Rare moment of optimism takes hold in Venezuela opposition

Venezuela has not had a real democracy for years.

The inflection point probably came in the aftermath of the 2015 mid-term elections, in which opposition candidates secured two thirds of the seats at the National Assembly, eventually leading to President Nicolás Maduro’s decision to strip the assembly of its powers by creating a parallel Constitutional Assembly in 2017, a change he made by decree.

Since then, the country has been immersed in an unprecedented economic crisis that cast nine out of ten Venezuelans into poverty. The left-wing administration printed its way into hyperinflation and created draconian restrictions against the free flow of goods, leading to dramatic levels of food scarcity. 

Winning a clean, competitive election in such a context was never likely, so the Maduro regime opted to rig the process in 2018, banning most opposition candidates and taking what looked like a too-good-to-be-true 68 percent of the vote to secure re-election.

But Mr. Maduro’s six-year term is now coming to an end, and a new election is needed in order to at least keep the veneer of democracy in place. 

With that in mind, the government banned opposition leader María Corina Machado from running after she won the opposition primary by a landslide, and did the same later with her replacement Corina Yoris, resulting in widespread condemnation even among regional allies.

Despite this, an unusual bout of optimism has taken hold among Venezuela’s opposition lately. 

The name behind this mood swing is Edmundo...