The B Side of the Venezuelan Transition begins its second season

Following the excellent reception of The B Side of the Venezuelan Transition, this Sunday, October 11 at 12 noon, the second season arrives with new guests and new topics through Efecto Cocuyo's YouTube channel. The B Side of the Venezuelan Transition is a series, hosted by journalist Luz Mely Reyes, general director of Efecto Cocuyo, that brings together analysts, academics, and specialists in three episodes that contrast the official discourse and that of the elites with the uncertainty, skepticism, and real demands of the population. The B Side of the Venezuelan Transition examines the three-phase plan promoted by Washington —stabilization, economic recovery, and political transition— with a critical eye and close attention to what is happening in the streets, in communities, and in public perception. The guests' analysis comes down to earth through the participation of citizens with their questions about national daily life and how to find solutions to everyday problems. It is a very interesting initiative because it works on two analytical levels: the academic and the citizen. The special seeks to shed light amid the uncertainty and to remind us that no transition is consolidated without the voice and pressure of society. EPISODE 1: OIL The first episode will be dedicated to analyzing the oil issue, a crucial topic of the new Venezuelan transition. Luz Mely Reyes will be in conversation with Dolores Dobarro, former vice minister of Energy and Mines, a lawyer specialized in petroleum law, university professor, former legal consultant to OPEC, and advisor on energy matters, and with professor Oswaldo Felizzola, coordinator of the International Center for Energy and Environment at IESA, a mechanical engineer from Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela, with a master's degree in administration from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration in Caracas (IESA). With them we will talk about the recent oil agreement signed between Venezuela and the US, of which Donald Trump says it is the most important agreement ever signed in history, and other things. EPISODE 2: CIVIL SOCIETY What role does civil society have to play amid this peculiar tutored transition that Venezuela is experiencing? We find a civil society that has grown in everything related to the defense of Human Rights, but is also exhausted by government pressure and mechanisms of control and censorship. Luz Mely Reyes and her guests will discuss this. This time, Débora Van Berkel, an educator, former president of Sinergia, and a founding member of Ideas for Democracy, and Óscar Murillo, a journalist by training, activist, university professor, and coordinator of the human rights organization Provea, will be in the studio. Citizen participation is a key topic in the formation and consolidation of a republic, which will be the third topic of the series. EPISODE 3: THE REPUBLIC After everything we have experienced since January 3, what will become of the nation's legal order? Will we refound the republic? Will we go that far? In these last eight months, Venezuela has had to be under the tutelage of the United States in a rather particular condition. We will talk about our political-territorial configuration, which is largely what defines the republic, with Inés Quintero, writer, university professor, and director of the National Academy of History, and also with professor Tomás Straka, historian, university professor, and director of the Institute of Historical Research at Andrés Bello Catholic University.