Opposition will force strategy shifts in Venezuela

Significance

The opposition Unitary Platform has aligned behind relative unknown and former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. President Nicolas Maduro’s government overshadowed the unveiling of his candidacy by announcing that the Caracas office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will be permitted to reopen after its arbitrary closure in February.

Impacts

• For over two decades, the Bolivarian Revolution has survived largely by default on opposition disunity: this may now change.
• After months of negotiations over a unity candidate, the opposition must urgently focus on campaigning with an inexperienced candidate.
• Maduro’s re-election campaign team will seek to contrast him with a chaotic and unruly US government with which the opposition is aligned.