Nicolás Maduro on the Brink of Dictatorship

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2017

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nicolás Maduro was an unlikely successor to Venezuela’s popular and charismatic Hugo Chavez. And, since his election, the country has been wracked with devastating food shortages, a breakdown of ordinary services and medical care, and rampant violence. But, as Maduro sees it, the real problem is his political opponents, and he has taken steps to secure control over all the branches of government, in order to establish a de-facto dictatorship. The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson was recently granted a rare interview with the Venezuelan President, who told him of his country’s economic relationships with Russia and China. Anderson tells Dorothy Wickenden that he came away from the conversation with a renewed sense of the need for greater American engagement in Venezuela. “It is going through the sewer on our watch,” Anderson says. Plus, a visit to the library with Cristina Henriquez.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a real trait to God.
0:05.0	The One World Observatory,
0:07.0	the straight of the block for West Boulevard and make that right.
0:10.0	They didn't break that, but they have pretty good access to those people.
0:15.0	They're going to subconsciously mocked that lineage.
0:19.0	So that's happening.
0:21.6	It seems like an incredible story here on the new front.
0:25.3	From one World Trade Center in Manhattan,
0:27.6	this is the New Yorker Radio Hour,
0:29.6	a co-production of WNIC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:33.9	I'm David Remnick, and this is the New Yorker Radio Hour.
0:37.2	Given the events of this year,
0:38.4	we could all be forgiven if we haven't been paying as much attention to what's going on
0:42.5	overseas as we should. But if you're following the world news carefully, you already know that
0:48.0	what's going on in Venezuela is just this side of apocalyptic. For Venezuelans, of course, most
0:53.0	of all, but it may well have
0:55.0	repercussions here in the United States. While oil prices were high, Venezuela's socialist
1:00.7	economy under Hugo Chavez seemed to be booming. But Chavez died in 2013, just as oil prices
1:07.9	were falling. It was left to his successor, Nicholas Maduro, to deal with the fallout.
1:14.4	Now, food shortages are common.
1:16.7	Medical care and utilities are precarious.
1:19.3	Crime and violence are rampant.
	...

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