You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

My guest today is a Venezuelan politician who's a close ally of the man who now regards himself as the president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido.

Like Mr. Guaido, Juan And Mejia is a young media-savvy member of the Popular Will or VP party, which was founded

by Leopoldo Lopez, the charismatic and outspoken anti-Chavista opposition leader who is currently under house arrest.

Juan Guaido's dramatic gambit of declaring President Nicolas Maduro illegitimate and claiming

the presidency for himself took place in January. Within hours, the US backed the move. So have a host

of Latin American and European nations. But if the opposition

hoped the Maduro government would quickly crumble, they have been gravely disappointed. Instead,

Venezuela's economic and political chaos is simply worsened, with millions of people engaged in a

daily struggle for survival. So does the opposition have a coherent

strategy for ending this protracted national agony? Well, Juan Andres Mejia joins me now on the line

from Caracas. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. My first question is a pretty simple one.

Your party colleague and associate Juan Guaido proclaimed himself to be president of Venezuela

on January 23rd.

Ever since then, conditions for the Venezuelan people have gotten worse.

Do you feel a sense of responsibility for deepening Venezuela's chaos?

Not at all.

Venezuela's political, economic, and social crisis started many years ago.

And what we've seen in the last few months, it's basically the same we saw last year, but even worse. What's happening in

Venezuela is we have someone in power, Nicolas Maduro, who doesn't care about the well-being

of Venezuelans, who doesn't care about the health and how Venezuelans are doing. All he cares

...