WEBVTT - MAKE VENEZUELA GREAT AGAIN 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:19.639 A specter is haunting America, the specter of socialism. We 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.640 got a nasty preview of it during the COVID nineteen period. 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.040 We experienced empty shelves, food shortages, limits on what you 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.280 could buy, and also attacks on civil liberties, on freedom 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:34.240 of assembly, on religious liberty, on privacy. We endured state 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:39.040 propaganda's censorship and arbitrary societal controls. Some of us went 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.199 along at first because we thought we could trust the 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:44.360 health authorities. Many of us eventually figured out we were 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.440 being lied to. A surprising number continued to act like sheep. 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.199 Some even enjoyed it, and a few took pleasure in 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:56.120 delivering Karen type scoldings to anyone who didn't conform. Looking back, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.640 it was pretty horrible, and yet it was relatively short lived. 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:04.480 We suffered on a temporary basis. What under socialism we 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.240 will suffer on a permanent basis. Yet socialism has somehow 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.000 entered the mainstream of political debate. It started with Bernie Sanders, 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.440 AOC Rashida talaib ilhan Omar. Now almost out of nowhere, 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.160 we have Mom Donnie and his acolytes in New York, 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.880 and also socialist candidates winning democratic primaries in other blue 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.680 cities and blue areas. It's a trend that's likely to continue, 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.840 and many people worried that socialism is the future of 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:34.800 the Democratic Party, if not of America. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:35.080 Now. 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:41.119 These developments are surpassingly strange because socialism is arguably the 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:46.959 most discredited idea since slavery. Slavery lasted for centuries, even 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.520 millennia before it was recognized as a thoroughly wicked and 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.400 tyrannical form of human exploitation. Socialism, which dates back to 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.800 nineteen seventeen when Lenin founded the World's for a socialist state, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.800 has had a shorter shelf life. It too, collapsed around 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:04.960 the world because it was understood by the people who 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:08.360 lived under it to be a form of slavery. We 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.639 see the connection between socialism and slavery in the all 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:15.840 important works on socialism. Friedrich Hayek's critic of socialism is 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.680 appropriately titled The Road to Serfdom. George Orwell depicted the 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.840 tyrannical dimension of socialism in his two classic novels, Animal 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:28.440 Farm and nineteen eighty four, using both the techniques of 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.440 fiction and nonfiction. Alexander Sojanitsen, in a series of works 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:36.079 The Gulag Archipelago One in the Life of Ivan Denizovitch 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:41.560 depicted Soviet socialism as a vast network of slave camps 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:46.399 stretching from Europe to the farthest reaches of Asia. Slavery 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.560 in its most obvious form has been abolished worldwide, although 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.000 enslavement in other forms, sex trafficking, for instance, continues as 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.240 a gruesome relic of this barbaric practice. Even so, no 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.960 serious person today could add advocate for the return of slavery. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.160 How ridiculous it would be to hear someone say the 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:08.000 failures of slavery were all failures of implementation. This time, 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:12.000 we're really gonna make it work. And yet here we 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.239 have socialism in America attempting a comeback, and on precisely 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.600 those terms. This time we're gonna get it right. Serious 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:23.680 people advocate it. There's a sustained cultural push to promote it. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.959 A major political party is pushing aggressively toward it. How 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:32.680 is this possible? Apparently, socialism means never having to say 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.160 you're sorry. Socialism has proved to be a living hell 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.120 pretty much every way it's been tried. It's been tried 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.000 pretty much all over the world. Let's not forget that 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.080 within about a century since Marx wrote, in less than 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.480 half a century since the Bolshevik Revolution, sixty percent of 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.880 the world's people were living under governments that embraced some 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.400 form of socialism. At one time, Josh Morovchik writes, it 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:02.440 was the most popular