'd my mother is from venezuela my father from france i live in paris but i left my family and my heart and caracas. i could only watch from afar as my country sank deeper into chaos venezuela used to be a wealthy country 40 years ago. like gold brought the promise of a brighter future. ready ready. on january 23rd 2019 the country's fortunes appear to turn when a new largely unknown figure entered the stage asking for change when why do we see them enjoying the support of mass demonstrations among the largest in the history of tennis when a problem is it that they will get that idea of what the guys are reading that is the other day was going up on the roof of the mother the night was to think she was. left the country 20 years ago did his threats and the security situation but now i want to be back when i'm deeply moved upon my return as i take my 1st steps on the famous most 8 by carlos. plan why though has called for a mass rally and i attend with my family. for security reasons i'm headed in the trunk of his car for the journey to our interview vocation. why dell is enthusiast sick and convinced that the end is nearing former doors regime i'm more skeptical but quiet though is our only hope. meant the same when there is a story. in the history of mankind it's hard to think of a failed state with conditions like that are not the result of a war or more natural disaster but they were in this us throughout the day the media that's going to see me 90 percent of venezuelans live in poverty the borders in a country that used to be one of the wealthiest in latin america. if it weren't for the countries in the sales economic policies venezuela would have a $700000000000.00 economy today or instead it shrunk to $100000000000.00. in curious when i go mia this year. how did we fall so far i was desperately searching for the country of my childhood . place where everything seemed happier and more modern than in france the children's museum was like an enchanted them for me back then. venice when there was a paradise on earth you know land full of opportunities. to say that with pride you know my grandfather was a janitor at the university hospital 30 years later his grandson as a doctor there that was venezuela for. 20 years ago i still believe in the promises of hugo chavez i was working as a journalist at a daily newspaper and following the presidential election campaign. on the morning of january 9th 1998 i visited chavez at his home on the top floor of the building overlooking caracas in the middle class neighborhood of. the apartment was open and bright with. view of the avila mountains he seemed to has moved in only recently. chavez gave me a warm welcome and introduced me to his daughter who had just come home from school . it was in this casual personal setting that our interview got underway. chavez was no ordinary candidate a lieutenant colonel and. 6 years earlier he was the mastermind of 2 coup attempts how committed was he to democracy that was my 1st question. the caracol so was a wave of protests and social unrest that left the country deeply scarred in 1909 in february of that here president calmness and rezko resignation agree to a forms demanded by the international monetary fund. aimed at halting the recession that had resulted from a slump an oil prices inflation for over a week less intense from neighborhoods rioting in the city center looting was widespread the government brought in the army. to quell the protests the exact number of fatalities remains unknown to this day 3 years later the attempted coups were a painful manifestation of a system more resembling an oligarchy than a democracy. venezuela was controlled by 7 or 800 people politicians and union leaders. i served in 2 governments and i never saw any particular ideological orientation or whether they were right or left of center for me there was no difference in ideology. in france i got used to straightforward election campaigns where candidates presented their platforms the 1998 presidential race in venezuela was more reminiscent of a carnival parade instead of discussing unemployment figures there was singing and dancing the aim was to win over a disenchanted people with the traditional parties in disarray all kinds of candidates threw their hat in the ring including a former miss universe. ornamental said we must have made 5 trips across the country covering all the major cities even more at 1st we'd have 1015 or 20 people attending our events where charges spread his message and share his ideas but in 1988 there were suddenly thousands of people coming out onto the streets. and a network was established with a growing number of followers and not just ordinary citizens in a slum in the parcel there were also high ranking politicians meeting with chavez. and me you moguls to offering support fire the t.v. and radio stations and newspapers. was the. charge as was brought to power by the rich not by poor people but by businessmen and the media and most of them thought this darker skinned lieutenant colonel from bahrain us would be easier to control than the regular political parties. they thought they could use him but he ended up using them. and. we thought we were electing a democrat they said that in ideological terms he was close to former u.k. prime minister tony blair but in his heart he remained in protest and there were hints of that in our interview at the time hence that i was deaf to. chavez was elected president for lack of viable alternatives turnout was low this is when can be seen as a protest vote by a people desperate for a change in. charge as was not elected to lead the country for 5 years but to change the course of history as well. the prevailing idea in venezuela was that history is made by military men not civilian i was it was a concept that chavez revived for he was the strongman uniform on horseback who could bring order and give us back the prosperity that had been taken away from us . tapped into then a surveillance mess down reminding them of the country's golden age in the 1950 s. the dictator marcus perez sliminess said about modernizing venezuela with ambitions and for structure and housing programs supported by select immigration from here are. the new highway linking the capital to the coast and the airport was the 2nd biggest construction project in latin america after the panama canal and at this point in time venezuela was the world's 4th wealthiest country in terms of g.d.p. per capita. venezuela is a latin american nation but above all it's an oil producing one. and it's a caribbean style nation 2 with cheerful easygoing