The conflict in Venezuela will not be solved in eight days, although Pedro Sánchez has asked for this deadline to call elections, leading the weak common position of the European Union, which also demands a choice between a legitimate electoral process or a "no-confidence vote". European recognition of Guaidó. But the political conflict initiated by Chávez; based on the inequalities caused by oil and the manipulations of leftist Caribbean populism; sprinkled with propaganda by the new Bolivarian despoilers; illiberal first and illegitimate later; and finally reconverted into a tragicomedy by Nicolás Maduro, has produced a social fracture and an economic crisis from which Venezuela will take time to emerge.
However, internal division and political chaos are not the only elements that hinder a negotiated solution. In these long years of the century, the Venezuelan conflict has progressively globalised to the point of becoming just another piece on the geopolitical chessboard. On one side are the United States, most of the main Latin American countries and democratic Europe, which we still are. On the other are Russia, China and Turkey, which see Venezuela as a pawn that can be exchanged for a favourable solution in Syria and Ukraine, or for the bishop of the trade war. Venezuelans have gone from queues and hyperinflation to the world of global politics, without having anything to put in their mouths.
And Europe is looking for a place of its own that is within democratic parameters but outside of American speculations that have one hand tied and the other is the hand of Donald Trump. A place that only knows well Felipe Gonzálezwhich is to choose democracy, economy and energy over socialism and ruin. But the right middle ground is only right if it lies between two evils. And that is why the balance between democracy and non-democracy is not half-democracy or the eight-day ultimatum. It is legitimate democratic restoration.
By José María Peredo
Professor of Communication and International Politics, European University