political idea ever invented, arguably the 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:06.040 most popular idea of any kind about how life should 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.840 be lived or society organized. The biggest socialist experiment was 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:19.679 the Soviet Bloc, an orbit of countries including the Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.520 and East Germany. Prior to the Soviet occupation of its 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:28.240 eastern region, Germany tried its own distinct form of socialism, 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.800 national socialism, or Nazism, which lasted for twelve years from 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:37.640 nineteen thirty three to nineteen forty five. In Asia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.400 North Korea, and China all adopted socialism. In South America, Cuba, Nicaragua, 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.280 Bolivia and Venezuela tried it. Most of Africa, and socialists 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:52.159 in the aftermath of colonialism Angola, Ghana, Tanzania, Benin, Mali Mozambique, Zambia, 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.760 and Zimbabwe. I count here about twenty five experiments in socialism, 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:01.359 not one success story, all ending in un mitigated disaster. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.960 The worst forms of socialism proved not only totalitarian, but 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:09.280 also murderous to an unprecedented degree. In the Soviet Union alone, 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:13.600 socialist regimes killed some twenty million of their own citizens 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.600 and enslaved tens of millions of others. The Chinese socialists 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.520 in the period known as Mao's Cultural Revolution killed another 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.560 twenty to twenty five million. The Nazis murdered in comparable numbers, 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:30.120 including Jews and Gypsies and other occupied people's polls, Russians, 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:34.760 Eastern Europeans, and others. Orwell's description from nineteen eighty four 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:39.880 seems appropriate here quote a boot stamping on a human face. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.359 Socialist today, Bernice Sanders, Mamdani and the others disavow this 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:49.200 historical record, insisting those were authoritarian forms of socialism that 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.479 they have no intention of copying. While socialism may have 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:56.600 been the economic program of communism in early fascism, modern 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.920 socialists seek to dispense with the tyranny and merely keep 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:04.240 the economic program. Yet it's worth stressing that socialism wasn't 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.320 merely a political failure, it was also an economic failure. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.520 Now or Well somehow missed this. Interestingly, Neither of his 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:16.560 two great works offers an economic critique of socialism. There's 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.320 no economic problem in animal farm. The only problem is 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.480 the pigs sees power in nineteen eighty four. The ruling 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.719 party creates poverty and scarcity to keep people in line. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.520 We see something like this in our blue cities today. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.719 And Orwell was onto it. Yet great as he is, 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.080 Orwell confines himself to a political critique. He exposes the 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:41.560 totalitarian tendency of socialism, but he never shows how socialism 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.880 creates this totalitarianism, and he leaves open the possibility of 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:51.160 a more benign socialism that avoids it. In the real world. However, 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.039 the political collapse of socialism was brought about by its 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.479 economic failure. This was certainly true in the Soviet Union, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:04.800 where Gorbachev's rescue efforts Glossnost and Peristroika Remember those failed spectacularly, 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:09.440 first bringing down the Soviet Union, then the Communist ruling party, 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.920 and finally the socialist system itself. China, too, abandoned socialism 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:18.080 for its economic shortcomings. And look how poorly socialism has 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.960 fared economically in Cuba and Venezuela. So how can anyone 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:26.600 adopt socialist ideas once again without considering the economic track 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.120 record of socialist regimes. Rarely in history is there a 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.000 chance to actually compare social systems to see which one 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:37.120 works better. One might compare the Plantagenet kings of England 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.680 with the Tang dynasty in China. But even if you 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.440 line up the dates, you're talking about two completely different societies, 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:49.680 different people, different culture. Consequently, England's superiority and China's inferiority 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.280 or the other way around, can hardly be attributed to 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.960 their rival systems of governments, and so many other factors 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.240 are involved. In the case of socialism. However, we have 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.560 two