people. in shallow then israel and pride is based on being able to afford everything the thinking is our land gives us wealth that we can do whatever we want with. it somehow. government is really the venezuelan state is so rich that it doesn't need taxpayers' money to function. and i believe that shapes venezuelan's relationship to the state. of course at that point everyone contributes to the funding of the state as is the case elsewhere that leads to greater cohesion. and it also gives everyone a sense of political responsibility. she says. everything is free from the day you're born. free hospitals education health care if you die you get a free burial the well they gave venezuelans a panacea for all their problems. and that's just not feasible. and not just because of the later plunge in oil prices within a few decades the population grew from 5 to 30000000 people. who. bring us right now there are about 80 in israel has cancer all the chav ism and majorities in the entire revolution since the start of the century he's like one of the cancer guards. actually i'm not trying to get her you have been so good to see many people still think there is some economic war going on but what kind of an economic war is it. better government owns most of the companies that produce things in venezuela. their minutes were. anything. but not our fill of it all. over iraq but i've got nothing about going to feel that they own the factories but they're not producing anything everything they touch turns. out of. places doesn't mention maduro are chavez by name fearing reprisals and likely also due to his general anger and frustration. i. suppose could be as it often enough to get you to clean venezuela is a classic example of all the things that can go wrong in an oil producing country 90 percent of venezuela's income was connected to the oil industry that resulted in a huge appreciation of the national currency. but also rapid dnd just realization. the industrial agricultural and services sectors were no longer profitable nor there was a dramatic increase in imported consumer goods put it because purchasing power in the country was artificially boosted. people were buying all kinds of things products that made 0 contribution to the competitiveness of the domestic economy that's known as the resource curse or the paradox of plenty. as the sun goes down the streets of caracas go quiet. residents were treated their homes for their own safety many so wella has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. and i go there i've just done some grocery shopping. enough for maybe 15 days. this stuff constitute a 1315 leave out is. here and these things cost $46200.00 believe itis. that $16000.00 believe it is more than the minimum wage in venezuela. on the street they call it the my due to die it's a very funny what i. am i wouldn't get out so. i'm bloody its name i look at all the time i. see this in fear and we ended up. a country i want for my children is the country of my own childhood then me. in light of current conditions i ask myself movie really doing so badly before 998. people. started. i don't. know i report. socio economic problems prompted venessa wayland's to choose the political solution that seemed the most expedient and painless. of. all and. all and that any boy. sought a. job that i could see what chavez is in visioning a revolution if. he wants to reconcile a new constitution with structural reforms that work on for much longer than. this money to do away with the past he wanted to give the country a new name a new flag and even a new time zone chavez was now quite literally dictating the course of time he also had the constitution amended in his favor. the party make it a particular party and simply disappeared into thin air but there was no resistance or you know it was a total capitulation absolute. and the parties may have surrendered but the people did not resist tense formed in the flood of reforms women were the 1st to turn out on the streets in large numbers. and soon enough a general strike was called for by pedro carmona head of the venezuelan federation of chambers of commerce. but there was no stopping chavez and. steamrolling reforms he then also took control of the state owned oil company paid of a set. that paid of a certain term and what it needed and would have paid to the government of the state within a state something charges could ultimately. at the side door and also listening in . on all cylinders. there but you know that's against the person. who breaks it they know that's where people realize that he was an autocrat worse than anyone before him. and he has absolute rule also over television it was no regard for existing laws against the. hasty firings led to an escalation and protests then his awareness sank into chaos but what developed next is still disputed and interpreted differently today was. my . idea here there were many justified demonstrations. but there was also a conspiracy is you know you were part of the there were various political parties church groups and industry figures who used these popular protests to try to overthrow the government which led to the events of april 11th. really why i do mean one of the many demonstrations in this case headed for the presidential palace government snipers shot at the crack. the city police returned fire a couple of hours later there were 18 people dead and 70 injured or you like her very very i senior military officers called on their troops to resist orders in order to avoid a bloodbath chavez eventually surrendered and was arrested. pedro carmona was named interim president dissolving parliament and dismissing governors mayors and other officials the constitution was suspended while the new government was appointed. it was far more authoritarian than what chavez had threat. and going which is why it was unsustainable out there who the coup leaders were ultimately opposed by their own armed forces. i don't would be. then if so wellens again took to the streets this time calling for the old constitutional order to be restored. part of the opposition and the army to challenge the new government the subsequent crew took who brought chavez back to power. the i look at it was typically venezuelan completely improvised way the coup and counter-coup were carried out i'd say that for us venezuelans improvisations is a method a breeze as you're going to make though i think the following the 2002 coup charges started looking for other options. she realized that he would be unable to change venezuela this way. go up at a meeting. he gave that it seems as a military