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Audio: COA's Eric Farnsworth on Venezuela's Protests and El Chapo's Capture

COA Vice President Eric Farnsworth discusses the implications of Venezuela's current protests, as well as the capture of the infamous Mexican drug trafficker.

On Voice of America's Encounter, COA's Vice President Eric Farnsworth says that while this isn't the first time people have taken to the streets to protest in Venezuela, it is the first time that the government has responded in such a heavy-handed manner to try and avoid unrest from becoming a popular movement. He notes that "the irony is that the overreaction to try and prevent that may in fact be what's adding fuel to the fire to more radicalize the protests and the opposition." With the capture of Mexico's drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, Farnsworth says that Mexico could experience more violence in the near term because of a power vacuum inside the cartel, comparing it to what happened after Pablo Escobar was killed in Colombia. He notes that while Guzmán's capture shows the capacity of the Mexican state, it will also challange the government.