VENEZUELA AFTER THE ELECTIONS: A PATH OF RADICALIZATION WITH NO RETURN?

González Urrutia representing forcefully the voice of the opposition in international forums and going abroad to make the case against the regime was certainly a plus for the opposition, but when he left, he also undermined the morale of the opposition: his departure indicated that the regime’s repression was effective and violent, confirming thus the fears of the population. [...] Furthermore, former close allies of the regime, including the governments of Brazil and Colombia, have made it clear that they cannot recognize the validity of the presidential elections or the legitimacy of the electoral process as long as the regime of Mr. [...] In this sense, the Western powers learned from the mistakes of the past as, in 2018, they recognized Juan Guaidó, who was then president of the legislative assembly and from the ranks of the opposition, and who was proclaimed by the opposition as the legitimate interim leader of the country, in a process that ended up being a total failure for Mr. [...] In other words, Brazil’s evolution from asking for the results from the precincts to offering to mediate between the regime and the opposition—which implicitly indicated that it did not accept the results announced by the Venezuelan electoral court—to blocking the admission of Venezuela into the BRICS, brought the relations between the countries to the brink of rupture. [...] Gonzaĺ ez Urrutia in exile, and the waning in the size and fervor of the demonstrations called by the opposition, this scenario seems unlikely, unless demonstrations gain in momentum and strength with the approach of the eventual swearing in of Mr.