Foreign powers align against Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro

Nearly 90 percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. Inflation is projected to hit 10 million percent next year according to the International Monetary Fund; citizens already use literal wheelbarrows of money to purchase staples like bread and milk… when they're lucky enough to find them on store shelves. Since 2015, more than 3 million people have fled the country. The world has watched with growing dismay as Venezuela - an economy once buoyed by the world's largest proven oil reserves - has descended from prosperous nation to humanitarian catastrophe in less than a decade. 

And yet for the first time since President Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2013, the political situation in Venezuela appears finally to have begun to shift. That alone would be cause for celebration, but we are also witnessing something fortuitous and unexpected. It goes well beyond people lashing out...