:00:00. > :00:35.The country with the biggest oil reserves in the world is in economic
:00:36. > :00:38.meltdown. Venezuelans queue for hours for bread, the stick can't get
:00:39. > :00:43.the medicines they need. Violent crime is thriving in the chaos.
:00:44. > :00:48.Caracas is now the world's most dangerous capital. Hugo Chavez's
:00:49. > :00:54.socialist revolution has lost its charismatic leader, but not yet its
:00:55. > :00:59.grip on power. Opposition to Hugo Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro,
:01:00. > :01:07.is mobilising. The National Assembly is at war with the government.
:01:08. > :01:10.Venezuela is on the brink of a terrifying descent into darkness.
:01:11. > :01:24.Can anyone pull it back from the brink? Foreign journalists are
:01:25. > :01:29.rarely welcome in Venezuela, so we charter a small plane to the
:01:30. > :01:38.country's Caribbean island of Margarita, where overseas visitors
:01:39. > :01:45.can still slipping with little fuss. This used to be a bustling,
:01:46. > :01:49.prospering tourist town. Now the flow of people, money and jobs has
:01:50. > :01:54.dried up. Many local businesses have closed down. More are likely to
:01:55. > :02:03.follow. The beaches have not lost their allure, but Venezuela has. A
:02:04. > :02:08.broken economy, inflation spiralling beyond 1000%, and violent crime,
:02:09. > :02:16.have tainted even these shores. This has to be one of the most beautiful
:02:17. > :02:21.beaches I have ever seen. But even a decade ago, it would have been
:02:22. > :02:26.packed with tourists from Europe, Latin America and the United States
:02:27. > :02:30.as well. But today, you can see, there is barely a soul here. I have
:02:31. > :02:39.this little piece of paradise all to myself. For you, it means there is
:02:40. > :02:44.nothing to do. I am alone here. What do you do all day? Do you read a
:02:45. > :02:54.book? Yes, I read a book, and try to... Walk around. Why do you think
:02:55. > :02:58.there is nobody here? I think the economy is one of the big problems
:02:59. > :03:09.here, but it is going to change, I think, also. From Margarita, we had
:03:10. > :03:16.to Caracas, home to 5 million people, the epicentre of Venezuela's
:03:17. > :03:21.economic meltdown. First appearances can be deceptive. Vast oil wealth,
:03:22. > :03:26.even though mostly squandered, has created a veneer of normality. But
:03:27. > :03:30.beneath the surface, the prolonged slump in oil prices means the
:03:31. > :03:39.government is now drowning in debt, without the money to import basic
:03:40. > :03:44.consumer supplies. Every day, tens of thousands of Caracas resident
:03:45. > :03:51.spent all day in a desperate search for food. Bread is almost impossible
:03:52. > :03:58.to find. Most bakeries have shut, as wheat imports have dried up.
:03:59. > :04:00.Nappies, baby milk, a whole shopping list of essentials supposedly
:04:01. > :04:04.subsidised by the government to make them affordable are missing from
:04:05. > :04:11.supermarket shelves. On the black market, they cost more than the
:04:12. > :04:17.average month the wage. Millions of Venezuelans are queueing, not
:04:18. > :04:28.working. Caracas is encircled by sprawling slums, barios, which cling
:04:29. > :04:31.to the hills. This one is home to a couple of 100 thousand people hit
:04:32. > :04:36.hard by the shortages and rampant inflation. I am in one of the Jeeps
:04:37. > :04:42.which specialises in transporting people up and down the mountain, and
:04:43. > :04:46.the principle here in the slump is pretty straightforward. The higher
:04:47. > :04:55.up the hill you live, well, the poorer you are. The irony here in
:04:56. > :05:04.Caracas is that the poor have some of the best views, and much of the
:05:05. > :05:08.housing here really isn't too bad. Hugo Chavez port an awful lot of
:05:09. > :05:11.money into the slums like this. At the problem for people living here
:05:12. > :05:21.right now is simply making enough money to eat. This family have three
:05:22. > :05:24.daughters, both of them work, but are still struggling to survive.
:05:25. > :05:43.Give me the reality of life today, living here.
:05:44. > :05:58.You talk about despair, Leo, but are you also angry?
