it's not very far away and the people are suffering and they're dying we have many options for venezuela including a possible military option if necessary. i'm always careful when we talk about south and central america and the cia there's a lot of stories. we are very hopeful that there could be a transition of venezuelans i was just down in mexico city and in bogota week before last talking about this very issue trying to help them understand the things they might do so that they can get a better outcome for c.n.n. can now confirm the president trump asked a number of his top foreign policy advisers last summer about the possibility of invading venezuela thank you.

and now opposition needs you on one has declared himself the country's new president have you also the president of the united states for any military support in your struggle by as a way down on the amount of us he's going to and i would in terms of taking decisions that even though this is a dictatorship the little people want to advance with whatever pressure is needed this is no time for dialogue this is time for. any negotiations with nicolas maduro. no. the strange thing about the coup and threat of invasion is that they didn't just come from the usa. supporters of the right wing opposition asked for a foreign country to invade then as. and i made the mistake of answering one of

them. i told him it had happened in greece back in the days of nazi collaborators. i hadn't noticed that the person had hundreds of thousands of followers on twitter . dozens of them offered to teach me new expressions in english and spanish. using teaching methods from the t.v. series norco's. call. each day. key. was when i received an interesting message.

i had just been given my next mission my dear twitter friends explained that if i was a real journalist and wanted to understand venezuela i had to go to the border with colombia. they were absolutely right. ringback ringback ringback ringback that night i boarded a bus with dozens of venezuelans leaving the country. just a nation the border crossing out in colombia. place where the local mafia random to members of colombia's civil war paramilitary groups meet operate only. for breakdowns one flat tire found an attack with stones flying past my head resulted in a 19 hour journey. plenty

of time to read international press articles on venezuela's immigrants and refugees . from reuters to the daily mirror dozens of stories repeating that the case here resembles syria and the row him people of myanmar. they compared an economic crisis to civil war and genocide. in the news i mostly saw people leaving the country here i could see a few returning to venezuela even within a day. started. seeing.

humanity even. at the colombian border i experienced one of the many side effects of economic collapse but i learned nothing new about what caused it. surprisingly i found more answers in a town just 40 kilometers east of san cristobal. hundreds of vehicles queued for hours at gas stations. this was another artificial shortage caused by private. smugglers collaborating with local offices buying gas and other government subsidized commodities and colombia.

taking advantage of that as well as price controls contraband goods have become a lucrative business in neighboring colombia where these products can sell for prices at least $10.00 times more it is estimated that almost 40 percent of them this will is food is illegally transported across the border. hiding food away in storage for political and economic purposes is bad enough. not being able to find gasoline when you have the biggest oil reserves is a real. especially when the government provides gas almost feel free.

to understand what was going on i had to return to caracas where the gasoline flows generously. almost. as i couldn't reconcile production in my mind i decided to walk somebody who's been . following venezuela's energy policy professor carlos mendoza patella. a consultant on energy issues for the central bank of venezuela. we begin. with. the he's.

been there as well he never seen it or nah. you know again. now i. want to thank you all. according to international media of venezuela. even though it's been proved to have the world's biggest oil reserves. is that really true. in facias. keeping. your knees. and i know you know.

you have that. thing. with what you. get is saying. oh. this. will be way to his saving willing to put on that island. up and if you. will and put them all. so you know. the world is driven by.

no dairy thinks. we dare to ask. and we're going to fulfill the repeated purposes of politics to the people and come on you know we've all pots to. be a. pretty.

pretty good burka now you want to 1st crack that. no. longer. call be cut. what politicians to do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. some want to be rich. to going to be prosperous like the for reasonable people. i'm interested always in the lives of our. best suit more.

good food descriptions sound up even for the owners so how to choose the pet food industry is telling us what to feed our pets really more based on what they want to sell us than what's necessarily good for the pet turns out that food may not be as healthy as people believe and we have animals that have you know diabetes in arthritis they have auto immune disorders allergies we are actually creating these problems and it's a huge of a demagogue problems and i believe can be linked to very simple problem of diet and some dog owners so heartbreaking stories about their pets less treats the larger corporations are not very interested in proving or disproving the value of their food because they're already making it a $1000000000.00 on it and there's no reason to do that research.

even without the all right ok reserves venezuela has a lot of oil. so how did it get into its current situation. many people told me that it suffers from a strange disease. and there's a scene of. phil mickelson. who prefers. because it's called the dutch disease so i thought i should go to whole and.

