Slide over, Juan Guido, and make room for another usurper. It's been almost a year since the "Lima Group" elected Juan Guaido to the presidency in a free and fair election that, unfortunately, didn't involve the voters of Venezuela.
They had already elected the incumbent, Maduro, to the office. That's not the sort of technicality to deter the freedom fighters in the Lima Group, so for the past year the world has seen the spectacle of two presidents claiming to represent the country.
If that's not confusing enough, today a third contender declared himself president. Luis Parra was inspired by Guaido's example. Guaido showed that anyone can rise to president just by declaring themselves so.
It's not that simple, of course. Declaring yourself president won't get any traction unless you can get some big endorsements from Washington and its flunkies. In Guaido's case, not even that was enough. By this time, Washington is probably just as tired of Guaido's posturing as are the Venezuelan people. We'll find out soon enough if DC is willing to swap out Guaido for Parra. If so, look for Juan to land in a cushy think tank role in the US sooner rather than later.
As for the "Lima Group," it's been a rather flat year. Not only have they failed in their goal to overthrow Maduro, the internal human-rights challenges of many of the member states have revealed them to be every bit as corrupt and anti-democratic as Venezuela, if not more so.
Big picture: Uncle Sam's gonna be focused on democracy in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. Venezuela will have to wait.
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