This is a country in crisis.
Venezuelans were the richest people in Latin America. Now they are being ruined.
There are shortages of everything.
90% of people cannot afford to eat.
Millions have fled the country, and the murder rate is soaring.
This is Venezuela.
Anyone who challenges the regime risks being jailed, or even killed.
There are more than 300 political prisoners.
This man was one of them.
Antonio Ledezma is a Venezuelan opposition politician.
He was mayor of Caracas for seven years.
He is an outspoken critic of Venezuela's current President, Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
The country's former President, Hugo Chávez, spent generously when global oil prices were booming.
After Mr. Chávez died in 2013, oil prices crashed,...
...and Venezuela's new President, Nicolas Maduro,...
...inherited an economic crisis, which he made worse through his ineptness.
The country plunged into chaos.
In 2014, Mr. Ledezma, and two other opposition party leaders,...
...launched a political campaign,...
...to force Mr. Maduro's resignation through street protests,...
The regime used force to crush the protests, killing a number of demonstrators.
Mr. Ledezma was accused of plotting a coup against the regime.
Under Mr. Maduro, the situation in Venezuela has worsened.
Lawlessness, hyperinflation, power cuts, and shortages of food and medicine...
...have caused the continent's newest refugee crisis, as people flee in despair.
This year alone, there have been around 7500 anti-government protests.
As the economic and humanitarian crisis has worsened,...
...Mr. Maduro has become more authoritarian.
The government punishes, censors, and intimidates his critics.
While under house arrest for almost two years,...
...Mr. Ledezma decided to escape.
Today, Mr. Ledezma lives in exile in Spain,...
...working to bring down Mr. Maduro's regime from afar.
In May, Mr. Maduro won an election that was internationally condemned as fraudulent.
And a recent assassination attempt on Mr. Maduro...
...may be a sign of division within the regime's security forces.
The opposition hopes that international pressure,...
...further protests, and sanctions against regime leaders,...
...will force Mr. Maduro to call free and fair elections.
But there is little sign of that working,...
...and the opposition is hopelessly divided,...
...as Venezuela falls even more deeply, into an abyss.