David Smilde – The Conversation

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures during a protest in Caracas on Jan. 9, 2025. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images

October 10, 2025

María Corina Machado’s peace prize follows Nobel tradition of awarding recipients for complex reasons

David Smilde, Tulane University

Venezuelan opposition leader is the latest in a long list of controversial laureates.

He may be praying, but so far the Pope has declined to intervene in Venezuela’s crisis to aid a unified coronavirus response. LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Images

April 17, 2020

Catholic Church urges Venezuela to unite against coronavirus

David Smilde, Tulane University and Hugo Pérez Hernáiz, Universidad Central de Venezuela

If anyone can convince the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition to come together to fight COVID-19, it’s the Pope. But the Church’s power to negotiate an emergency deal is limited.

Venezuelans have faced food and medicine shortages since late 2015. Now power outages have cut off water supplies, too. AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

April 4, 2019

Venezuela’s power struggle reaches a tense stalemate, as human suffering deepens

David Smilde, Tulane University

As rival factions vie for control over Venezuela, many of the country’s 31 million people are suffering prolonged power outages, food and water shortages, and limited access to medicine.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at his swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos

January 10, 2019

Venezuelans reject Maduro presidency — but most would oppose foreign military operation to oust him

David Smilde, Tulane University

Maduro, who was sworn in for his second term on Jan. 10, has rigged elections, jailed rivals and plunged Venezuela into crisis. But Trump’s proposed ‘military option’ to remove him remains unpopular.

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