‘We Are Going to Continue to Fight’

Juan Guaidó may face his biggest challenge yet as he sits down with members of the Nicolás Maduro government for the latest round of negotiations in Barbados this week in an attempt to break the political stalemate in Venezuela. When I last talked with Guaidó, who proclaimed himself acting president of the country in January but has failed to take power, he had just announced that he and fellow members of the National Assembly would go to the border on Feb. 23 and welcome the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid arriving from Colombia. Since then, the Guaidó-led opposition has suffered repeatedly from internal strife and dashed hopes—never more so than after April 30, when the former opposition leader Leopoldo López escaped from house arrest and showed up outside the La Carlota military base with Guaidó. López declared that the military forces were switching sides, encouraging supporters to take to the streets and fight for freedom. The supporters responded en masse, and the result was once again violent clashes between government forces and civilians, 48 hours of riots, violence, and uncertainty ending in disappointment for opposition supporters who had thought that this would be the final push.