How can Venezuela resolve its political crisis? Six views.

Venezuela has been rocked by more than four months of anti-government protests and violent police crackdown. Dozens of Venezuelans have died and thousands have been arrested. But resolving the crisis still seems out of reach. Here are six perspectives on Venezuela's search for a peaceful path forward.

The professor

Andrew Rosati
Professor Nicmer Evans in Caracas, Venezuela.

Name: Nicmer Evans
Job: Political analyst and professor at the Central University of Venezuela
Way forward: A change in leadership - both in the government and in the opposition

Former President Hugo Chávez left a lasting mark on Venezuelan politics, and "for better or worse, politicians are going to have to refer to him for years to come," acknowledging whether they were for or against his policies, says Nicmer Evans.

Mr. Evans says former President Chávez did ground breaking work in lifting Venezuela’s population out of poverty, however, the current administration has struggled to move that legacy forward, a critical issue behind the current crisis.

"New leadership is needed for both the government and opposition," Evans says. It could help to unite citizens, allow new leaders and ideas to emerge, and possibly lead to better management of the oil-rich nation’s economy. 

"Venezuelans clearly want change," Evans says. "The dilemma at hand is that the current leadership has not been willing to renounce its power to let it happen, while the opposition's politics still fail to connect with the majority of the population."

6 of 6

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.