The People Who Will One Day Rebuild Venezuela
The People Who Will One Day Rebuild Venezuela
Quartz features Americas Quarterly's "Meet 10 People Who Will (One Day) Rebuild Venezuela," which represent the generation of Venezuelan leaders needed to rebuild the country once the Maduro regime falls.
No one knows when or how the dictatorship of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro will fall. But when it does, the country, especially in its first 180 days, will need to draw on a talented and diverse group of minds to fix the economy, the oil sector and more. Here are ten people who could lead the way.
The Politician
David Smolansky is savvier than most when it comes to life in exile. The 32-year-old former mayor of El Hatillo was forced to leave Venezuela after the Maduro regime removed him from his post and threatened him with prison. The escape mirrored those of his grandparents, who fled the former Soviet Union in 1927, and his father, who left Fidel Castro’s Cuba in 1970.
Now in Washington, Smolansky has earned a reputation as a modest, thoughtful young leader who is interested in building consensus—rather than merely bolstering his own profile, a common failing in Venezuela’s fractured opposition.
