Beatrice Rangel: Venezuela Leaves the Darkness Behind -- Now We Need to Create the Light

Sunday, December the 6th, 2015, shall go down in history as the day Venezuela left adolescence to enter maturity. The opposition victory in legislative elections against a totalitarian incumbent power gave signs that democrats in Venezuela are coming of age. The first signal of that development was the maintenance of a broad coalition of quite different parties with a panoply of visions about public policy from mild populism to market friendly advocacy. The second tell was that most participants seemed to believe that the time to lead has come.  And while this makes the coalition a great competitor for the Hydra trophy, it makes governance difficult. Then there is the decision to respond to the fear inducing government policies vis-à-vis the elections with courage and initiative. More…