[WashingtonPost] Unlike North Korea’s Kim Jong Un or Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Maduro is not a one-man cult or clan leader. Rather, he rules as the public face of an omnipotent political class accused of immense corruption and narco-trafficking. While presenting themselves as red-clad revolutionaries, they have snatched up million-dollar condos in Miami and sent their children to elite international schools.
The global focus has been on Maduro as strongman, an alleged usurper who opponents say staged his own reelection. Yet the re-energized opposition under Guaidó and his international backers, led by Trump, faces a broad network of figures who control food distribution, exchange rates, armories and bribes. Maduro’s fall alone, many observers say, may not bring landmark change. |