The people of Venezuela will vote today in municipal elections. 

They will elect mayors and city councilmen.  Normally, these elections would not interest anyone outside of Venezuela. However, things are so bad down in Venezuela that any vote becomes a referendum on the Maduro team.  

Add to all of this that President Maduro has been practically governing by decree!  He has been telling merchants to drop prices and now may be  getting involved in setting car prices.

My friend Daniel Duquenal has been following the elections for weeks. He makes this observation:  

""Whatever the results are next Sunday for once I am not particularly concerned. 

Just as the over spending of 2012 to reelect a corpse has brought upon the country the economic crisis that already caused the tie between the regime and its opposition in April, the new economic mistakes made to preserve that tie, even if they work, will bring us next year a deepening of the crisis.  

No matter what happens next Sunday the best the regime can hope is a breather of no more than a quarter or two."

Venezuela is a mess! Sunday's election, and the very likely chance that Maduro's team wins a plurality because the opposition is divided, will only make things worse.

P. S. You can hear my chat with Comandante Cazorla of the opposition in Venezuela here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.