As Nicolas Maduro strode through the mahogany doors and onto the terrace of the 19th-century Miraflores presidential palace, he may, for a moment, have felt that things really were going his way. In front of him, an election victory party was in full swing. The raucous crowd was chanting every syllable of his name to a pounding reggaeton beat. As incumbent president he had just won a second term. But like the fawning comments of the state television presenters that evening — one of whom declared Venezuela a “world beater” when it came to democracy — the truth was somewhere else.…

Source: The Times May 24, 2018 16:18 UTC