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Venezuela’s Maduro Cements Control as the Opposition Fractures

By Anthony Faiola and Rachelle Krygier

"The impression now is clearly of an opposition that is prostrate before the [Venezuelan] government,” said AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.

Despite international sanctions and widespread discontent at home, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appears to have consolidated his grip on power, outmaneuvering the opposition and leaving it fractured, weakened, even disgraced...

Yet analysts increasingly see Maduro as having neutralized one of his biggest threats: his domestic political opposition.

The opposition ran candidates for governor in all 23 states, despite many calls to boycott the vote. It had refused to participate in an election in July that created an all-powerful congress stocked with Maduro loyalists. Opposition leaders sensed an opportunity for gains in this month’s race — arguing that Maduro would be compelled by international pressure to allow their winners to take office.

The opposition had assured its supporters that it would forfeit its posts on principle rather than take such a step. And yet on Monday, four out of the five winning opposition governors caved in...

“The impression now is clearly of an opposition that is prostrate before the government,” said Eric Farnsworth, who worked on Latin America issues in the Clinton administration and is now Washington director of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, a regional trade and dialogue promotion group. “The swearing-in was a highly symbolic moment, a rock on which the opposition has been broken....”

Read the full article here.

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