A circus without a ringmaster

DURING the presidency of Hugo Chávez, who ruled from 1999 until his death from cancer in March, the domineering personality of the comandante left no doubt as to who was in charge of Venezuela. By contrast Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, a former foreign minister, has yet to convince people that he is the one running the show. His disputed, razor-thin election victory on April 14th undermined his legitimacy (indeed, the supreme court has yet to resolve the opposition’s claim of fraud). Now the president faces problems within the ranks of the ruling coalition, and in particular his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). In the absence of Chávez, there are worries that the PSUV will turn out to be held together, as the colourful Venezuelan metaphor has it, “with parrot spit”.

Fourteen years of chavismo have left the country in a mess. Despite the high price of oil, growth this year will be minimal or negative. Thousands of private companies have gone under, dragged down by regulations and threatened with fines, temporary closure or expropriation. Others have switched from production to importing. Even that is losing its appeal, now that foreign-exchange control mechanisms have seized up and dollars are scarce. Mr Maduro has sought to deal with the concerns of ordinary Venezuelans, as well as striking radical poses to please hard-core chavistas. Crime, poor public services, corruption and food-scarcity have been targeted with loudly trumpeted initiatives. But actually solving these problems will mean confronting powerful interests, and here Mr Maduro has little room for manoeuvre.