Editorial Board
Venezuela's Empty Elections
Steadfast pressure is the best way to ensure that Venezuela's soft autocracy one day returns to democracy.
What if the box has no bottom?
Photographer: Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images"A triumph of peace and democracy." That's how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described his government's implausible victory in last weekend's gubernatorial elections. In fact, it is a further hardening of the soft autocracy that used to be South America's richest democracy.
Maduro's government entered the polls with an approval rate of about 24 percent in a collapsed economy with inflation nearing 1,000 percent, widespread hunger and residents fleeing by the tens of thousands. Somehow, it managed to win 54 percent of the vote and 17 out of 23 governorships.