And that is what brought us here. Not that time there was a puerto rico referendum that shows since march that year. That is the problem. Not allow the government to play games. Translator okay come on the topic of new sanctions. Yeah, well we will see we dont see the process of the oil sales the venezuelan people. [speaking in native tongue] translator the expectations are the maternal of the they are higher than places like theory and they are the worst in the country. We are seeing at the dominance arise that had been eradicated decades ago. People are dying because they are not receiving treatment for their chronic illnesses. None of the oil profits benefit the people. They are going to the regime. They are being used to buy support. They are being used to buy the weapons of oppression. They are being used to kill venezuelan and true owners of the resources at backcountry the regime is using for a salve. So, i dont see the oil profits going to the people. I do believe that there are other options in play, that there are targeted sanctions. Sanctions targeting highlevel authorities within the regime. That would be one step prior to general sanctions. An analysis would need to be made of the Collateral Damage that could be caused by a general sanction and further, youd need to determine on the community. In the sanctions. And again what might be some of the Collateral Damage on the people themselves. So that is an analysis that needs to be completed first. Once that analysis has been made , we need to start with individual sanctions. So that chain of command that has caused the 100 deaths of protesters, and the minister of the interior, the national guard, the minister minister of defense, the Supreme Court, the National Electoral council. There are top authorities that are guilty of torture in the prisons. Those people should be said jack to individual sanctions subject to individual sanctions. We have to penalize those options. We are taking an important institutional step in whether crimes committed towards the regime, particularly torture, could be such a crime under the rome statute and therefore could be tried in the international court. So that is an institutional step we will be taking today and will likely announce tomorrow. Thank you, mr. Secretary general for your remarks and for sharing with us your perspective. [speaking in native tongue] [applause] translator thank you. I would like to take this opportunity to announce the first in a tangible product as part of our venezuela strategy. Truly understanding or better yet acting on the depth of the crisis requires adjusting some of the horrible numbers coming out of the country. Our venezuela tracker is a one step comprehensive source on economic, political, social and financial crises. It is often unattainable, they get reliable data that we have gathered. Andrea mortes, both in and out of venezuela. This is an ongoing effort and i invite all of you to go to Atlantic Council. Org backslash venezuela tracker to find the latest numbers on what people are living through every day in a run hemisphere. Today we are launching a beta version with financial and Economic Data on topics ranging from gdp to inflation and exchange rates. We think Francisco Rodriguez on our panel for us all. We will look in depth at poverty, hunger and Health Situations in venezuela. Thank you for help among others and not effort. This is something we will continuously update because they want to provide a clear picture for the entire world, but also offer a tool for organizations, governments, Civil Society, media and others working hard to help the citizens of venezuela and helped it difficult to get reliable realtime data. At a time when the government is keeping hostage, want to do exactly the opposite. Im going to take a moment and introduce our panel and and ask them to take the stage. Our first panelist now is transcendent, mexican ambassador of the organization for american states. Having assumed his role in may 2016, hes a diplomat in a number of positions including ambassador to austria, geneva and he is also one of the foremost leaders at oas on the situation in venezuela, someone who fundamentally understand what is happening in the country and is taking a leadership role in that regard. The chief economist at many are raised Investment Bank and broker dealer prior to joining the bank he served as during senior economist at bank of America Merrill lynch, also the venezuelan Budget Office and im thrilled that frances is here because he really has his fingers on the Economic Situation in venezuela. Also the executive director for the center for justice and peace in venezuela with the Human Rights Violations and provide Legal Counsel to many of the people who are being held hostage by the government. Special focus on womens rights. She previously worked in venezuela where she researched human rights protection. Also got up at 2 00 in the morning to be able to come here from venezuela because the fact the middle of the night makes it more likely they will leave the country. Thank you for doing that. Our moderator today is the u. S. News direct your tree and five director gustau alegret. He served as minister of commerce and tourism and has mentioned the outside. We are also thankful for his team for the partnership in our venezuela after by a whole host of other things. I would like to welcome our three panelists to the stage. [applause] well, thank you everyone for coming. This has been done. Just a couple of questions. If you want to follow and continue the conversation in her social media, use venezuela. The media prior to this event. It is going to start in 15, 20 minutes and then we will be open for a q a at the end. What we expect is a conversation about that, not a single individual speeches. Thank you. And we would