Editing Politics of Venezuela (section)

====2020====
In 2020, news reports described a loosening of many socialist/redistributive economic policies—price and currency controls, stringent labor laws—by the Maduro government, along with an rapprochement with members of the capitalist community—especially [[Lorenzo Mendoza]] of the [[Empresas Polar]] conglomerate who is no longer denounced as a  "thief," a "parasite" and a "traitor".  Changes such as the return of agricultural land and "dozens of companies" to private management have allowed the government to survive economic sanctions (though economic production and employment is still greatly reduced), and have proceeded in exchange for an abandonment of political opposition by Mendoza.<ref name="Kurmanaev-2020">{{cite news |last1=Kurmanaev |first1=Anatoly |title=Venezuela's Socialists Embrace Business, Making Partner of a 'Parasite' |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/world/americas/venezuela-economy-polar.html |access-date=20 November 2020 |agency=New York Times |date=23 February 2020}}</ref> Another result of the [[economic liberalization]] is that erstwhile socialist allies of Maduro's government who began to protest corruption and the "extravagant lives flaunted by the government's cronies in supermarkets stocked with expensive imports and luxury car showrooms", have become victims to the same security apparatus that have attacked Maduro's opponents on the right—they have been denounced as traitors, arrested (leaders of the [[Communist Party of Venezuela|Communist]] and [[Tupamaro (Venezuela)|Tupamaro]] parties), beaten and sometimes assassinated  (the fate of radio host José Carmelo Bislick).<ref name="nyt-championed-19-11-2020">{{cite news |last1=Herrera |first1=Isayen |last2=Kurmanaev |first2=Anatoly |last3=Romero |first3=Tibisay |last4=Urdaneta |first4=Sheyla |title=They Championed Benezuela's Revolution. They Are Now Its Latest Victims |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/world/americas/venezuela-maduro-critics-repression.html |access-date=20 November 2020 |agency=New York Times |date=19 November 2020}}</ref>