so much international news to talk to you about today we'll start
in Venezuela and then go to ukraine we're still working with our source in
Venezuela whose identity we are we are protecting
and after having a few more exchanges a with our source
while at first I thought and maybe he thought that we were
being overly cautious he now has said no I think it's good that you're not even
saying what city an end because the situation here is really getting quite
bad
let's get you up to speed on what's happening in Venezuela their
are continued protests from
opposition groups which vary in terms of their placement on the political
spectrum
and the reasons they're protesting the Nicolas Maduro government the primary
opposition complaints right now the reason these protester happening are
number one general lack of security
in the country and this comes in terms of
both safety physical security and economic security
inflation 56 percent by some estimates in 2013 significant inflation
and the opposition movement in protesters which initially started with
students
protesting the out-of-control inflation in Venezuela
and protest over the scarcity a basic goods like milk
sugar in some cases toilet paper on february twelfth student groups
started the protest and then opposition
more formal opposition groups led by
a a few different parties which I outline to you on our Monday program
joined in and the protest grew relatively peacefully
then there was a significant confrontation in the capital city I've
got ACOSS
and two students and one government sympathizer died
and this significantly escalated tensions and really brought the protest
in the entire conflict to a new level
as we mentioned this led to the government blaming the opposition
as being I fascists right-wingers although as we explained
this is back Julie wrong the opposition as those
who are pro-government range from liberal to centrist to conservative
now the latest news is that
Leopoldo Lopez who is the I don't know if I want to use the term
defacto but he is considered by many to be the opposition leader at least the
spokesperson
more the opposition in great part according to one source he was
supposedly
initially detained for murders that he didn't commit
but was being blamed for causing in some way shape or form
the latest that I got from a combination a Venezuelan sources
and news running in Argentina right now
is that he's in a maximum-security holding facility
the legal process against it may continue with him
kinda out on bail as as it were temporarily freed
or it may continue with him detained the other bidder the information we're
getting is that an associate Leopoldo Lopez named Carlos Vecchio
may be detained soon if he has not already been detained
and he is an opposition member from remember that coalition
opposition party I told you about miss said there no need a
they are a coalition group that ranges they include Socialist Marxist Social
Democrats more centrist individuals
he may be detained as well possibly for
he would be accused of an attempted coup or a takedown
above the government even though it's not really clear at all
that that the direction this is going now Nicolas Maduro the president a
Venezuela
has accused the United States a financing the opposition specifically to
destabilize the country
under the premise that the US wants to remove
such a left-wing regime the last thing on this
the I don't I hesitate to call it a revolution I
what I really wanna call it is the uprising that is taking place right now
is being accused of being a man another at like a mic revolution as it's being
termed meaning it's not really a grassroots uprising but it is fueled
by different it astroturf essentially
and we do know that because if WikiLeaks documents that were leaked
specifically some emails kato as well as a group called
canvas were involved in pushing for a revolution in Venezuela years back and
there's no reason to think
that they're completely uninvolved now but we need to separate
that Lewis from the reality that there are
forces on the ground along the political spectrum
that want to see the current administration go
right I i wouldn't surprise me of course if if there was money behind st.
there where other interests involved
I mean why wouldn't there be it's an opportunity for a lot of people
but I yeah like you said either all sorts of different political groups
and people across the political spectrum on the ground who do want change and you
are upset
and we have to consider them to you that's the latest we have in Venezuela
will continue to cover it we will continue to be in touch with our sources
there
and hope to keep everybody up to speed this is it when we do international
stories
sometimes the audience doesn't care at all the reaction to Venezuela and
Ukraine which will talk about in a second
seems to be overall some people say David I really don't care about either
these countries
but over all the senses that our audience is very interested in what's
going on there