like to start with ambassador luis alfonso de alba gongora. You are a diplomat. You know how difficult sometimes it is with good diplomacy. You are in a position today with a very critical topic, which is venezuela. Mexico has positions for the most prudent position to a more active push position. What has changed for mexico to take this stage . Thank you very much for being here this morning. First of all, im not so sure we have changed. I think if you look into the history of diplomatic relations, mexico has been a very act of country, which human rights, democracy, Central American conflict, the situation in chile , just to mention a few topics. Particularly since 93 on human rights, we were eager to make it clear that you cannot have nonintervention violate the human rights. Cuba also violates the human rights. Is a different situation. We have pushed cuba to do much better with human rights. But you have to make clear that the main difference, the level of legitimacy if you want which cuba has been placed by the u. S. We are the only country with the suspension of cuba. This is not the same situation today because you have obviously not only commitment of human rights and democracy but the democratic chapter, you have a minority of negotiations exposing themselves with the approval. So for us, to go back to this very important and look at ourselves in the mirror. The situation in mexico and the situation in any other country needs to be compared because we do not want that situation. The populous State Government and the regime, lack of respect of institution to develop democracy, human rights. We need to protect that. You have worked in justice and democracy. I would say you are denouncing a very critical topic for the venezuelan government. Could you help us with how dangerous is the situation today in venezuela . They make thank you or the opportunity to be here but the situation and to try to explain what has happened in venezuela. [speaking in native tongue] translator with my role, i come from the Civil Society, Human Rights Defender and our work has been with the victims where there is a rule of law. So it is a legal matter applying the protections that the state and we are in a different situation. People are seeking a humanitarian crisis. We see we have an emergency on our hand. In venezuela, there are no research for dealing with this crisis is not type not a crisis, its an emergency. So it is important to use the right term of what is happening. Now it is humanitarian because venezuelans are dying. Those statistics are so shocking. That is the reality we are living. We see a child dying of malnutrition because their mother cant by mail or a child dying because they cant get an antibiotic or people because they cant find a dialysis machine. People who cant fight insulin or get high Blood Pressure medicine. My mother couldnt get medicine that used to be so easy to find anywhere else. 200,000 people have chronic illnesses that for anyone else arent a problem because you go to the pharmacy to buy your medicine. But we cant. You said you come firm civil societies. So what impact did chavez have been the Civil Society . Because it is a permanent crisis and that aid is that com and they dont benefit and doesnt support for the regime a road . People pushing for a way out with people to join opposition. What are the official government then makes it so complicated . Government hasnt been known to control the food over medicine, over everything. So we heard about the separate mechanisms that they use and now of course this manipulation that they are using with the constitutional assembly. They buy people support. There are veiled threats. We hope that you and your family will support me if anyone doesnt support them, and they are persecuted. So, a lot of the support that the government does enjoy has to do with the persecution that is undermining human rights and Civil Society that is defending human rights, willing to do our work no matter who the government is. This government has to be a human rights violator. We want democracy, but we are unprotected. We have a guns in our organization the victims in our organizations. In may 2016 returned to the Supreme Court that hasnt even been accepted, has been admitted. There is absolutely no protection in place. We receive no response. What percentage of support you think there is for Nicholas Maduro . I think you can see it was slow, pretty low. Well, of course. Because people dont have a sense of normalcy. And what we want of course is to exercise our right. Will help us to understand the magnitude of the situation. I will start out by giving you some numbers to talk about this type of reality, which is at a very basic level, human tragedy. It is definitely between 2012 and 2016 by 20 . That is a decline in per capita income. This he would look at an additional contraction from five to 10 . If you add that in, we will have a per capita income of close to 35 and 40 . Lets put that in magnitude. There are only six countries in the world in this century that have had this magnitude of economic depression. We talk about syria and the republic, iraq, united arab emirate, all but one of them are countries that have been at war. So is the type of contraction we see associated with armed conflicts. If you look just at latin americans, there are only two countries that compete with this magnitude of contraction. One of them is nicaragua during the 1970s, also during the insurgency and the other one is during hyperinflation to pass through probably this year what will become the largest economic history, at least in reported that American Economic history. So yes, this is a huge contraction. Obviously, it has to do with economic management. It has to do with politics take. And it also has to do with the decline in oil