perfect test cases, North and South Korea and East 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.640 and West Germany. The perfection of these examples comes from 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.000 the fact that we're dealing with the same people, same background, 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:15.400 same culture, merely two rival economic systems. North Korea socialist, 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:20.720 South Korea capitalist, East Germany was socialist, West Germany capitalist, 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:23.280 And when the results came in, they were decisive at 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.320 reunification the per capita gross domestic product and socialist East 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.240 Germany was just about one third of the capitalist West 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.920 German level, with other measures of economic performance showing a 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.800 similar chasm. Even the poorest part of West Germany was 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.000 two and a half times as wealthy as the richest 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.480 East German region, which was Saxony. To this day, East 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.680 Germany gets nearly fifteen percent of its domestic product in 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.640 net transfers from the western part of Germany. The North 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.040 Korean example is even more telling, in part because the 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:58.720 separation of the two societies has lasted long and continues 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.000 to this day. North Korea is now more than twenty 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.520 times richer than North Korea, a difference manifested and virtually 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.320 all indicators of human welfare. South Koreans are obviously freer 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.079 than North Koreans, but they also are happier. Have you 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:16.880 ever seen a North Korean smile? South Koreans are also taller, healthier, 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.520 They live about twelve years longer than North Koreans. Every year, 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:24.000 thousands of North Koreans risk their lives seeking to escape 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.560 to South Korea. I realize, of course, that today's socialist 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.439 in America insists they want socialism of a particular kind, 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:36.640 democratic socialism, so not any kind of socialism, but democratic socialism. 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:41.199 I grew up under Indian socialism, which was democratic socialism, 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:46.480 and experienced its two signature institutions. The first was everyday corruption, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:50.040 literally nothing could be done without paying some petty bureaucrat 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.840 under the table. The second was the ration card, which 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:57.280 specified the paltry ration of sugar or cooking oil that 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.600 a family was permitted to purchase each month. Ah Yes, 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.080 and during this period in the nineteen seventies, there was 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.920 a seven year wait to get a phone. India was 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.280 for decades known as the begging bowl of the world. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.679 Americans stole their children. Eat your food because there are 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:15.120 millions of starving people in India. A whole generation of 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.720 Indians saw no future for themselves and fled to see 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.240 like my brother, or to Dubai to do manual labor 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.640 like some of my cousins, or to Australia, Canada and 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.760 America like me. Today's young Indians plan no such mass 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.320 exit because there are now opportunities for them at home. 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.440 India is doing measurably better and now there's a large 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.760 and prosperous middle class. Now how did this change come about? 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:43.520 Through economic liberalization otherwise known as free market capitalism. China 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.520 came up the same way, starting in the late nineteen 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.240 seventies when Dun Shaping abandoned the socialism of Mao for 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.640 a new brand of capitalism, and doing so, the Chinese 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:59.960 inaugurated a new experiment in social organization. Call it totalitarian capitals. 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:05.400 The Chinese married communist political control to free market liberalization. 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.959 It's a weird marriage, but in economic terms it has worked. 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.439 If socialism has produced a worldwide record of misery and tears, 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:17.880 and if countries must lead socialism to experience prosperity, what 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.920 then are the American socialists up too? Why would they 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.080 want to import misery and tears? Why would they want 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.960 a system that has never worked before and shows no 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:32.280 indication of working now. The short answer is it does work, 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.480 but not in the way that we expect. Viewed from 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:39.040 the point of view of society, socialism is an abject failure. