Venezuela's socialist experiment enters new phase

Nicolas Maduro celebrates his narrow, 50-49, victory Sunday in Venezuela's presidential election. The hand-picked successor of Hugo Chavez edged opposition leader Henrique Capriles by about 300,000 votes. /Image via npr.org

The socialist experiment in Venezuela continues, with Nicolas Maduro, who served as foreign minister and vice president under Hugo Chavez, winning an incredibly thin victory in Sunday's election. Maduro has pledged to follow in his mentor's footsteps. But his country is politically polarized as well as facing a host of domestic economic and social problems.

Chavez's so-called socialist revolution is at a crossroads. Power outages are frequent in a country with the largest known oil reserves in the world. Capriles ran his campaign almost entirely on the government's mismanagement, waste and corruption as steward of the $1 trillion in oil production revenue generated during Chavez's 14 years as president. NPR reports: "Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime."

With such a narrow margin of victory and such widespread abuse of public office, Maduro would be wise to heed Capriles' call to clean up the government. Finding Capriles a ministry post would be a good start.