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Latin American Program in the News: Chavez Heir to Be Sworn in as Vote Dispute Roils Investors

Cindy Arnson

Director Cynthia J. Arnson remarked on how Maduro’s narrow victory margin will give him little room for maneuver to address accelerating inflation, sparse supermarket shelves and slowing growth.

Nicolas Maduro will be sworn in as Venezuela’s president today as a dispute over the election and his post-campaign rhetoric undermines investor confidence in how the government will manage the world’s largest oil reserves.

In the five days since the National Electoral Council named Hugo Chavez’s political heir the winner of the April 14 vote, Maduro has threatened Spanish energy company Repsol SA and accused opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski of inciting a coup. Political clashes have left eight people dead, the government said, and the electoral commission announced yesterday it would complete an electronic audit of the 15 million votes cast.

Maduro’s victory margin, the narrowest in 45 years, gives him little room for maneuver to address accelerating inflation, sparse supermarket shelves and slowing growth, said CynthiaArnson, Latin American program director at the Wilson International Center for Scholars. Venezuelan bonds fell the most since 1998 on April 16 as investors bet a protracted political crisis will undermine the economy and efforts to use foreign partners to turn around a slump in oil output during the 14-year rule of Chavez, who died March 5.

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About the Author

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia J. Arnson

Distinguished Fellow and Former Director, Latin America Program
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Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more