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:42.920 It doesn't work. The socialists too, no, deep down that 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.480 it doesn't work, but they don't care because it works 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:50.599 for them. Viewed from the perspective of the socialists, socialism 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.199 is an effective scheme to gain money and power. Think 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.400 about it this way. Socialists like Bernie sanders AND's or 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:00.160 on Mom Donnie are not productive people. They have rarely, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.160 if ever, held real jobs. They have never started a business. 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.600 They wouldn't know how to begin doing that. Their record 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.480 of innovation is a null set. They are, from the 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:13.240 entrepreneurial perspective, useless people. But this does not mean they 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.240 are untalented, nor does it mean they are unproductive. They 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.640 are incapable of producing goods or services, but they are 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:26.440 skilled at producing resentment. They are masters at cultivating envy. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.559 They are talented in spreading hatred against people who are productive. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:32.760 So what we're seeing in places like New York and 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.360 increasingly around the country is a contest of elites. The 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.360 socialists don't market it that way. They marketed as the 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:42.320 elites versus the people, But in no society have the 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:47.080 people ever ruled themselves. All societies, whether monarchies or aristocracies 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:51.720 or democracies, are run by elites. Socialism represents the effort 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:55.640 on a part of the activist elite, the professors, the journalists, 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:01.200 the community organizer types, to seize power from the entrepreneurial elite, 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.280 the group that actually drives the wealth of a society. 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.240 The socialist scheme is to seize that wealth by capitalizing 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.120 on people's incomprehension about how the wealth is created and 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.040 the natural human desire to grab what is in yours 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.200 through some self serving illusion that you are entitled to it. 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:23.320 Socialism spreads this gospel of entitlement, but not really for 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.800 the people's benefit, but rather to recruit the people into 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.880 a scheme that will turn the reins of society over 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.240 to the socialists. This is how socialism proves to be 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:37.640 highly profitable to the Ilhan and Omars and Bernie Sandros types. 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.240 They have mastered the art of what may be called 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:46.480 political entrepreneurship. I'm confident in the end America will reject socialism, 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.760 but that's only because the large majority of Americans know 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.760 that socialism is in fact a form of slavery. And 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.560 just as Republicans had to defeat slavery by defeating the 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.839 Democrats in a civil war, you must defeat the Democrats 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:07.480 again on this barbarous idea of socialism. And that's the 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:13.600 way I see it. Here's the thing about crypto, it's 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.439 here to stay. That argument is over. 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Some of you told 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.520 me you saved as much as four thousand or five 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:56.600 thousand dollars, all from one twenty minute call call chapter today. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.920 They're a free resource for my audience. Seven oh six 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.240 two six two four seven seven four. Again that's seven 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:08.040 oh six two six two four seven seven four. Stop 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:14.960 paying more than you should, guys. I'm delighted to welcome 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:20.080 Maria Corina Machado. She has been described as the hope 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:25.719 of Venezuela. Trained as an engineer, she became the leading 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:31.840 opposition figure in the country, and the socialist regime, first 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:36.160 Chavez then Maduro feared her. And we know this because 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.679 she was subjected to physical attack. I've seen pictures of 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.960 her bruised face. She was also banned from contesting the 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:47.480 election because they were well, they kind of knew she 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:53.119 was going to win. And a superstar in Venezuela, she 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.280 became a global superstar when she won the Nobel Prize 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.480 for Peace. Maria Corina, what an honor. Thank you for 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:05.200 joining me. Delighted to have you. I'd like to begin 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:10.800 by drawing a contrast between you and the woman who 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:17.840 is currently running Venezuela, and that is Delsi Rodriguez. Most 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:22.280 Americans don't know much about Delsi. Can you draw a 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:27.480 contrast between you and Delsi Rodriguez in terms of what 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:33.000 you believe about Venezuela, about principles and also about the 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:34.000 United States. 