Who’s in Charge in Venezuela and What May Come Next

Once one of Latin America’s richest countries, Venezuela has been laid low. Power, water and gasoline shortages have become an everyday occurrence across the country as hyperinflation hastens an economic collapse that’s caused a humanitarian crisis. It’s not even entirely clear anymore who’s legitimately in charge.

President Nicolas Maduro has retained firm control of key assets including the military, police and state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA. But a sizeable opposition considers his government invalid and has coalesced behind Juan Guaido, who, as president of the National Assembly, announced in January that he had assumed Maduro’s powers atop a caretaker government pending new elections. An effort by Guaido and his supporters to seize power at the end of April fizzled, however. More recently, Maduro and his loyalists attempted a takeover of the National Assembly, Venezuela’s last remaining democratic institution.