WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Venezuela’s Election Turns Bloody: Can the Chavista Movement Survive?

Seven people were killed and more than sixty injured during sporadic riots over the past couple days, following the controversial election of Hugo Chavez’s chosen heir, Nicolas Maduro, to the Venezuelan presidency. Already faced with allegations of vote rigging and the surprisingly narrow margin with which he won office, Maduro turned to a tactic from page one of his predecessor’s playbook: blame the United States.

“The (U.S.) embassy has financed and led all these violent acts,” Maduro said on Venezuelan television. He also called Henrique Capriles, the challenger, a “murderer” and coup plotter (which would put him in some familiar company). Reports have emerged that pro-government and opposition thugs alike have rampaged through parts of the country, firebombing political offices and beating up rivals, jailing journalists, and fighting on the streets.

The question now, amidst this chaos: what will happen to the Chavista movement? Without the charismatic Chavez, can it survive? Capriles won a respectable 44 percent of the votes when he faced off against Chavez in elections in February; a few months later, after Chavez’s death, he garnered over 49 percent against Maduro, suggesting that at least some Chavistas don’t think Maduro is quite up to the job, even though he promised to carry on many of the pro-poor policies that Chavez was famous for.

But it’s unlikely that on its own the Venezuelan opposition can take or hold power. With lots of advice from helpful Cubans, the Chavistas have built a political machinery that is determined to hold power no matter what.

Indeed they have.