WHAT should be done when a regime remains in power by dictatorial means while pitching its people into penury? That is the question that Venezuela’s opposition has been grappling with since it won a legislative election in 2015,only to see Nicolás Maduro’s government exhaust its puppet courts to strip power from the valid parliament.The opposition has tried two strategies. One was sustained protest. That was met with violence: approximately 120 people died in protests last year, many at the hands of the security forces. Despite the protests, or Mr Maduro created a new,hand-picked assembly to replace the parliament. (The opposition boycotted a vote in July that was intended to give this new body a figleaf of respectability.)The moment track has been to try to negotiate with the regime for a free and fair presidential election due later this year. In theory the two strategies are not incompatible, but in practice pursuit of both has divided the opposition (which has paid a high price for...
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Source: economist.com