Venezuelan authorities launched a broad crackdown on dissent as the country’s new leader consolidated power, undermining early hopes that Washington’s capture of Nicolás Maduro could allow for democratic reforms.
Exiles had cheered Maduro’s ouster over the weekend, but analysts largely cautioned that because the US left the rest of Venezuela’s regime in place, any flowering of freedoms was highly unlikely.
That caution appears to have been well-placed: Security forces detained more than a dozen journalists, deporting one, and deployed paramilitary forces to ward off shows of support for Maduro’s removal. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was meanwhile sworn in to the presidency and chaired her first cabinet meeting.
“Everything changes,” El País wrote, “yet nothing really changes.”