sadly we see that many of these countries and much worse economic performance. much worse in a call to you much more poverty than before they had the oil well for the gas well for the mineral wealth so that's being called i'm dr myself that's me call the dutch disease. the dutch disease is something which is taught in the middle of this not in the schools one of the main gas exports you get all this gas he holding on the north part of holland. as a result of the gas being exported it was a lot of extra mom for the guild or for the dutch currency that pushed up the value of the gilbert and the maiden very strong currency but as a result of that the rest of the industry than it was became less competitive found a more difficult to export aboard so although we were well through in terms of gas our industry was suffering and might be causing on appointment.

to venezuela has suffered from the dutch disease since the 930 s. when oil income was converted into holidays clothes and mentions for the elite. say economy so. you add that but you are not you're not. going to. be useful friends who will. be always on i must go. down. well good luck if we see a bank we'll get but if the bill move. forward with bog. is wouldn't kill

the dutch disease. but for the 1st time a revenue wasn't going to the elite well what's a foreign multi-nationals. of the old times and to the life. of the money or the huge oil money even sure that gets to helping the people of venezuela so he put it into the education system and put it into the health care system in the v.a. . bad things he can see about. his successes. is a different story now we do have a story about the old price was too high but more money went to the needs of people who are suffering the most and by the people you go dryads you rest and then they

go to hit by the bush administration at any old rich country. along with the oil price collapse came a financial in from the usa. podium over to stephen for this purpose we're going to announce sanctions against. venezuela. paid if they says it's known by its spanish acronym the state. we're looking at the oil assets that's the single most important income stream to the government of venezuela it will make a big difference to the united states economically if we could have american oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in. that i reached the source of the absurdity in venezuela's economy. then when i tried to exchange the dollars i had with me.

as well as the official exchange rate for the. black market right. merchants could find the prevailing black market exchange rate from a facebook page. things have changed they can find it on instagram. maybe an opponent of the regime in the usa or maybe. one thing was certain by controlling that exchange rate anyone could citizens against their government.

can make. a fair. song. let me take. 2 opposing sides have been trying to explain the crisis in venezuela. the government supporters the suffering is caused by american sanctions and internal economic sabotage. that theory is based on reality but can't explain everything and is often used as an excuse.

socialism is to blame. prosperous nation. venezuela. for all. this is not a failed socialist state. this is the socialist dilemma. because actually during the. you know the.

55. years. even when nationalized companies mainly in. the private sector agree. the public. knew it. when its economic growth rate was double the us and 50 percent of. media attributed the growth to capitalism. or the. crisis struck socialism was blamed.

of the 2 main narratives putting the blame on sanctions or on socialism the reality i saw in venezuela was much more complex. and maybe both dull. chavez's bolivarian revolution inherited all the structural problems that the economy had faced in the 20th century. the dutch disease the destroyed production high inflation and huge inequalities. but for the 1st time while revenues did not flow into the hands of the few and foreign oil companies. that were distributed

to the people. then under constant economic war huge mistakes were made mainly in monetary policy. when oil prices collapsed all those problems old and new came to the surface. the ball was still poor and the rich who was still rich decided to take revenge. i travelled far trying to understand why when my country and europe was sinking in a crisis some was concerned about toilet paper in venezuela. some just wanted venezuela's oil and needed the pretext of humanitarian intervention. there was something more the.

us. despite its mistakes and.

george w. bush the president of the united states government of iraq and the future of your country. along to you. in the battle of iraq the united states and our allies have prevailed. what we can do and will do is support the aspirations of the libyan people. you saw. i might perhaps the vice president of the united states. and on behalf of president donald trump and all the american people. let me express the unwavering support of

the united states is you the people of venezuela raise your voices in a call for freedom.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront a should let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. tough and the full of. way or both the food. bank itself mukti about. closing this way got to dog and so hard not to think of the other disappeared the state of the marketplace they call it and i know mr latham if. this is the only thing that we do is music because everybody fights his way. to.

the floor you can feel the feet down this bill frist would have been called the ability to put a hold on the. what i think is this is the fund that is accompanied. you know world of big movies lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell. me to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the bath and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

seem wrong. to me. yet to see a proud day become educated and gains from it because betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. i.

run it is the us have had for supporting mass protests i can feel proud. of the people of iraq almost a year and a half ago the united states. people will not be taken advantage of play outside put it konami pressure of our nation. us democratic presidential candidates slam donald trump's decision to pardon american service personnel convicted of war crimes we look they would have his predecessors have also guilty of atrocities and we visit the border between denmark and sweden where checks have been imposed after bombings and shootings.