What It Will Take to Beat Venezuela's Maduro?

For anyone tracking the slow-motion crackup of the economy, the rule of law and all the other vital signs of democratic life in Venezuela, here's a riddle. How is it that the vast majority of citizens in Latin America's poorest rich nation, with some of the world's largest reserves of oil and gas, are fed up with life under the Bolivarian Republic and yet still have not turned on the Palacio Miraflores, never mind thrown in with the opposition?   That ought to be dynamite fishing for Maduro's foes as they head to legislative elections later this year. Instead, Venezuela's opposition is fractured and floundering. A poll in January found that although some 40 percent of Venezuelans sympathized with the opposition message, only 19 percent backed the flagship opposition bloc, the United Democratic Roundtable. "No discourse, no message and no proposals," is how pollster Oscar Schemel, president of Hinterlaces, described the anti-Chavista predicament in a televised interview More… .