After protests over a stolen election, the goons crack heads

Had he known the appalling consequences, would the caudillo really have chosen Mr Maduro? So disastrous has been his rule over the past 11 years that both men have now become targets of national opprobrium. In an orgy of iconoclasm the day after the president stole an election he could never have fairly won, symbols of the Chávez era were targeted, including at least five statues of the late leader torn from their pedestals to euphoric cheers. The crowds were eager that the Maduro government be the next to fall. Pink election posters featuring a beaming Mr Maduro were ripped from street lamps and trampled underfoot. The protests were everywhere, from the slums of Caracas, the capital, to Valle Lindo, a neighbourhood in Anzoátegui state that traditionally has been deeply loyal to the regime. Predictably, Mr Maduro sent his goons onto the streets while his propagandists perpetuated lazy caricatures: those protesting were all pampered members of the middle class, or drug addicts, or vandals. The claims were denied by the protesters themselves. “We’re not the rich. This is the ‘hood!”, chanted one group in the capital’s working-class district of Petare. At least seven people, including one soldier, were dead by the night’s end (as The Economist went to press, about 20 had died, mostly at the hands of security forces or pro-government thugs).