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.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is in

self-imposed exile in the United States, having fled his homeland Venezuela just weeks ago.

Christian Zerpa's hasty departure was a serious embarrassment to the socialist government of

Nicolas Maduro. Zerpa was a longtime party loyalist who had been appointed as a justice to the Supreme Court in order

to strengthen Maduro's grip on power. For the past two years, Zerpa has indeed been a pliant

judge, as the regime effectively suspended the powers of the National Assembly. But political

repression could not contain popular discontent, as a disastrous

economic meltdown plunged millions of Venezuelans into poverty and hunger. By the end of last year,

Judge Serpa could no longer stomach the policies of his paymasters, and he planned his escape. Weeks later, the president of the

National Assembly, Juan Guaido, declared he was Venezuela's legitimate president, and the country

is now in the grip of economic and political chaos. Can it be saved from a violent civil conflict? Well, Christian Serpa, now in Miami,

joins me. Welcome to Hard Talk. Let us begin with your personal story. Here you sit with me in

Miami, and yet just a few short weeks ago, you were a justice on the Venezuelan Supreme Court.

You could have stayed in your country to fight for truth and justice. You ran away. Why?

Because in Venezuela, there is no respect for a dissident.

Chavistas prosecute anyone that dissent from the way the rule,

and there is an infinite amount of cases of public figures and chavistas

that have been incarcerated, and many have died in jail,

and there are no guarantees for someone like me to stay in Venezuela.

I understand very well that it is very dangerous to be an opponent of the Maduro regime.

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