:05:59. > :06:06.You have a picture of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro here in the
:06:07. > :06:28.house. Do you still believe in the Revolution?
:06:29. > :06:35.Thanks to the highest inflation rate in the world, the value of the
:06:36. > :06:43.Bolivar has collapsed. The US dollar is king. Venezuela has three
:06:44. > :06:47.exchange rates. The strictest, official one is ten Bolivar is to
:06:48. > :06:52.the dollar. But out on the street blackmarket rate is 4000 to one
:06:53. > :07:02.greenback, a reality that fuels inequality and crime. Hello, Carlos.
:07:03. > :07:17.I need to change money. Thank you for coming. OK, so what have we got.
:07:18. > :07:22.500 US dollars generates a mini mountain of bolivars. In Caracas,
:07:23. > :07:27.kidnapping has become an epidemic. The victims no longer have to be
:07:28. > :07:33.rich. They just need a family capable of scraping together a
:07:34. > :07:42.couple of thousands of -- thousand dollars. I made contact with the
:07:43. > :07:45.kidnap gang who led me deep into their barrio. What followed was one
:07:46. > :07:49.of the more uncomfortable encounters of my life. When you take someone,
:07:50. > :07:51.what do you do with them? Where do you take them, and how do you hold
:07:52. > :08:12.them? You mean, if the family cannot pay,
:08:13. > :08:44.or will not pay, you will kill them? So is it not possible for you to
:08:45. > :09:10.make a good life for yourselves in the legal world?
:09:11. > :09:19.Stephen, this is Hugo. I met Hugo Chavez in Washington seven years
:09:20. > :09:22.ago. Hugo Chavez was headed in Washington for his left-wing
:09:23. > :09:26.populism but has appealed to Venezuela's port was real. Many
:09:27. > :09:30.believed in his socialist revolution. High oil prices allowed
:09:31. > :09:35.him to spend many billions on subsidies and social programmes. He
:09:36. > :09:43.won elections, and even beat off an attempted coup. In 2013, he died.
:09:44. > :09:51.Then the oil price started to tumble, a double whammy which was
:09:52. > :09:59.disastrous for the Chavismo movement. His successor, Maduro, a
:10:00. > :10:03.former bus driver, lacks charisma and is blamed for disastrous
:10:04. > :10:10.economic management. The opposition won a decisive victory in the last
:10:11. > :10:15.National Assembly elections. Maduro's government recently
:10:16. > :10:19.responded with Draconian new rules requiring all opposition parties to
:10:20. > :10:26.register thousands of supporters to be afforded legal status. If the
:10:27. > :10:30.intention was to strangle dissent, it has backfired. These people have
:10:31. > :10:35.been lining up for hours in order to register their support for one of
:10:36. > :10:39.the opposition political parties, and it is quite clear, talking to
:10:40. > :10:43.them, that however long it takes, they will stay. They are determined
:10:44. > :10:48.to have their voices heard. Why don't they let us have elections?
:10:49. > :10:52.You think... They just put obstacles, and more obstacles, and
:10:53. > :10:56.more obstacles. That's why we have to do all of this before. And many
:10:57. > :11:02.people who are here are poor as well. And I wasn't poor, but now I
:11:03. > :11:08.am poor. But Venezuela's opposition is far from united. There is a
:11:09. > :11:12.multitude of competing parties, egos, and agendas. And an age-old
:11:13. > :11:25.problem. Can parties rooted in the upper and middle classes win over
:11:26. > :11:27.the poor? The biggest threat to Chavismo right now doesn't come from
:11:28. > :11:32.the combination of long-standing political opponents, the alienation
:11:33. > :11:38.of core supporters. We travel deep into the countryside, to hear from
:11:39. > :11:50.farmers impoverished by a collapsed economy.
:11:51. > :11:56.State-controlled crop prices have lagged way behind inflation, so
:11:57. > :12:08.farmers have taken to a subsistence, hand to mouth existence.
