Read the full essay here.
In December 2015, against the background of a competitive authoritarian socialist regime in severe economic and civic crisis, Venezuela’s opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, won a resounding triumph in national legislative elections, giving it the two-thirds supermajority needed to exercise a number of key powers. This sweeping result has presented the country’s “Bolivarian socialist” regime—founded by the late President Hugo Chávez and now headed by his chosen successor Nicolás Maduro—with a painful choice: whether to accept a real division of power or to try to maintain its grip at all costs. This decision comes at a time of staggering economic failure that is fueling a humanitarian crisis. Hyperinflation, skyrocketing crime rates, and severe shortages of essential goods are overwhelming ordinary Venezuelans.