Maduro Takes the Easy Way Out

and a French Revolutionary spirit. Very late in the evening of Sunday, July 28, the government refused to recognize the opposition’s victory in that day’s election and declared incumbent President Nicolás Maduro the winner. The next day, protests broke out nearly everywhere: A think tank counted more than 200. In Coro, a small coastal city, a protester climbed up a statue of Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s late predecessor and mentor, and hammered his signature military beret as others cheered. When he got down, the crowd tied ropes around the statue and celebrated as it collapsed. What they wanted, in the words of a Venezuelan commentator, was to see Chávez’s head “dragged through the dirt.”

Also last Monday, a man waving a Venezuelan flag rode a horse onto the highway outside the city of Maracay. He was leading a caravan of motorists and screaming “Venezuela libre.” In Punto Fijo, in the country’s west, a police officer burst into tears, took off her uniform, and joined the protesters she’d been assigned to intimidate. Some of her colleagues on the scene followed suit. Elsewhere in the country, the police did follow orders: Nearly 750 anti-government demonstrators were arrested that day. Six were killed.

Also last Monday, a man waving a Venezuelan flag rode a horse onto the highway outside the city of Maracay. He was leading a caravan of motorists and screaming “Venezuela libre.” In Punto Fijo, in the country’s west, a police officer burst into tears, took off her uniform, and joined the protesters she’d been assigned to intimidate. Some of her colleagues on the scene followed suit. Elsewhere in the country, the police did follow orders: Nearly 750 anti-government demonstrators were arrested that day. Six were killed.

Also last Monday, a man waving a Venezuelan flag rode a horse onto the highway outside the city of Maracay. He was leading a caravan of motorists and screaming “Venezuela libre.” In Punto Fijo, in the country’s west, a police officer burst into tears, took off her uniform, and joined the protesters she’d been assigned to intimidate. Some of her colleagues on the scene followed suit. Elsewhere in the country, the police did follow orders: Nearly 750 anti-government demonstrators were arrested that day. Six were killed.

Also last Monday, a man waving a Venezuelan flag rode a horse onto the highway outside the city of Maracay. He was leading a caravan of motorists and screaming “Venezuela libre.” In Punto Fijo, in the country’s west, a police officer burst into tears, took off her uniform, and joined the protesters she’d been assigned to intimidate. Some of her colleagues on the scene followed suit. Elsewhere in the country, the police did follow orders: Nearly 750 anti-government demonstrators were arrested that day. Six were killed.Also last Monday, a man waving a Venezuelan flag rode a horse onto the highway outside the city of Maracay. He was leading a caravan of motorists and screaming “Venezuela libre.” In Punto Fijo, in the country’s west, a police officer burst into tears, took off her uniform, and joined the protesters she’d been assigned to intimidate. Some of her colleagues on the scene followed suit. Elsewhere in the country, the police did follow orders: Nearly 750 anti-government demonstrators were arrested that day. Six were killed.

Also last Monday, a man waving a Venezuelan flag rode a horse onto the highway outside the city of Maracay. He was leading a caravan of motorists and screaming “Venezuela libre.” In Punto Fijo, in the country’s west, a police officer burst into tears, took off her uniform, and joined the protesters she’d been assigned to intimidate. Some of her colleagues on the scene followed suit. Elsewhere in the country, the police did follow orders: Nearly 750 anti-government demonstrators were arrested that day. Six were killed.