I'm Great Haver, and this is next in foreign policy, the podcast where the next generation

of national security and foreign policy leaders talk about the issues of today and tomorrow.

This week we're joined by Diego Arella.

Diego is the Deputy Director of Strategic Development at the Adrian Arsched Latin American Center

of the Atlantic Council.

Diego, thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Grant, for inviting me and for this opportunity and happy birthday.

Thanks so much.

So how did you originally become interested in foreign policy?

I started political science with a concentration in international affairs when in the year when

I was studying undergrad, back in Caracas, Venezuela, and then I started working in in

a city called Sookre with marginalized population, et cetera.

And due to my social and slash political activity, I have to leave my country in 2016.

And I arrived to the U.S. and one of the only ways to remain connected to my roots and my

country was to work on U.S. Venezuela relations and that was this park.

I would say, but then I started getting more interested in other Latin American realities

as well and the role of foreign actors in the situation of my country.

So that's why I'm here to speak in with you, I guess.

So where are U.S. Venezuelan relations right now and what's going on in Venezuela that

forced you to leave?

I mean, it's a very complex situation that to explain it, I would have to go back, I would

say, 50 years, but I will start by saying that Venezuela has a immense reach country with

...