Venezuela’s Amazonas state: Lawless rivers and forests

THE gaudily painted perimeter wall of the army barracks in Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of Amazonas state, leaves no doubt as to the political sympathies of its commanding general. “The 52nd Jungle Infantry Brigade is Chavista Too”, it proclaims, in defiance of constitutional strictures about military neutrality. The slogan—a reference to Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chávez and the regime he founded—is a daily slap in the face for the state governor, Liborio Guarulla.

Chávez’s successor as president, Nicolás Maduro, has waged a campaign to throttle the administration of Mr Guarulla, one of just three opposition governors across the country’s 23 states. It is a foretaste of what the opposition can expect if it triumphs in mayoral elections on December 8th—which have turned into an unofficial plebiscite on Mr Maduro’s shambolic and increasingly authoritarian rule.He claims that Amazonas is in a “critical” condition because of the negligence of the state authorities. He has set up a parallel administration under Nicia Maldonado, a former minister for indigenous affairs, who was trounced by Mr Guarulla in an election last...



via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21590944-difficulty-being-opposition-governor-lawless-rivers-and-forests?fsrc=rss|ame