Eliot Engel is a Congressman from the Bronx and as such a certifiable Liberal. Look at his web site and he is not one hiding away from his links with Nancy Pelosi. Thus, even if Voice of America is a tad partial on the way it handles interviews over Cuba and Venezuela, the interview of Congressman Engel should be noticed.
I put first the dubbed interview because it is more complete and gives more context, in particular over the Iran Caracas flights that was derided by chavista agents who observe that from Tehran you can also fly to Frankfurt. Except that they do not tell you that you would have a hard time to get a seat on that flight, and you would be in luck if you were to find a tour leaving Caracas for Isfahan. Heck, even myself would sign up for an Iran tour at CADIVI dollars!!!!
The second video is the resumed original sound track interview where Engel comes more of a hack than he is in real life, a rather paused and thoughtful New Yorker. But that is Voice of America which is not PBS.
Yet do not be fooled by appearances or by the silly rejection for "intromission" of Bernardo Alvarez in Washington: what is noteworthy here is that there are now enough Liberal congressfolks that know the truth about Chavez and his regime, and that is a sea change, explaining a lot of things, such as the decision by the US to maintain Palmer as the ambassador to be in Caracas and forcing Chavez to reject him outright. something that he has not done as to this typing the Venezuelan foreign ministry has yet to communicate officially their rejection of Palmer.
Indeed, when the Democrat from the Bronx chairman of the House subcommittee on Western Hemispheric Affairs says that Chavez is running the Venezuelan economy into the ground and that he looks more and more like a dictator, you know that the propaganda office at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington might want to diversify its activities..... or should be closed outright as totally useless.