The young engineer taking on Venezuela’s regime

Juan Guaidó never expected to find himself thrust into the limelight as a potential saviour of Venezuela, said Carlos Alberto Montaner on Infobae (Buenos Aires). In 2016, the 35-yearold engineer was elected a deputy to the National Assembly; he became its president in January only because the four opposition parties had agreed to take turns filling the post, and the leaders of his own centre-left Popular Will party were in detention or exile. But he instantly saw an opportunity to mount a challenge to the regime: denouncing President Nicolás Maduro as the illegitimate victor of a rigged election, he declared himself interim president. And that bold move has unified an opposition whose perpetual divisions have helped ensure the regime’s survival over two decades. Young and inexperienced he may be, but Guaidó is widely considered to have the maturity and good sense needed to succeed.

Guaidó is not your usual politician, said Nadeska Noriega in El Pitazo (Caracas). He didn’t set out to be one, but became one of the leaders of the 2007 student protests that contributed to a rare defeat for Hugo Chávez later that year, when a majority in a referendum rejected the president’s plan to rewrite the constitution. And Guaidó is no orator, said Maryhen Jiménez Morales on Al Jazeera (Doha). In fact, it’s fair to say he’s a bit “dull”. But that’s just the sort of leader Venezuela desperately needs. It has suffered a long, tragic history of caudillismo – rule by charismatic strongmen, from Simón Bolívar to Chávez. All of them showed themselves more interested in personal power and glory than creating strong institutions. And all of them, Chávez in particular, systematically weakened the political safeguards of accountability, transparency and separation of powers. But Guaidó avoids messianic promises and party tribalism, and talks instead of human rights and restoring rule of law. Venezuela’s opposition leaders mainly come from the affluent upper-middle classes in Caracas, and so fail to appeal to the poor who make up the regime’s support base, said Víctor Salmerón on Univision (New York). But Guaidó has reached out to the poor to assure them they’ve nothing to fear from regime change. He’s also shown good instincts by appealing to soldiers and junior officers not to use violence against the people. The army still backs Maduro. But though the generals have too much to lose by deserting him, lesser ranks are suffering from the shortages caused by the regime’s mismanagement, and are more likely to heed an opposition leader of their own, especially one whose grandfather served in the military. Getting them onside will give Guaidó his best chance of success.