Notes

Standoff in Little Venice. The winner of last month’s Venezuelan election was not the winner.

Nicolás Maduro, the incumbent president, is an autocratic populist who’s overseen the ruin of the country’s once-thriving economy through 11 years in office. On July 28, he was routed by Edmundo González. And yet Maduro declared himself the winner.

The National Electoral Council has backed Maduro—but Venezuelans know he controls the council, so that’s only provoked protests across the country. And now, the government has responded in turn with a nationwide campaign of repression of torture. No Western countries, meanwhile, have acknowledged Maduro as the election’s winner.

How long can he stay on? Today, Moisés Naím looks at how far Maduro’s allies, in his security forces at home and among authoritarian powers abroad—in Beijing, Moscow, and Havana—are willing to go to keep him in power.

—Michael Bluhm