Venezuela’s Opposition, Battling Nicolás Maduro, Suffers a Crippling Blow - The New York Times

"BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Just a year and a half ago, Venezuela’s opposition was riding high, at the apex of its power.



It had taken control of the National Assembly after years of having been outflanked by Venezuela’s left. It was planning new laws, the release of its political prisoners and overhauls intended to pull Venezuela out of a deep economic crisis. Its eye was on the presidency in 2018.



But with one contentious vote on Sunday, President Nicolás Maduro effectively liquidated any political challenge that the opposition might present for him for years to come. Around midnight, officials certified the creation of a new political body, known as the constituent assembly, with the power to rewrite the Constitution to favor Mr. Maduro and empowered in the meantime to dismiss any branch of government viewed as disloyal.



Early Tuesday, family members of two prominent opposition figures, Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, said on Twitter that the men had been taken from their homes by security forces. Both men had been under house arrest.



It was a dramatic crash for the country’s opposition in its long quest to regain control of Venezuela after a tide of popular discontent brought Hugo Chávez to the presidency in 1999. Not since the politicians joined the military to back a failed coup in 2002 — which spurred Mr. Chávez to purge his opponents — have members of Venezuela’s opposition been laid so low.



“They played all their cards, and they played them effectively,” said Christopher Sabatini, a foreign policy expert at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, citing the opposition’s attempts to parry Mr. Maduro this year. “But now all of their channels for representation and means for mediation have essentially evaporated...”



Venezuela’s Opposition, Battling Nicolás Maduro, Suffers a Crippling Blow - The New York Times