The opposition Democratic Unity coalition won more than twice the number of National Assembly seats as the Socialists in elections on Sunday that punished President Nicolas Maduro's government for the country's deep economic and social crisis.
It was the first time in 16 years the "Chavismo" movement, named for former socialist President Hugo Chavez, lost its majority in the 167-member assembly, and gives the opposition a platform to further erode Maduro's power in the OPEC nation.
The 53-year-old president, who was handpicked by Chavez but lacks his charisma and political guile, quickly accepted defeat in a speech to the nation that calmed fears of violence.
Aware that victory owed more to public discontent with Maduro than love for the opposition, coalition head Jesus Torrealba urged Venezuelans to bury their differences.
The danger of electing left-wingers for even a short period of time is that they manage to get so many people completely dependent on government welfare programs, and then when you try to dismantle those programs you'd think you were attacking the very fabric of society. The opposition victory will serve as a check on Maduro's most tyrannical impuluses, and might give some imprisoned dissidents a chance to see freedom, but Venezuela has a lot of work ahead of it to repair the economic insanity wrought by Chavez, Maduro and their supporters.
I wish the new majority well. They're going to need all the prayers and good fortune they can get.
If "the best of the revolution is yet to come," as Venezuela's socialists are fond of promising, the word hasn't filtered down to regular citizens who have a hard time laying their hands on basic necessities like milk and toilet paper. The left-wing paradise established by the late Hugo Chavez has been a disaster for the average citizen, and last night Venezuelans did something about it in overwheliming numbers - giving opposition candidates a massive majority in the National Assembly, and severely limiting the power of Chavez successor Nicolas Maduro to keep pushing state control and imprisonment of political opponents.
Unfortunately, the opposition does not exactly consist of a bunch of supply-siders: