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Malala Released From Hospital; Chavez Is Struggling To Breathe; House Approves Flood Aid Package; Current Times, Most Peaceful; Elephant Poaching Booming in China; Oliver Stone on Hugo Chavez

Aired January 4, 2013 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEWSROOM INTERNATIONAL. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We're taking you around the world in 60 minutes. Here's what is going on right now.

It is an amazing recovery. I want you to take a look at this. Malala Yousafzai waving as she left a hospital in England. Less than three months ago, she was shot in the head by Taliban militants in Pakistan because she dared to advocated for the education of girls. Well, Matthew Chance joins us from London.

Matthew, first of all, amazing to see her walking out of that hospital there. She was shot point-blank range in the head. How is she faring? How is she doing?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean she seems to be doing pretty well. I totally agree with you, it's absolutely amazing, isn't it, that she survived that point-blank gunshot, you know, firing into her head. She was stopped on a bus by Taliban gunman. The gunmen asked the other children on the bus to identify which one was Malala Yousafzai, who had been speaking out against their policy of female -- against female education. And when they did that, they shot her at point-blank range.

She was medevaced here. She's been lying in that hospital bed for several months now. They've been working very hard on her, giving her therapy, and she's now well enough, as you can see, to walk out there with the slight assistance of a nurse, walking through those corridors, and even wave at the staff as she -- as she was doing that -- she was discharged. She's still going to be receiving treatment as an outpatient. Still lots of therapy to be done on her eyesight, on her physical therapy and things like that and she'll have to be readmitted in a few weeks for re-constructive surgery, according to doctors, on her skull, which was, of course, shattered by the bullet wound.

MALVEAUX: And, Matthew, what's next for her? Will she actually be able to go to school? I mean people really want to support this young woman and the movement that she has started there.

CHANCE: Yes. I mean, I think there's no doubt that she will be able to continue her education. In fact, she's already continuing it inside the hospital, and now at her temporary home in Birmingham in central England. She's a very enthusiastic, studious student. She was campaigning, of course, very vocally and very articulating for women to be educated in the Swat Valley and all over Pakistan. There's been a problem with that. That is going to continue.

Also, she's gathered -- hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for her to be given the Nobel Peace Prize. That's how much of an impact this girl has had around the world.

MALVEAUX: And what about the folks, these extremists, who tried to kill her? Were they ever caught? Did anybody -- was anybody brought to justice?

CHANCE: The Pakistani authorities say that they've been rounding up the people they believe are responsible in terms of the trigger men. But the people who issued the orders, the Taliban leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan, obviously they haven't been brought to justice. But what the Taliban has said is that it will try again to kill Malala Yousafzai and her family because of her continued vocal comments against their policies with regarding education. So the death threat has not been lifted from her.

MALVEAUX: Does she have security, Matthew? Are there people around her trying to protect her and her family to make sure they don't get to her?

CHANCE: Well, I'm sure there are. I mean, they're not very visible, but obviously the British Security Services are very aware of the threat against her. There have been these threats against her life and that of her family. The hospital, of course, and the Pakistani authorities also have their security people in place. And so, I mean, the point is, she's much safer here, obviously, in Britain than she ever would be back in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. And so that's what they're focusing on.

MALVEAUX: All right, Matthew Chance. Thank you, Matthew. It's good to see her smile.

Venezuelan officials say that President Hugo Chavez has severe respiration infection -- a respiratory infection. That he is struggling to breathe now. He is in Cuba. That's where he had cancer surgery last month. Now, he was just re-elected in October for a third term, but now the Venezuelans are wondering whether or not he will actually live to take the oath. Our Rafael Romo has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): The medical condition of President Hugo Chavez, recovering from cancer surgery in Cuba, is more serious than previously thought according to a top Venezuelan official.

EDWIN RODRIGUEZ, VENEZUELAN VOTER (ph) (through translator): After the delicate surgery on December 11th, Commandant (ph) Chavez has faced complications as a consequence of a severe pulmonary infection. This infection has caused a respiratory insufficiency that requires Commandant Chavez to strictly follow medical treatment.

ROMO: Meanwhile, Venezuela is steaming with speculation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Sometimes it looks as if the president is well. Other times, not so much. Honestly, we don't know what to believe. What the truth is and what's a lie. Everybody's living in uncertainty.

ROMO: The Venezuelan president left his country on December 10th for cancer surgery in Cuba. He hasn't been seen in public since, but Vice President Nicolas Maduro has talked about complications, and that worries many Venezuelans.

JOSE ROJAS, VENEZUELAN VOTER (through translator): Chavez is a strong man and a fighter. His party is not my party, but as a human being, one can't wish somebody else something bad.

ROMO: Jorge Arreaza, the Venezuelan science and technology minister, and also the president's son-in-law, has been trying to quell the negative speculation. "The medical team has explained to us that President Chavez's condition remains stable, but within a delicate state," Arreaza posted on his Twitter account.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Sometimes it's people themselves who start the speculation, saying things that are not true. We just have to be patient and wait.

ROMO: But patience is running out for the Venezuelan opposition. Leaders say the Chavez government owe Venezuela an accurate assessment of the president's health condition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Our demand for the truth is elementary because when a patient is a head of state, who's just been re-elected for a new term, there are implications that affect the entire nation.

ROMO: The highest roman catholic authority in Venezuela is calling all political leaders to follow the law if a succession plan is need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Rafael Romo joins us.

Rafael, so the inauguration is January 10th. So what happens if he cannot make the inauguration on that day?

ROMO: Well, there's a scenario spelled out by the Venezuelan constitution as to what happens. Either if he doesn't show up before or if he shows up right after, it is either the vice president of Venezuela, currently Nicolas Maduro, or the president of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello.

But it gets more complicated, Suzanne, because the National Assembly is supposed to meet tomorrow to elect a new leader. A leader much the same way that the Congress meant to select the new speaker of the House here in the United States. So it's all speculation right now as to whether he's coming back or not. But those statements made by the communications minister yesterday saying that he has respiratory failure definitely are a great concern for many Venezuelans.

MALVEAUX: So are they -- are they planning for his succession? I mean if he does die, he doesn't take office, the vice president will step in. Is the opposition -- is there some opposition to him as well that might make a move?

ROMO: That is exactly right. And what they're trying to do is trying to position somebody at the National Assembly so that they have a voice there. But also there's a scenario where the National Assembly can give him as much as 90 days -- by him I mean President Chavez -- so that he can recover and come back and still take office. Right now that's still up in the air. We don't really know what's going to happen in the next week or so.

MALVEAUX: All right. We'll keep our eye on that. Thank you very much, Rafael.

Coming up as well, legendary film director Oliver Stone, he's going to join us live. He is known for tackling, of course, controversial subjects. He directed a 2010 documentary about Hugo Chavez. And he's going to tell us why he's such a fan of the Venezuelan leader.

There are also other stories we are working on this hour.

Despite school shootings in the United States, a war in Afghanistan and superstorms, one Harvard professor says that the world is now safer -- safer than it's ever been. We're going to explain.

And women may not be allowed to wear pants or straddle a motorcycle in one part of Indonesia. We're going to tell you what the country's government plans to do about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The 113th U.S. Congress not wasting any time getting to work. Today, the House approved a $9 billion aid package for the victims of Superstorm Sandy. The Senate is going to take it up later today. Now the bill made it to the House floor only after lawmakers from those hard-hit states let Speaker John Boehner know they did not want that vote delayed. Our Jim Acosta is on Capitol Hill covering all of this.

And, Jim, I understand they're getting to work. We like that. We like to see that on the first day of the job, getting something done.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right.

MALVEAUX: The House is going to hold a second vote next week. Tell us about that.

ACOSTA: Well, after this initial section of Sandy relief was passed by the House earlier this morning by a vote of 354-67, Suzanne, yes, we do expect somewhere in the neighborhood of January 15th for the second chunk of aid to get passed. This first chunk, $9.7 billion, is going to shore up the government's flood insurance program. It's going to pay to claims to people who are trying to get some relief for some of the damage that they sustained and they're seeking help through that program. The rest of it is expected to come later on this month.

But not all of this is a sure thing. I mean this second chunk is going to have to be negotiated here in the House, and then go over to the Senate. And there was some talk before all of this got started, you know, when this all went down the other night when they passed the fiscal cliff agreement in the House and then didn't act on Sandy, there was some concern about whether or not there was too much pork in all of this. And I have to tell you, Suzanne, there were some rumblings inside the House this morning. A lot of lawmakers from New York and New Jersey were very disappointed that not all of this was passed today and that the bulk of it is going to come later on this month, including one freshman House member, a Democrat, Sean Patrick Maloney, who indicated he's new around here, but he's starting to get a sense of how things work. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: Madam Speaker, my name is Sean Patrick Maloney. I'm new here. I don't know all the rules of Washington, but it sure seems like the rule here is to put off until tomorrow what should be done today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Suzanne, there was a pretty sizable number of House Republicans who voted against this. A lot of those folks are --

MALVEAUX: Right.

ACOSTA: They look like they are the conservative Tea Party members of the House Republican Caucus. And this may be a sneak preview of what's to come. House Speaker John Boehner was in his Republican conference behind closed doors earlier this morning saying that this whole matter of raising the debt ceiling he believes will have to be tied to some kind of conversation on spending cuts. And he wants to see that happen. And John Cornyn, who was a top Senate Republican over on the Senate side, wrote a column in "The Houston Chronicle" today saying that perhaps there needs to be a government shutdown to get the conversation going on spending and entitlements. So, after all that kumbaya yesterday, we getting to -- back to the business of brinkmanship here on The Hill.

MALVEAUX: I certainly hope it's not going to require a government shutdown. Jim, you're doing a good duty there tolerating the Congress there and all the shenanigans that's going on.

ACOSTA: Yes.

MALVEAUX: But at least we're getting something done. Appreciate it.

Today is actually election day. Why you might ask? Well, coming up at 1:00 Eastern, Congress officially counts the electoral college votes from the 2012 presidential election. We're actually going to bring that part of the vote to you live at the top of the hour.

And war, global warming and nuclear threats. It's a dangerous world out there, right? But a new Harvard study says it is actually a safer world than ever before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: There's no denying it, that the world can be a dangerous place when you look at thousands dead in Syrian, an ongoing war in Afghanistan, massacres at schools and movie theaters right here in the United States.

But one Harvard professor says that things aren't as bad as you think, that we're actually living in the least violent time in human history.

Matthew Chance has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We live in an age racked by death and violence.

GENERAL MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: I can't impress on you that in my personal military judgment formed over 38 years we are living in the most dangerous time in my lifetime right now.

CHANCE: Or do we?

PROFESSOR STEVE PINKER, AUTHOR, "THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE": It may be hard to believe, but we are actually safer now than we probably have been at any point in history.

CHANCE: Two contrasting views on the dangers of the world in 2013, a world where millions die every year from disease, poverty, gunshot wounds, or road accidents.

But also where human life has become more secure, more peaceful than ever before.

PINKER: Not only are rates of violent personal crime a fraction of what they used to be several hundreds years ago in most parts of the world, but even rates of war have come down and it's hard to realize that because they haven't gone down to zero.

So, all the wars that are still ongoing get broadcast into our homes and we're acutely aware of them. We're not aware of all of the parts of the world that are not at war.

CHANCE: But the concept of global danger is about much more than just the number of bodies in any given year.

It's the threat of catastrophic events like nuclear war between India and Pakistan or on the Korean Peninsula or of a weapon of mass destruction falls into the hands of terrorists that keeps people like America's top military officer, Martin Dempsey, awake at night.

DEMPSEY: When I said that it's the most dangerous period in my military career, 38 years, I really meant it.

I mean, I wake up every morning waiting for that cyber attack or waiting for that terrorist attack or waiting for that nuclear proliferation, waiting for that proliferation of technologies that makes is an increasingly competitive security environment across the globe.

CHANCE: It's a sobering thought. From a statistical point of view, this world is undoubtedly safer, more peaceful, less prone to disease than ever before.

But a single event, a solitary breakdown in the world order, could change everything.

Matthew Chance, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Elephant poaching, it's the worst it's been in 10 years according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Now, the group says the illegal trade is now booming in China.

Just today "The New York Times" reports that Hong Kong custom officials seized a shipment of 779 elephant tusks from Kenya worth $1.14 million.

And back in October, a shipment of ivory worth $3.4 million was confiscated, making it one of the biggest seizures ever in Hong Kong.

Well, he is a producer, a writer, director and he is joining us next. Oliver Stone, you know his movies, "Scarface," "Born On the Fourth of July," "JFK."

Coming up, he is going to tell us about his documentary on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Hugo Chavez is fighting a severe respiratory infection after having cancer surgery in Cuba.

The Venezuelan president has been a polarizing figure, of course, since he took office back in 1999 and one of his key defenders is Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone.

Stone made a documentary in 2010 that portrayed Chavez in a positive light. "Time" magazine called it "a love story."

Here's some of the scenes.

Joining us from New York, Oliver Stone. Oliver, good to see you. I noticed you were smiling while watching the documentary, that Chavez still makes you smile.

What intrigues you so much about him to put him as a central figure in this doc that you did a couple of years ago?

OLIVER STONE: That was "South of Border." Because the -- it was not -- he was a central figure, but it was about seven presidents of all these countries in Latin America, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia.

Huge changes had been going on socially, economically and he was in the vanguard of that and it's called the -- he called it the Bolivarian Revolution.

And I found him to be a magnanimous, warm, warm man, a big man.

MALVEAUX: And when have you last spoken with him? Are you still in touch with him?

STONE: We stayed in touch through the years through people and I -- obviously, this is not a good time, but people tell me about his condition.

I was very happy that he won the re-election, so he won 20 of the 23 states in his country and he hardly could get on the road to campaign.

They want him. He's popular. The people love him. The majority of the people because the living standards have gone up and that's what's ignored in so much of the reporting on Venezuela.

MALVEAUX: Do you know -- I mean, you say you are in touch with some folks. Do you know the state of his health or how he's doing?

STONE: No, I couldn't -- I could not tell you.

No, I have full confidence in Mr. Maduro and his government and I think they will continue. They will do the right thing and if there needs to be another election, I'm pretty confident that his party, the Maduro people, will win.

MALVEAUX: How do you think it will change Venezuela, moving forward, if, in fact, he's not able to take the oath of office?

STONE: I think he's -- as I say, the majority of the people truly benefitted. The standard of living went up. Not all. There's a very vocal minority that is against him, but they don't -- they never won the elections. In fact, I think Chavez won 13 of 14 elections.

MALVEAUX: How do you -- yes, I mean ...

STONE: So, you know, I mean -- I think he's going to be mourned as a national figure who changed Venezuela forever. You have no idea how bad it was before him.

The per capita income dropped for like 20 years straight. People were fed up. He represents hope and change, the things that Obama stood for in our country in 2008.

MALVEAUX: How do you respond to the critics? You know, "Time" magazine quoted about the film, human rights defenders continue to suffer harassment, prison conditions provoking hunger rights. And, of course, you know, Amnesty International reporting on Venezuela that, you know, these are the kinds of things that they are seeing and that there's widespread, you know, corruption in the government, as well.

STONE: Yeah, there is corruption, and there's corruption in every government I've been to in South America and Central America.

I've traveled through the whole region and I've done -- been involved in many projects and I have to say that, you know, this is vague, scandalous, blurry stuff they throw out at Venezuela.

When you compare it to what the United States has done in Chile and Argentina, in Brazil in the past and what we did recently in Honduras. I mean, there's no comparison. And Colombia.

And you go around the region and you have a -- you know, the United States has an interest and has made Venezuela it's regional enemy in South America and has tried to get rid of them, was involved peripherally in the coup of 2004.

And it's been a -- reporting in this country, and this is why we made that documentary, has been shoddy. It doesn't behoove "Time" magazine or "The New York Times" -- they have it to re-examine the way that they have treated this social revolution in Latin America. They've ignored it.

MALVEAUX: You know, there certainly is the opinion of "Time" magazine and many other journalistic outlets who disagree with you, but I know that you have another project. It is fascinating.

It's a 10-part series looking at the history of the United States and what the kinds of things we don't know.

We're going to play that on the back end. We're going have more of our conversation with Oliver Stone in just a moment.

STONE: Suzanne, you know, Suzanne, I don't think I agree with most of what the American viewpoint is on the world situation on its own history. And I think that's what makes our stuff different.

MALVEAUX: And we're going to talk about all of that. We've got to take a quick break, Oliver, and then we'll be right back. We'll talk about your new series.

STONE: Please hurry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)