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.160 Well, first of all, thank you so Muchness. I'm honored 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.600 to share this time to you and grateful to convey 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.320 our feelings from as maniform people to American people, because, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.640 first of all, we are so grateful for what President 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.240 Trump did on January third. I mean, it's been twenty 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:01.520 seven years of socialist, communist and criminal devastation of a 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.560 nation that used to be a great ally of the 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:08.600 United States. Because, after all, ven Swans and Americans share 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:13.679 the same values for and faith and and you know, 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:20.920 love for family, for freedom, for prosperity, for you know, justice. 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:26.120 Ven Swans have always been very close to American values, 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.919 and we will turn Venezuela back again into the strongest 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.160 allies of the United States. Do not doubt that regarding 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.480 your question, del Rodriguez is part of the criminal regime 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:42.560 of Nicolasma Luo and Ubo Childs. They turned one of 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:47.040 the wealthiest nations in the region in one of the poorest. 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:54.879 Women Their main allies are the enemies of the United States, Iran, Russia, 0:19:55.280 --> 0:20:02.240 China and Cuba. The communist regime of Cuba mentored these individuals, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.480 including the Rodigas, and she was a mainly a son 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:11.520 with these other regimes around the world. She gave Venezuelan institutions, 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:16.440 territory and resources to turn our country into the hub 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.840 in the criminal hub of these enemies of the United States. 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:25.040 And she herself was the one who overlooked the civilian 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:30.080 torture and repressive system that took place during decades and 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:36.639 had thousands killed, thousands in prisons, thousands disappeared just for 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:41.320 speaking out our ideas. So you know, it is obvious 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.280 for the Venezuelan people what she is, what she represents. 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:51.480 She hates what the United States is and the values 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:58.040 the United States promotes, and that's why she is totally 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:04.119 rejected by our people. On the other hand, we want 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.080 Venezuela to be free, but most of all to be 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:13.120 a land of grace where our children, by the millions 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:17.479 who have left, can come back and build together a 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:20.320 true alliance with the United States that will make this 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:27.200 elasting and robust partnership not also in security, but also 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.720 in energy, trade and culture. 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:37.119 Maria Karina. There are some Americans who say Venezuela is 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:41.000 a gangster regime. It was run by these narco traffickers. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:46.240 But it is wrong to blame socialism for the collapse 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.760 and ruin of Venezuela. Can you make the case for 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:53.720 why we're dealing not just with ordinary gangsters and criminals 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.439 who are robbers and thieves, but we're also dealing with 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.040 an ideology here that is, as you say, aligned with 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:02.400 the ideology of Cuba. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:07.200 Well, there is. If there is one regime in which 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:11.040 there can be no doubt whatsoever that they have been 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:15.399 inspired by communists and socialist ideas, is precisely Ugo chal 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:19.960 Nicola Maludu and and you just have to see what 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:25.640 they have said up until January third, and what they 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:29.200 have done during these twenty seven years. I mean, they 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:37.440 went against the private sector. They took over enterprises, businesses, 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:44.280 private property, They took it for themselves for those cronies 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:49.760 around Ugo, Chadistrodrigaz and so on. They went against the media, 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:54.280 nobody could speak out. They went again freedom in all 0:22:54.400 --> 0:23:01.720 their ways, including education. They decided to ideologize Venezuelan education, 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:04.639 which used to be one of the best in the region, 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:10.240 and turn it into an ideologized