Venezuela at a Crossroads: Autocracy, Opposition and Democratic Futures

Venezuela’s long-running political crisis has entered a new phase following a recent U.S. military operation that removed President Nicolás Maduro from power. This development has reshaped the political landscape and raised urgent questions about political authority, democratic legitimacy and what comes next for the country. It also brings into focus broader debates about democracy, sovereignty and political change across the Americas.

This flash panel will examine this moment from the perspective of Venezuelan politics and regional democratic trajectories and will explore how years of authoritarian rule set the stage for the current crisis, how domestic political actors are responding in its aftermath, and what this moment reveals about the possibilities, and limits, of democratic renewal in Venezuela and the region.

Panelists:

Paola Bautista de Alemán is a Venezuelan journalist and political activist and a Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute. She is the director of the Institute of Political Studies FORMA and president of the Juan Germán Roscio Foundation, providing political education to members of the opposition party Primero Justicia. She has written widely on Venezuelan politics, authoritarianism, and democratic resistance.

Michael Coppedge is a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and a faculty fellow of the Kellogg Institute. He is a leading scholar on democratization, authoritarianism and Latin American politics, and is one of the principal investigators of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project.

Laura Gamboa is an assistant professor of democracy and global affairs at the Keough School of Global Affairs and a Kellogg faculty fellow. Her research focuses on democratic backsliding, opposition strategies and party systems in Latin America.

Moderator:

Aníbal Pérez-Liñán is a professor of political science and global affairs at the Keough School of Global Affairs and director of the Kellogg Institute. He is a  leading expert on democratization, political instability, and the rule of law in Latin America.

Presented by the Keough School of Global Affairs with cosponsorship by the Kellogg Institute.