intend to have a vaccine available for most of ecuador's population as a public service in the short-term. this is very important for us to overcome these two crises in a short time. we're now facing what we call a lack of trust within ecuadorian society, and we need to fix that as soon as possible or this might become a humanitarian crisis. amy: you rafael correa have been

described as rafael correa's pick for the next president of ecuador. can you expand what you agreed with his presidency? you served in his administration, what you agree with and what you disagree with. >> we have had an huge advantage in terms of investment in infrastructure, high-quality education, a public health system that has been crucial to fight the pandemic. we created -- rebuilt over 52 hospitals around the country. if those had not been available, the to pull would have been even higher -- the death toll would have been higher. i think most of the ablation agrees the investment was very important. get closer to our paradigm. however, there been issues where we differ, for example, rafael

correa was much more active in terms of establishing differences with the political opponents, but the media, for example. freedom of expression is a human right. as a human right, there are human rights legislations that should be enough to cover, for example, issues with the media and freedom of expression. also, i think now we need a renewal in our politics. trying to promote a new generation of politicians and fresher ideas that have to do with creativity and innovation, the role of the digital economy where we think we have huge advantages once we go through this crisis that have been hitting our economy very hard. amy: how do you plan on renegotiating the debt? you've said you went canceled the imf debt.

prestsprotests massive -- massive protests took place last year against moreno. >> had an uprising in 2019. anyone stroke, increased over 200% the price of gasoline. that was a huge hit to the ecuadorian people, so the people came out to the streets. huge repression of over 1200 people that were jailed and many people were killed, around a dozen or so. this is not justifiable by any means in our country. we are against the austerity polities -- policies of moreno that would increase social protection for the population, would in itself create economic recovery in the short and medium-term. this is what we are proposing,

including an emergency package for a million vulnerable families. incredibly, the pandemic has created a new problem which is lack of internet access for about half of ecuador student population that has not been able to continue their studies because of lack of internet. so we also need an emergency program which provides infrastructure investment to cover the entire gregorian -- for youngsters. amy: one of your opponents, yaku perez, called for an end to mining and other extractive industries in ecuador. he was arrested fighting mining projects during the rafael correa administration in which you serve. he was jailed. the world is facing a climate catastrophe. do you support these calls to

end mining? how would you improve relations with ecuador's indigenous communities that were strained under president correa? >> i think it was a mistake. i think it made perez famous but on the other hand, i think it was too much in terms of the policies that were pursued at that moment. i also think the agenda has to be perhaps a bit more sophisticated, bit more detailed because there are many issues that have to be covered, including the mines, the development of the community's in the surrounding areas. we cannot have the neocolonial list extractive agenda. mining and oil and agricultural agenda that takes into account the needs of the local community

and makes them the main stakeholders in these projects. they have to be linked with entire educational and technological agenda so the knowledge associated with the project can remain in the country, especially in those communities. now, i think we have a huge opportunity in ecuador to propose unity of the progressive sector, indigenous sector, social democracy sector. about two thirds of the votes in the last election and two thirds of the parliamentary to have -- unite the progressive forces. includes intercultural with the indigenous movement. amy: i want to ask you about this runoff and whether you're

concerned about a. on monday, the organization of american states expressed "concern" about ecuador's election. how concerned are you that the oas, the united states, could attempt to overturn this first election? >> we are worried in the sense that there's not been a decision -- a formal decision on who the two final parties to the runoff are. we know we are going to be there stop but by delaying the decision, there may be an attempt to delay the second round as well. it would be unacceptable for the ecuadorian population. totally negligent with the management of our country. so we are worried about that. we are also worried possible recount may re-create the incidence that would imply

destruction of electoral material, that is not something we want. we want a recount based on the constitution, on the law. if the recount does occur, we need to be present as well. it cannot only be the discussion between the second and third places. we also need to be there to safeguard the votes are being monitored, that they are being taken care of. amy: let me ask you about yaku perez's position on other countries in latin america. he is running as an eco-socialist, but also as a long record of publicly criticizing many of latin america's former progressive leaders, including brazil's dilma rousseff, to kershner of argentina. in 2016, he tweeted --

yaku perez supported the coup in bolivia, talked about evo morales as a little dictator. can you talk about your position? >> first, have to clarify come he is not running on an eco-socialist platform. he is basically running on an anti-progressive platform. even though the indigenous movement is much more diverse and the indigenous movement largely supports our candidacy. we have very good elation's -- relations. several of our candidates are from the indigenous movement. i think the situation is a bit more sophisticated than that and a bit more nuanced. we are trying to build consensus and agreement in that area. right now to strengthen the differences, but rather the

similarities with the indigenous movement and comply with the co rrean constitution, which recognizes the need for a player national state -- plurinational state. so we can forward to finding huge agreements for our country. this is precisely the moment where we have to focus on that. amy: so what is your position on venezuela and president maduro? yet the new biden administration thatalks about the presidency of juan guaido. your thoughts on this? where do you stand when it comes to maduro and the biden administration's position on venezuela? >> i stand with what basically

the rest of the world has been saying, look to recognize the self-determination of the people of venezuela, and the eu has recently changed the position of the european union stop most of latin america has a clear agenda to keep peace in the region. we think we need to talk about peace, democracy, development is the key issues in latin america. not interference in our region. we do not want war in our region. we need peace. that should be the main settings of the platform for the conversation about venezuela or any other country in the region. we believe in regional integration. we believe in the unity of the latin american people who have so much in common. when you see the european union which is so diverse in languages

, the cultures, in latin america, very similar agenda, similar culture, similar languages. however, it has taken us along for full regional integration. we hope the biden administration will stay away from trying to create division in the region. on the other hand, will try to create those spaces for regional integration. amy: do you believe the oas can be a fair arbiter, a fair observer of the election? >> i think the oas has basically two spaces within itself. first, the political realm, which has been a total anti-leftist, clear anti-left agenda, very vocal about that.

on the other hands, the oas does have technical teams that have professional credentials in terms of election monitoring. we hope in this case, the election observers that come from the technical realm are the ones who will prevail in terms of the process. amy: what has to happen when it comes to the pandemic? do you have access to vaccines in ecuador? talk about the devastation of covid-19. >> first, we need to come out with the truth. they have not recognize the total number of deaths that have occurred during the pandemi in 2020. right now we're seeing a rge in the number of cases. the hospital's are already full again. ecuador is one of the countries with the lowest standards of terms of testing for the population. we need re aggresse testing throughout the country. we also need bio security

measures f theopulion, that has not event occurring so far. and of course, vaccines. the mistry of health -- before our public servants that are on the frontline on the battle of covid. this is absolutely grave. it is very serious. there has been an uproar. we need to get the vaccine. we talked with the argentine president fernandez who will guarantee that a large amount of vaccines come over 4.4 billion doses will arrive. i hop they do something sooner

than later. if he doesn't do anything, we will be acting very quickly, very swiftly on may 24. amy: we are coming up on a two-year anniversary of the marino government revoking the political asylum for julian assange who was under the embassy for years in britain. now the biden administration says they will continue to pursue his extradition. your thoughs? >> when the asylum was revoked, there were many civil rights that were violated. it is something we will look into and see how that situation changes, how we may act upon that internationally. however, i think human rights have to be respected. now with the first decision in the u.k. courts, something to

really think about what is happening to a human being such as him. amy: five seconds. >> we're seeing from president obama a different perspective. amy: we have to leave it there.