A crowd of protesters, draped in the Venezuelan flag and faces masked against the tear gas approach a riot police cordon on one of Caracas’ main streets. “Join us!” they beseech, but the black line holds firm.
The footage is from Wednesday, but could easily be from 2014 or 2017. Nicolás Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez as president in 2013, has weathered mass protest before thanks to his control of the state forces and oil revenues – and support from China and Russia.
Things seem different this time round. But are they different enough?
On Thursday the British government joined the US and dozens of other countries in recognising Juan Guaidó, the 35-year-old president of the National Assembly,…
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