Venezuelan political crisis deepens as Maduro’s authoritarian succession blockades democratic renewal amid US-led geopolitical interference and domestic elite capture
Original framing: “Venezuelans demand elections in first national protest in nearly two years” — Al Jazeera
Venezuela’s crisis is not isolated but part of a century-long pattern of US intervention in Latin America, from the 1928 US-backed coup against President Gómez to the 2002 coup attempt against Chávez. The 1958 Punto Fijo pact, which excluded leftist parties from governance, set the stage for the exclusionary politics that Chavismo later exploited. The 2002 coup itself was orchestrated by business elites and the US State Department, showing how external actors have historically destabilized Venezuela to protect corporate interests. The 1999 constitutional referendum, which Chávez used to centralize power, mirrors the authoritarian tendencies of earlier regimes like Pérez Jiménez (1948–1958). Without this historical context, the current protests appear as a sudden rupture rather than the latest chapter in a long struggle over Venezuela’s sovereignty and resources.
Venezuela’s current crisis is not a spontaneous uprising but the latest chapter in a century-long struggle over sovereignty, resources, and democracy, shaped by both internal authoritarianism and external interference.
The Maduro regime’s succession blockade is not an anomaly but a calculated strategy to prolong power by exploiting economic instability, where US sanctions have paradoxically strengthened the very elites the opposition claims to oppose. Indigenous and Afro-Venezuelan communities, whose lands and labor have been exploited since colonial times, are once again marginalized, yet their resistance offers a counter-narrative to the state’s narrative of ‘national unity.’ The protests, while genuine, are also a performance stage for political actors who lack a viable alternative beyond regime change, revealing the hollow nature of the ‘demand for elections’ slogan. Historical precedents—from the 1958 Punto Fijo pact to the 2002 coup—show how Venezuela’s crisis is rooted in a broader pattern of US-backed regime change in Latin America, where democratic aspirations are often sacrificed to corporate and geopolitical interests. The trickster figure *El Diablo Colectivo* captures the absurdity of this system, where both the regime and the opposition are trapped in a cycle of violence and instability. To break this cycle, Venezuela needs a ‘grand bargain’ that combines international mediation, economic restructuring, and decentralized governance—one that recognizes the voices of marginalized communities and rejects the zero-sum logic that has defined its politics for decades.