No? Okay, I understand.
Anyway, I told them one might be coming, so I stand corrected on that. At any rate, that was all the business that transpired there. They did ask a little bit about our future business, so that they could plan. I advised them of this study on Venezuela and also of our study on the universal periodic review.
I think now that we're off one large thing and onto many small things, I'll probably be going back and reporting to them more or less once a month. The clerk and I will get into the habit of going together, a practice we didn't have in the past because it was the same clerk for both committees.
That said, we have with us today three witnesses. You are, I'm happy to say, our first witnesses on our study on Venezuela. Our witnesses today, all from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, are Alexandra Bugailiskis, who is the assistant deputy minister for Latin America and the Caribbean; Jeffrey Marder, who is the director for South America and inter-American relations; and Kirk Duguid, who is the desk officer for Venezuela.
Normally we allow 10 minutes. If it seems appropriate and you all want to have small contributions, we can run a little bit longer. It just means that we'll have to adjust our questions. Perhaps I will leave that to your discretion.
With that, please begin.