Noel King

And in the case of Nicolas Maduro and his military comrades who uphold this regime, it is about not giving up power.

How did he get into power?

You said Chavez was his mentor.

Did Chavez hand the presidency over?

What happened?

He did.

From a very early time, Maduro made himself useful and very close to Chavez.

Maduro became head of the National Assembly at one point.

He became foreign minister.

He was foreign minister for about six years.

And then he became his vice president.

Chávez discovered that he had cancer in about 2011, early 2012, and privately knew he was dying.

And he had a televised moment when he told the Venezuelan nation that he was, you know, he hoped to be around, but if anything happened to him.

You know, Chavez died in 2013, and that's exactly what happened.

Nicolas Maduro replaced him in power.

To look at Venezuela today from the U.S.

is to see a country that is an economic basket case, a country that people desperately want to flee because they are so poor.

What was Venezuela like?

What was happening when Maduro took over?

from 2003 or 4, I think it was, until about 2012, 13, you had this worldwide spike in oil prices that brought in about a trillion dollars to Venezuela.