The Last Statesman of the Venezuelan Democracy

I met Teodoro, as everyone called him, 12 years ago. By that time he had earned his place in Venezuelan history many times over. A vocal member of the Venezuelan Communist Party during the dictatorship of the 1950s, then a Marxist guerrilla fighting against Venezuela’s fledgling democracy in the 1960s, by the age of 40 Teodoro had renounced armed struggle. “Only fools don’t change their minds” he said of his own about-face. With the zeal of a convert, Teodoro spent the next 45 years fighting for democracy in Venezuela. More…