“This is the last battle for democracy in Venezuela,” says David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. ‘Maduro’s ultimate aim is to turn Venezuela into Cuba.’ —Julio Borges, head of Venezuela’s National Assembly“Maduro’s ultimate aim is to turn Venezuela into Cuba. In Venezuela, aside from a similar devotion to Mr. Chávez, the glue that has held the regime together is simpler: oil-soaked corruption on an epic scale. ‘Oil prices rose sharply, and Chávez spent lavishly.’In the following years, oil prices rose sharply, and Mr. Chávez spent lavishly. Mr. Chávez left Venezuela littered with the bones of ambitious, half-finished public-works projects.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 23, 2017 17:48 UTC