Venezuela Votes for Governors in a ‘Deficient Democracy’<br />14, 2017<br />PUERTO CABELLO, Venezuela — For weeks, Alejandro Feo la Cruz, a former opposition mayor who is running for governor, has<br />crisscrossed his state in Venezuela with a simple message: The country’s ruling party can no longer feed its own people.<br />But while residents said they favored Mr. Feo la Cruz, few turned out<br />that day to see him, reflecting a sense of resignation among many Venezuelans that there was little the opposition would be able to do to turn around the country.<br />Polls show that Mr. Feo la Cruz — like most opposition candidates for the governorships<br />up for grabs in all 23 Venezuelan states on Sunday — should be a shoo-in.<br />"Our main challenge has been getting people’s hope back and channeling<br />that energy, the spirit of struggle, using the main weapon citizens have now: voting." Mr. Maduro’s party is backing Rafael Lacava, the 49-year-old former mayor of Puerto Cabello, who has spent much of the campaign handing out government-subsidized food and inaugurating new building projects to show his sway with the country’s leaders.<br />And the street protests that have rocked Venezuela for months this year, leaving at least 120 dead,<br />have largely dissolved, leaving few outlets of opposition to the country’s ruling socialist party.<br />Mr. Feo said that What we are living is no longer a democracy,
