"A Week is a Long Time in Politics"

A Rip Van Winkle waking up from a week-long sleep today would hardly recognize the political moment Venezuela is now living.

That old phrase, attributed to Harold Wilson, seldom applied so well as it did to Venezuela this week. A week ago, shell-shocked by Supreme Tribunal decisions 155 and 156, Venezuela’s dictatorship looked to be well on its way to consolidating itself. The opposition, stuck in its sad, never-ending internecine fights (latest chapter: primaries) looked an increasing irrelevance.

A week has gone by. It saw an unheard-of internal split, a TSJ-reversal, an OAS storm, and a stunning outburst of protest later. Nobody’s talking about MUD’s irrelevance now. The regime’s essential brittleness is once again on dramatic display.

A week really is a very long time in politics.