:12:09. > :12:16.This is the cocoa bean, needs to be dried, it needs to be prepared, but
:12:17. > :12:22.this is your basic ingredient for chocolate. Rodolfo, given the state
:12:23. > :12:24.of the economy here out in the countryside, do you see any future
:12:25. > :12:42.here for you and your family? Were you a Hugo Chavez supporter in
:12:43. > :12:43.the old days, and how do you feel about President Nicolas Maduro,
:12:44. > :13:21.today? In the last two weeks, Venezuela has
:13:22. > :13:23.been rocked by a series of anti-government demonstrations and
:13:24. > :13:29.sporadic, violent clashes between protesters and police. The spark was
:13:30. > :13:31.the government's short lived decision to abolish the powers of
:13:32. > :13:37.the opposition dominated National Assembly. That decision was
:13:38. > :13:42.reversed, but new anger was stirred when one of the most prominent
:13:43. > :13:54.opposition leaders was banned from politics. The opposition is torn.
:13:55. > :13:57.Undecided whether resistance to Maduro's government should be
:13:58. > :14:04.focused in the political arena or on the streets. They learned a painful
:14:05. > :14:11.lesson back in 2014. Then, the radicals, led by this man, took to
:14:12. > :14:17.the streets demanding the immediate exit of Maduro. The violence that
:14:18. > :14:24.followed killed more than 40. Lopez was convicted of incitement and
:14:25. > :14:32.sentenced to 14 years in prison. He is Venezuela's highest profile
:14:33. > :14:38.political prisoner. I head to the military prison, with Lopez's
:14:39. > :14:47.mother. She tirelessly campaigns for her son's release. Do you think the
:14:48. > :14:50.people of Venezuela really care about Leopoldo anti- situation?
:14:51. > :14:58.That's a really interesting question. When you have a country
:14:59. > :15:06.that has no food, has the highest inflation in the whole continent, it
:15:07. > :15:13.has 28,000 people who die every year because of delinquency, to care
:15:14. > :15:22.about a political prisoner is difficult. Ita on it in their minds.
:15:23. > :15:27.The government would say that Leopoldo Lopez is in prison because
:15:28. > :15:34.he refused to play the political game. He refused to accept that
:15:35. > :15:40.there is a democratic process and he demanded change through street and
:15:41. > :15:44.popular action and that's why in the end of the court of law convicted
:15:45. > :15:49.him of incitement, because he was not being constitutional, he was
:15:50. > :15:57.trying to subvert Venezuela's political system. He was calling for
:15:58. > :16:01.people to go to the streets to protest. That's a constitutional
:16:02. > :16:07.right in Venezuela. I just wonder whether you think he was going too
:16:08. > :16:12.far? No, I don't think so. He has never been a radical. Leopoldo is a
:16:13. > :16:17.strong and charismatic leader. People follow him. And that's what
:16:18. > :16:21.he was doing, going to the streets, but never in a radical or violent
:16:22. > :16:28.way. We are about 300 metres away from Leopoldo's cell. Can you
:16:29. > :16:31.communicate with him from here? Well, maybe I will try to say hello.
:16:32. > :17:42.He can hear me. And he is shouting very strong. Very
:17:43. > :17:47.strongly. You hear the whistles? The guards are trying to drown out the
:17:48. > :17:53.voice. I don't know if you can hear all of this, but his voice, Leopoldo
:17:54. > :17:58.Lopez's voice, is coming across very clearly. It's a 300 metre distance
:17:59. > :18:04.from the prison tower, where he is being held. What we can hear his
:18:05. > :18:08.voice so strong and so clear. For you, this must be quite moving,
:18:09. > :18:16.quite emotional to hear your son's voice like that? For us, having such
:18:17. > :18:22.a limited opportunity, having our voice out internationally and to
:18:23. > :18:28.have you here and you can see and feel, it is very important. It's
:18:29. > :18:36.worth taking the message out and you, as a witness of his whole
:18:37. > :18:50.confinement. Where do you find your strength from? From him. When you
:18:51. > :18:54.listen to those calls, to those messages and, um, and we're out
:18:55. > :19:00.here. This is what we have to do. We have to the best, our minds,
:19:01. > :19:05.emotions, physical strength, to go on with this. A jeep has just come
:19:06. > :19:10.out of the prison. Maybe they will take your camera. They want to talk
:19:11. > :19:14.to us. This was the moment filming in Venezuela came to an abrupt end.
