Is Chavismo Dead?

President Nicolas Maduro together with Socialist Party Vice-President Diosdado Cabello (R) next to a portrait of Hugo Chávez. (Jorge Silva / Reuters)

José R. Cárdenas, Foreign Policy: In 2018, Chavismo’s Time May Finally Run Out

U.S. policy toward Venezuela is changing — and so are political dynamics in Latin America.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s embattled regime ended a tumultuous 2017 by having to suppress renewed food riots resulting from the government’s failure to import sufficient supplies of pork leg, a traditional holiday staple. In one disturbance, a pregnant woman was shot dead by security forces on Christmas Eve.

Yet if 2017 ended poorly for Venezuela, 2018 is shaping up to be even worse.

Already, there have been new outbreaks of looting in the face of rampant shortages of food and basic goods. Inflation, which hit a reported 2,616 percent last year — the highest in the world — will continue to surge in 2018.

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WNU Editor: Chavismo is "so dead" in Venezuela that the only ones who believe in it are those who benefit from it in the government/military/government corporations .... and from fellow-travelers overseas.