Vanessa Neumann: Did Venezuela's opposition miss their chance?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eighteen months ago, Venezuela seemed to be on the brink of political upheaval. The leader of the National Assembly declared himself president, and 50 countries offered him official recognition. But the ruling party has not been toppled. Nicolás Maduro is still in the presidential palace, overseeing a country deep in economic and healthcare crisis. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Vanessa Neumann, London envoy of the would-be president Juan Guaidó. Did the Venezuelan opposition blow their chance?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today lives in a |
| 0:06.1 | twilight world of diplomatic ambiguity. Vanessa Neumann is the London envoy of the man |
| 0:13.1 | recognised by the UK government as the president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido. But she doesn't |
| 0:18.7 | actually occupy the Venezuelan embassy. That is still the domain of |
| 0:23.1 | the ambassador appointed by the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro, a government which is still |
| 0:28.9 | very much in place. 18 months after Mr. Guaido, backed by the US and at least 50 other countries, |
| 0:36.7 | declared he was taking over. |
| 0:38.9 | In other words, things haven't quite gone to plan for Mr. Guaido and his associates. |
| 0:44.7 | He can no longer mobilize tens of thousands of Venezuelans to join anti-Maduro protests. |
| 0:51.3 | The Trump administration seems to have cooled on him, and Maduro still has staunch backing |
| 0:56.7 | from Russia, Iran and China. In the midst of political stalemate, an economic and health care |
| 1:03.0 | crisis continues to unfold in what is now Latin America's poorest country. Has the Venezuelan |
| 1:09.8 | opposition missed its opportunity? Well, Vanessa Neumann |
| 1:14.0 | joins me from New York right now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure |
| 1:19.6 | to be back with you, Stephen. Let's reflect on the big declaration made by Juan Guaido some 18 months ago when he declared himself president of Venezuela. |
| 1:30.5 | He said that he was going to deliver freedom and democracy and a better life to the people |
| 1:37.1 | of Venezuela. Are you somewhat embarrassed when you think back to those claims? |
| 1:41.4 | No, absolutely not. I think we have made a lot of progress. We have 61 |
| 1:46.0 | countries now that recognize our interim president, including the United Kingdom, now by |
| 1:53.0 | act of law in the British courts and three international organizations. And what has happened is |
| 2:00.0 | that it has become patently clear that the |
| 2:02.5 | dictatorship of Maduro has done everything in its power to prevent the free and fair elections. |
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