ARIEL DORFMAN on his lived experience of the 1973 Chilean coup d’état and Venezuela today.

“We suffered a coup d’etat against a government which was democratically elected, a socialist government, but was working within the law. We were also the object of foreign intervention, because the United States had blocked and sabotaged our economy, and they were also constantly interfering by sending millions and millions of dollars for the destabilization. These are not my words, these are the words of Kissinger and Nixon, “to make the economy scream.”

We should say, no to any coup d’etat, no to any military takeover, no to foreign interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela, but we should also say no to the anti-democratic oppressive measures which Maduro is taking, and the way in which his corrupt regime has really ruined that country.

Maduro is giving socialism a bad name. And I have consistently said that Maduro should think also of what he’s doing to the left in Latin America. All over Latin America there’s a nostalgia for dictatorship, for strong men, so I would tell Corbyn that as a man of the left, he should be very very clear, Maduro has problems, serious problems, we should criticize them, we should criticize all the forms of human-rights abuses that he’s got, and at the same time, we have to condemn any form of foreign interference, and any attempt to have a military takeover. ”

Listen to the full radio interview here.