What we see in Venezuela is the complete deterioration of the political system. I have never seen a country fall down so completely as has Venezuela in the last year economically, socially, and politically. Venezuela is the country with the second-highest number of political prisoners in the continent. Venezuela is a country that does not recognize the legislative branch of government. They don't recognize the electoral rights of the people to recall a president. They don't even recognize that a humanitarian crisis exists with people dying and with what is going on with the Venezuelans and with newborn babies in hospitals suffering from chronic diseases. Children are dying from diphtheria, which is such a simple thing to resolve with a simple vaccination.
We have seen the beginning of a political dialogue, first under the coordination of President Zapatero, and then when the Vatican joined forces with three former presidents in order to negotiate between the government and the opposition.
What we have seen since this dialogue started is something short of amazing, because the situation has deteriorated even further. Since March or April there have been more political prisoners. Since the Vatican joined the dialogue, we have seen four tables of negotiation. The first one was about institutional issues, especially the return of power to the legislative branch of government. In fact, since then the legislative branch has lost two more powers—to judge the president and to elect members of the national council for elections.
The second table was about reparations for victims and political prisoners. I think the Government of Venezuela will free political prisoners when it wants to, at a very low level, and it will keep doing so because politically it's very important. This is a table that is coordinated by the Vatican, so it's very important for Venezuela to keep the Vatican engaged in the dialogue. The thing is that since March, the number of political prisoners has gone from 80 to about 120. That gives it a cushion of 40 political prisoners to free during this time. The fact is that it frees them whenever it wants to and in whatever conditions it wants. We always get very happy when some of them are freed, especially the serious humanitarian cases like the one of Vladimir Araque.
The third table was about the economy of the country. In that sense you see that the country has deteriorated and promises to deteriorate more next year. Things are going down the drain and keep going down the drain. The only concern that I have is that they keep trying to sell—and in a certain way they have sold it to the opposition—that there is an economic war against Venezuela. The only economic war against Venezuela is the incompetence of its government. The biggest pressure that the government has is its own incompetence to rule the country.
Table four was about the electoral chronogram. In fact, with the electoral chronogram, what we saw happen at that negotiation table was that the first thing that was killed there was the recall referendum. They lost any perspective of doing that recall referendum during 2016, and that was definitely done at that negotiation table. Plus, there was an election called in Amazonas, which meant the opposition resigned with a majority of two-thirds in the national assembly. That was another loss of power for the national assembly.
We have seen incredible deterioration during these months. We have to keep denouncing it, and I think we have to keep the pressure on in this situation. The worst thing would be for the government to feel impunity when they do these kinds of things. I think we have to keep pressure on, keep denouncing, and keep trying to bring solutions so that they can bring back democratic order as soon as possible to Venezuela.