Michael Shifter, senior fellow and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue: “It is encouraging that the Venezuelan opposition will be participating in the presidential election that should take place next year. In the past, boycotting elections—however defensible in principle—has resulted in the opposition losing political ground and enabling the authoritarian regime to become more entrenched. Since assuming power more than a decade ago, Maduro has been underestimated at every turn. He has kept the governing coalition together and divided the opposition while ruthlessly quashing any potential challenge to his rule. Unfortunately, it is hard to be optimistic that conditions for free and fair elections will be met by next year’s vote. That would be too risky for the dictatorship. The opposition’s decision to hold a primary and field the winning candidate against Maduro affords an opportunity to achieve greater legitimacy and unity. But the recent shakeup of the National Electoral Council (CNE), while not surprising, is …”