system in which they 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:15.000 wanted to infiltrate socialist ideas in all our children. It 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:17.720 actually turned out to be one of the strongest movements 0:23:17.800 --> 0:23:22.480 against the regime came from teachers and parents to defaned 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:28.800 our children. So they have been systematically building a socialist, 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:34.159 communist system that has a whole set of a bunch 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:38.480 of laws that has to be totally dismantled in order 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:42.560 to bring justice to Venezuela. Currently, Venezuela, the net, I 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:46.040 don't know if you're aware, is in the last place 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:50.280 worldwide in rule of law. Out of one hundred and 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:54.320 forty three countries that are ranked by the World Justice Project, 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:59.879 Venezuela is in the last place because the regime took 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:06.480 over every single institution, and that's why they forced a 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:10.480 third of our population to flee the country. That was 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:17.960 intentionally done and impoverished the population. Eighty six percent of Venezuelans, 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:21.320 even though we have, you know, the largest proven oil 0:24:21.560 --> 0:24:26.320 reserves in the world, eighty six percent of our people 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:31.640 living poverty and that's the result of communists and socialist period. 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:38.040 Would you say that these recent catastrophic earthquakes, two of 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:45.280 them happening almost simultaneously and producing enormous devastation in an 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:51.080 area very right near Caracas and including Caracas. Has that 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:57.440 further exposed for the Venezuelan people that this regime simply 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:01.320 A doesn't know how to man any of this, but 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:05.080 b doesn't even really care. I saw a number of 0:25:05.119 --> 0:25:09.280 videos of people in Venezuela, Venezuelan, so they were just saying, basically, 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:12.879 we are digging with our own hands. The regime is 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:15.240 nowhere to be seen, and if they ever show up, 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:18.679 it's only to do a photo opportunity to make it 0:25:18.760 --> 0:25:22.280 look like they're doing something, but they're actually doing almost nothing. 0:25:24.000 --> 0:25:31.879 That's absolutely true. This catastrophe is a breaking point that 0:25:32.000 --> 0:25:36.080 has no way back, because, of course an earthquake is 0:25:36.160 --> 0:25:41.800 a natural event, but the scale of this disaster has 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:46.960 political reasons, and it's not only the fact, you say, 0:25:47.040 --> 0:25:52.159 the absolute absence of the state. Imagine a catastrophe of 0:25:52.200 --> 0:25:56.960 this magnitude where there are tens of thousands of people missing, 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:02.080 and during the first three days, those seventy two hours 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:08.199 are critical to save lives. No one from the state 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:13.400 appeared in ground zero. There were several areas in Venezuela 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:20.879 that were severely affected. There were only civilians people helping 0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:24.840 each other, as you say, digging with their own hands. 0:26:25.040 --> 0:26:31.680 And when the state finally appeared, they started blocking support, 0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:37.680 threatening those that were helped giving support to each other. 0:26:38.000 --> 0:26:44.560 They even stopped rescue missions from international groups to come 0:26:44.600 --> 0:26:49.919 to Venezuela. They blocked that. And not only that, many 0:26:50.080 --> 0:26:54.919 of the buildings that collapse were public housing projects of 0:26:55.040 --> 0:27:01.399 Wachildism and maludu, and it was determined by engineers that 0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:07.879 they lack the basic seismic conditions and standards. So what 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:13.720 has this has brought to Venezuela. No fear turned into indignation, 0:27:14.119 --> 0:27:20.679 and indignation into rage, and it is certainly increased the 0:27:21.040 --> 0:27:27.160 urgency because it's evident this regime not only las capacity 0:27:27.200 --> 0:27:33.120 and it's absolutely incompetent, but its lack of humanity and compassion. 0:27:33.760 --> 0:27:38.040 So it's cruelty was exposed in a way that Venezuelans 0:27:38.040 --> 0:27:40.240 are not going to forget or forgive. 0:27:42.600 --> 0:27:46.959 The Trump administration appears to have a strategy of trying 0:27:47.040 --> 0:27:52.080 to work with these gangsters, work with these socialists to 0:27:52.200 --> 0:28:00.359 stabilize the country and then push for free elections. Maybe 0:28:00.400 --> 0:28:04.760 some of the some of that is driven by a 0:28:04.800 --> 0:28:09.840 fear of what happened in Iraq in Afghanistan. In other words, 0:28:09.920 --> 0:28:13.119 how do you help to bring democracy to those countries. 0:28:14.440 --> 0:28:16.879 But it seems to me that Venezuela is different than 0:28:16.960 --> 0:28:20.800 Iraq and Afghanistan in the sense that it had democracy. 0:28:20.880 --> 0:28:23.960 It has a constitutional system that in fact is not 0:28:24.040 --> 0:28:25.960 all that different from the United States. 0:28:27.080 --> 0:28:30.480 And so go ahead, no, no, go ahead, no, you 0:28:30.520 --> 0:28:30.919 go ahead. 0:28:31.280 --> 0:28:34.400 Well, I was going to say, my greatest fear has 0:28:34.440 --> 0:28:39.000 to do with the elections and the integrity of the elections. 0:28:39.040 --> 0:28:41.440 You know all too well better than anyone else because 0:28:41.480 --> 0:28:44.200 you were there. There was a two thousand and four 0:28:44.360 --> 0:28:49.240 recall election for Ugo Chavez. The polls showed that the 0:28:49.280 --> 0:28:52.480