On Thursday’s broadcast, José Díaz-Balart spoke with Diego Arria, former ambassador to the United Nations for Venezuela, about the trial of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez—an interview that is continuing to generate an overwhelming response across social media this morning.
@Diego_Arria aquí lo que hay es escasez total de inteligencia y cerebro de parte del gob
— Every Febres (@everyfebres96) July 24, 2014Translation: “What we have here is a total lack of intelligence and a brain on the government’s part.”
On Facebook, Raiza González wrote to Arria, “Gracias a Dios estás fuera del país, y puedes ir denunciando todas las irregularidades de éste DESGOBIERNO!!” In English: “Thank God you are outside the country and you can denounce all the irregularities of this non-government.”
Because the media in Venezuela is so tightly controlled (According to Reporters Without Borders, Venezuela ranks 116th out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index 2014.), the opposition movement has found a home online, where our interview with Arria quickly spread.
Lopez, the face of the movement to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, has been in custody since February, and is accused of inciting the violence and massive anti-government protests in the streets of Venezuela—a country that is oil rich, but where people often go without basic necessities and freedoms others in the world may take for granted. But Arria told Díaz-Balart in an interview on msnbc Thursday, “The inflation, the violence like no other place in Central America, and the lack of support of the Venezuelan people—that’s what’s killing the government.” Arria is currently being accused of taking part in a plot to assassinate Maduro–an accusation Arria dismissed. “There have been 16 months of government, and he has 16 months–according to him–of magnicide and he never ever presented any form of proof.”
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