Despite a Populist Victory, Venezuela Is Still ‘at the Doorstep of the Abyss’
- Opposition working on way to oust president before end of term
- Maduro takes steps to keep military and poor from revolting
People wait in line outside a supermarket in Barquisimeto.
Photographer: Carlos Becerra/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
As Governor Henri Falcon takes his morning jog through Barquisimeto, the hub of Venezuela’s farming heartland, he crosses a bleak landscape. It’s not yet dawn and hundreds of perspiring shoppers are lining up for food, neighborhoods are dark from rolling blackouts and hospitals so crowded that the sick share beds.
Falcon is a rarity in a deeply polarized country: a lawyer and former military man who broke ranks with the late Hugo Chavez, yet remains in power as a figure of the opposition. So three months after an overwhelming opposition victory in congress that promised big changes in this socialist nation, Falcon’s reading of the situation is worth hearing.