Dan Wakin

Well, there was international intervention, you know, a few weeks ago, and unfortunately it's not turned out the way she's wanted it, it seems.

So let's turn to your personal experience.

You have a very interesting background.

You served as the chief economist of the Congressional Budget Office in Venezuela in the early years of the Chávez presidency from 2000 to 2004.

Can you tell me about that experience and how that affected or influenced your views on Chavismo and what it morphed into under Maduro?

Let's talk about the transition to whatever comes next.

You've written in the past that the Constitution of Venezuela from 1999 is a big part of the problem with politics there, and that the country has collapsed because of what you say is, quote, a deeper failure of its political system to manage the conflicts inherent to a polarized society.

Can you explain that a bit, please?

You had mentioned that there were two parties struggling for control of the oil industry in Venezuela, or at least struggling to prevent the other side from having control.

It seems like there's now a third party in control of the Venezuelan oil industry, and that's the president of the United States.

I wonder if you could quickly sketch out what Trump's plan is for the oil industry and what you see as the outcome.

I was going to ask you for a best case, worst case scenario, and I think you've just given the worst case scenario.

What about the best case scenario?

What could you predict as actually being a successful outcome?

Well, with that, Francisco, I think we'll leave it, and I just want to say thanks so much.

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