:19:15. > :19:18.As the military police approached us from the prison, we attempted to
:19:19. > :19:21.leave. We managed to conceal the camera in our car, but our cover was
:19:22. > :19:45.blown. Within hours, state media accused
:19:46. > :19:52.HARDtalk of illegally entering the country and filming in a prohibited
:19:53. > :19:55.area. The producer and director was detained and interrogated for 24
:19:56. > :20:04.hours before being deported. I slipped out of the country the next
:20:05. > :20:07.day. Venezuela's socialist revolution is on the ropes. The
:20:08. > :20:11.authorities don't want to face questions from foreign journalists,
:20:12. > :20:21.but there can be no escaping the scale of the mass they're in. --
:20:22. > :20:26.mess. Back at the BBC, in London, I need a former close adviser to both
:20:27. > :20:33.Hugo Chavez and Maduro. Would it be fair to say that the lifeblood of
:20:34. > :20:39.the Venezuelan socialist revolution really drained away with the death
:20:40. > :20:48.of Hugo Chavez? Definitely the passing of president Hugo Chavez
:20:49. > :20:52.created a great challenge for socialism. Not only in Venezuela,
:20:53. > :21:00.but the region. Are you personally still a believer in Chavezmo? Yes,
:21:01. > :21:08.absolutely. How can you be? It has mostly been a success. For the last
:21:09. > :21:11.three years the country has been hit by both the terrible economic crisis
:21:12. > :21:17.and a political crisis and I believe that decision-makers today from the
:21:18. > :21:21.government and opposition are responsible for the situation of the
:21:22. > :21:27.country. But what I do not agree with is this view that the Chavismo
:21:28. > :21:30.is a failure, that the left is not viable in Latin America and we
:21:31. > :21:36.should all espouse Conservative, free-market oriented policies.
:21:37. > :21:42.You worked as a senior adviser to Hugo Chavez and you were a short
:21:43. > :21:48.while an adviser to Maduro. You are in a better place than almost
:21:49. > :21:51.anybody to explain to me why Venezuela is steadily going bust
:21:52. > :21:58.when you have had hundreds of billions of dollars of oil revenue?
:21:59. > :22:02.I was the head of the sovereign fund for a very short period of time and
:22:03. > :22:07.I was, you know, sent out of government. It was a very short
:22:08. > :22:12.period of time. But can you answer me the question, because a lot of
:22:13. > :22:14.Venezuelans think the answer to my question is corruption.
:22:15. > :22:19.Mismanagement of the economy. Absolutely failed governance. One
:22:20. > :22:28.thing, first. Where has the money gone? Venezuela has experienced
:22:29. > :22:33.economic growth for most of the Hugo Chavez period and his cycle. The
:22:34. > :22:41.money went for the first time in Venezuela's east we... The
:22:42. > :22:46.Venezuelan people... The political system got control of the oil and
:22:47. > :22:50.that was heavily invested in education and healthcare, in
:22:51. > :22:54.housing. The hospitals can't even afford medicines. But you know as
:22:55. > :22:59.well as me, you don't ignore it, one thing is what you can do, what you
:23:00. > :23:03.have invested already in the country, but you need a flow to
:23:04. > :23:08.sustain that model. The country has gone again through a very, very
:23:09. > :23:18.difficult economic crisis and doesn't have the means to keep
:23:19. > :23:22.sustaining that rate... What you are saying is all of the money sent
:23:23. > :23:26.during the -- spent during the Chavista years was spent in a way
:23:27. > :23:30.that wasn't sustaining the economy? That's not what I'm saying. I am
:23:31. > :23:34.saying that when you have an external shock, like my country is
:23:35. > :23:42.suffering, you need to add that. You need to adapt your policy. When the
:23:43. > :23:45.oil price was at $100, you don't need exactly the same policies as
:23:46. > :23:50.today. That's what has happened. In Sydney economic or is making haven't
:23:51. > :23:52.changed -- things in the economic policy. That's strangling the
:23:53. > :24:04.Venezuelan economy. Venezuela should be the richest
:24:05. > :24:10.country in Latin America. Instead it is the most chaotic, the most
:24:11. > :24:17.gratuitously mismanaged. Its people have been wearied by the struggle to
:24:18. > :24:20.survive and it's hard to see where salvation is coming from.