Leopoldo López: prediction

Transcript context

…If we think of Venezuela as the Latin country with the closest ties to Simón Bolívar, do, in some ways, the problems of Venezuela reflect original flaws in Bolívarism? No, I think Bolívar had a proposal that, if it had come true, it would’ve been a very different geopolitical dynamic in the entire continent and the world, because his view was that Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, and Colombia were one nation — and Bolivia — were one nation called La Gran Colombia. Unfortunately, for different political reasons at the time, that didn’t happen, and it was split up into different republics. He was also very clear in the compromise to our republic, to the rule of law, to the respect of the freedoms and the liberties of the people of the newly freed countries. I think that it’s the contrary. There has been a path against what Bolívar and the independence proposal at the time thought for the future of Venezuela. Has it hurt Venezuela to be so thinly populated? It’s one of the most thinly populated countries in the world, right? Is that a problem for nation building and state capacity?…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.