man in charge has always believed in a strategy of counter-attack and. the attempted coup in 2002 had enabled him to purge the armed forces. and now go lisita to use the oil industry strike to take control of the oil company but they're all you know in order for you know this. this was precisely the time when the destruction of the page of a said began when it was its demise not the drop in oil prices that led to the current to cover you that. companies need to be starved by ex-pats down to the very last. month and pay to face this foundation was worked out from under it. in 2003 hugo chavez was halfway through his term as president. and he was facing a referendum. on our. polls predicted he would lose. and that's when cuba came into play in. cuba and venezuela had a previous history 3 weeks after coming to power in helena in 1959 feet out castro was given a hero's welcome in caracas the new cuban leader had begun patients and was wasting no time with his plans to spread his model for revolution across central and south america decades later their leader maximo sein ally in charge is a man who could help them realize his goals. in $994.00 he gave the field to just the kind of reception normally reserved for heads of state. i. think you just a little custer was in a difficult situation. you know the collapse of the soviet union meant he no longer had anyone to support his stay. until that point had been a little like a woman living off her wealthy husband. and now travis was to take the place of the soviet union. almost 10 years later their relationship with the come a solid partnership when chavez asked his mentor for help order to consolidate his power and the cuban leader did have a solution. proposed the mission and then through a social welfare program it had a very positive impact on the money the image of the venezuelan state and with the help of the cuban doctors provided better health care to the poor neighborhoods. noisier but it's not true that venezuela had no doctors before it's just that they were made to work in rural areas deprived communities of the entire thing was propaganda. on the barrio a dental program detailed the construction of thousands of new health care center with 30000 medical professionals treating patients later there were similar programs in the education and housing sector which would soon be run by the cubans as they probably needed the ideology of the revolution. return for that support the castro regime was supplied with venezuelan oil much needed lifeline. venezuela sent around 100000 barrels of oil per day to cuba but its workers that's worth about 5 or $6000000000.00 per year. putting that in context venezuela's highest annual food imports amounted to $9000000000.00 so venezuela gave almost as much oil to cuba as the worth of the food it imported in a record year for us and our economy i mean i did so on your record that. this was the total capitulation of a country it's unprecedented in human history a small country voluntarily surrendering its sovereignty and even paying to be controlled they print our i.d.'s and passports are in charge of the police and intelligence agencies it's total submission. one i mean maybe i'm on a hot young man now. and their charter says health care and welfare programs made him a hero of the slyness whose residents were dependent on him as the price of oil continued to rise and shot his enjoyed his growing control over his people and their elections with idees issue with feel with any checks many people were able to vote twice and there were even cases of dead people being where just had to vote the election body was run exclusively by chavez supporters voting became electronic and many feared no longer a secret ballot plus officials were afraid of losing their jobs the authorities also organized buses to bring residents from the areas that had benefited from the welfare programs to the polling stations in 2006 was reelected and the one man show continued your. joy are a donkey. you are a donkey there are fears that this hour. or so lit up a nice. george w. . what are you and if hugo chavez identify his enemies including bankers the media business people and of course the united states. city sites and a whole range of media outlets. there were countless disputes and in 2007 they coleman aided in radio caracas television losing its license to broadcast. that. they had. back out again in the internal fight we started mobilising when we got the feeling that something was being taken from us you know why a t.v. station. they were taking away our right to choose which channel we wanted to watch or to express ourselves through media because that little fire under us is and you know my cheap. once again the opposition parties were being overtaken and by a brave young generation i admire. everybody but. what about the well with a lot growing disillusionment was reflected in a referendum defeat for chavez he'd intended to amend some 69 articles in a sweeping constitutional reform among the proposed changes further developing than a somewhere like what being a socialist state and allowing the president to stand indefinitely for reelection the people said no among those voting against was chavez says ex-wife said when a minute dogs would be. condemned. it would be the. the army forced chavez to accept his defeat and soon enough he was facing his next challenge and economic one. charge as government nationalized entire sectors of the economy it wasn't about structural reforms or financial cuts they took a very radical approach ready they took control of banks supermarkets and millions of hackers of land. and those moves basically destroyed the domestic market and the idea of individual initiative among citizens some people say today that there's not even toilet paper left in venezuela it's a bit of a cliche but there is a bit of truth in it because nobody's making it anymore there's no private sector production the market is no longer functioning. unfortunately the nationalization program was based on political not economic factors. there was no real strategy. the expropriation became an end in itself that. you're welcome out on someone out on their evil. is eager and i mean every going to leave it at that moment on them from this year not only in our homes or not do not settle it doesn't want it but you know if they want to come here not that i'm not going to be thanked nothing is use the media to make himself omnipresent sometimes with rambling speeches lasting hours on a show called president he was also the 1st head of state to use twitter chavez seemed more interested in his o