Eli Lake, Columnist

This Could Be Nicolas Maduro’s Last Stand

His indictment on drug-trafficking charges may cause Venezuela’s leader to lose allies.

March 26, 2020 at 9:50 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Now under indictment.
Photographer: Carolina Cabral/Getty Images South America

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Things were bleak for Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro even before the U.S. indicted him and 14 associates on drug trafficking charges. Now his regime may have reached a tipping point.

Some context: The global price of oil, Venezuela’s chief export, has plummeted in the last month because of the Saudi-Russian price war. The country’s already dilapidated public-health system is bracing for the ravages of the coronavirus. And any hope that half-hearted gestures toward negotiating with the opposition would relieve international pressure were dashed last month when the U.S. imposed new sanctions on the one Russian oil company willing to bring the country’s oil to market.