revenue. These two facts interact. Venezuela back in 2012 exported 98 billion. Oil prices fell the master at exported 28 billion. Thats the decline in Oil Production because it is to be able to maintain production. The other one is libya that also gone to a political product. There is this interaction between mismanagement and less resources. But there is something after the debate. The evidence from the past four years is invade venezuela has left external resources, people suffer. They have declined significantly over the past 40 years. I expect the venezuelan revenue will continue to decline and then there will be a continued Economic Contraction and there will be continued human suffering associated with it. Secretary maduro mentioned sanctions. What will be someone who is an economist, those collateral effects over the situation. At think it could be two issues. We have to be very careful. Let me explain something about the structure of the economy. 95 of venezuelan exports are oil. They are directly controlled at the venezuelan state. What that means is everything venezuela does for the rest of the world is done through the state with the resources the state has access to. Its a relatively difficult problem. Imagine we were talking in other countries a private sector it to somehow integrated the world. If you have a private sector that generates revenue in a public sector, you can cut the lifeline to the government without cutting the lifeline to people. In the case of venezuela, we import food. Thats not only verifiable, the only way in which things come into the dollars that the government has. So, venezuela imports food with the dollars from oil. If you cut those, you are going to cut the resources the government has to undertake oppression. You are so going to cut resources the government has been ordered to undertake import. Its a very difficult problem to to find these sanctions. What im concerned if they have been humanitarian crisis and emergency. If they fall by another 10 billion in imports come down by another 10 billion, this humanitarian crisis and emergency could turn into a catastrophe. [speaking in native tongue] translator especially by concerned by sanctions in a human rights sense because the corruption and Drug Trafficking also concerned what can affect the people. Lets imagine that this is a building where we all live and there is one where the family is fighting, the mother, the mother is sitting the kids in the husband is taking the wife. We can say we dont live in not one apartment so it doesnt matter. But you have to Say Something about it. But if we cut through water, who will suffer from it . Everybody in the building. So that solidarity at an International Level regarding institutions that should be solidarity in collaboration with Civil Society should be done jointly with any action taken for venezuela. Should the International Community imposed sanctions on the Oil Exploration . [inaudible] [speaking in native tongue] translator i will answer in spanish. Its a more delicate answer a question because it is more complex. So its a possibility to do at the International Community level except for that Security Council. It would have to be the Security Council that took action. It is almost impossible that something such as certain other sanctions would be approved by the United Nations in the general assembly. That would be an option, but i think that the question of whether it would be a good or a bad idea is most important that it has not been what we are trying to do and has not been led by the u. S. This has been a collective vision that has evolved internationally and has tried to find diplomatic ways to solve the problem. It was perceptive to do that democratic charter and suspend venezuela and all the states that no, not yet. We have to first do Everything Possible at the diplomatic level. And then, we went with this Extraordinary Assembly in consultation and the answer is exactly that we were trying to send a message to the venezuelans that we are still looking towards some type of mediation or Something Like that. This apart from the fact we dont want to hurt the population anymore with sanctions. The sanctions should not he only considered economically. They should be taken into account in a political light because there could be a political sanction, in exclusion to know what is happening or what could happen at a certain time if there were more embassies that left venezuela. So there were a group of measures that could be taken before any of the sanctions could be applied or should be applied. We will talk about this next week at the oas. What are they concerned about specifically at this time . Ill go a little bit to cancun. It was a rupture and so it doesnt work anymore. It doesnt help venezuela. We dont need to. The rest of the countrys dont need it. What was not accepted and therefore fractured to meet you there went against the sanction to a project proposed. So that was something sad, but it was important. Today we will try to include the subject once again and we will continue to work as such. Yes, we are exercising pressure so that they do it within the oas but the diplomatic pressure on venezuela and led by a mexico, colombia, peru, and the United States and canada. So this exercise going back to your question on sanctions i think that it should be dealt with at the level of the g4 at team. There should be cored native action, send unilateral. I am not against any, but perhaps the economic measures. There are some numbers. So you asked about the popularity approval of the government. There are some numbers around 20 . Its an interesting number because its not as low as you would expect. There is a very interesting debate. Is this intimidation . You do know that in the past some of them have been electorally s