Enchanted circle of the Venezuelan crisis

Bára Pravdíková in her latest blog analyzes the current crisis in Venezuela considering the local regional elections.

• On Sunday, October 15 2017, according to the Venezuelan National Committee, the ruling Socialist party surprisingly won the regional elections, specifically in 17 of the 23 states of Venezuela, after a prolonged period of civil unrest.
• The opposition has alleged that the elections were rigged and thus invalid. They also called on the South American people to go to the streets and express their opposition not only to the election results, but also to the authoritarian way of governing by the current president, Nicholas Madura.

Public opinion polls predicted the opposition would gain between 11 and 18 states.(...) These predictions reflects the predicament in which the Latin American country has been in for two years; Venezuela has triple-digit levels of inflation, facing international sanctions, brain drain, starvation, and economic depression. The government does not disclose basic economic indicators on the state of the country.

On Friday 20 October, President Nicolas Maduro pointed out in his televised speech that further elections could take place. However, it will not be a repeat of the elections in the entire territory of Venezuela, but only in the countries where the opposition was won.

The European Union has expressed doubts about the outcome of the elections held in July. The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, announced that the EU would not recognize these elections. According to his words, it is very clear that the current regime holds all the power in the country​.

The whole article is available here.