On borrowed time

AS BIRTHDAYS go, it could have been a happier one. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, celebrated his 52nd on November 23rd with a hand-picked crowd of supporters and public employees in a cramped square in the centre of Caracas. His birthday wish was to live (and presumably to govern) for another 50 years to see “Bolivarian socialism” come to fruition.

In fact, time may be running out for the revolution. The price of Venezuelan oil, source of 96% of Venezuela’s foreign-exchange earnings, has dropped from $99 to $69 a barrel since June. The economy is in a deep recession and inflation is headed for triple-digit rates. Basic goods like flour and cooking oil are in short supply and queues to obtain them are common. More than two-thirds of voters think Mr Maduro should not serve out his six-year term, which began just last year (see chart); more than a quarter of those are supporters of the government. Parliamentary elections, to be held by December next year, cannot unseat Mr Maduro. But they offer a chance to break the monopoly of power exercised by his Bolivarian socialists since his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, became president in 1999. He died in 2013.