Venezuelan High-Stakes Poker for Global Powers

(Bloomberg) --

The world is waiting to see if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro can hold onto power amid a newly invigorated opposition and fresh street protests. With the largest reserves of oil of any nation and strategically important, there are very big powers with interests there.

The U.S. is leading the charge against Maduro, endorsing National Assembly leader Juan Guaido and dangling the prospect of sanctions on the country’s petroleum exports. Venezuela has been a fiercely socialist regime for two decades, mostly under Hugo Chavez, who was a persistent irritant for his northern neighbor. Successor Maduro has similarly focused on ties with China and Russia.

China buys oil from Venezuela and has provided it more than $62 billion, mostly in loans, since 2007. Russia has also been a financial benefactor.

If China and Russia continue to back Maduro, it might embolden him to dig in. But if he loses the support of his military, then foreign allies could be tempted to open backchannel conversations with Guaido’s camp. They wouldn’t want to be relegated to the backseat in a new administration that pivots to the U.S.

The risk is Venezuela becomes a pawn in a bigger geopolitical game. That’s something ordinary Venezuelans struggling to get by in a shattered economy can ill-afford.

Click here for a photo from this week’s opposition rally in Caracas and other compelling political images from the past seven days.

Global Headlines

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What to Watch

And finally... One of the best-kept secrets in the U.K. is what the Queen makes of Brexit, which is why the media is eager to divine meaning from her every utterance. At a speech to the Women’s Institute, the monarch might have had a message for her Parliament, at war over the split from the European Union: “I for one prefer the tried and tested recipes, like speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground; and never losing sight of the bigger picture.”' Squabbling lawmakers, take note.

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