Venezuela: A Revolution That Lost Its Way

Abstract

On December 6th 2015, Venezuela’s parliamentaryelections produced a result thattook many people aback. The coalition ofopposition parties, the MUD (the UnitedDemocratic Forum), won two-thirds of theseats in the National Assembly. This gavethem the necessary majority to pass majorlegislation. Privately, their victory did notcome as a surprise to Venezuela’s presidentNicolás Maduro, but its significance couldnot easily be underestimated. Hugo Chávez,who died in 2013, had never polled less than58% of the popular vote. In the presidentialelection following his untimely death, however,Maduro scraped through with a 0.5%majority over the right wing candidate HenriqueCapriles.