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Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who has led his country into one of the world\u2019s worst economic crises<\/a>, was sworn in for a new six-year term on Jan. 10.<\/p>\n His inauguration at the Supreme Court was a lonely one<\/a>: Some 40 countries \u2013 including the United States, Brazil, Colombia and the entire European Union \u2013 are refusing to recognize Maduro\u2019s government<\/a> because they believe his May 2018 re-election was rigged<\/a>.<\/p>\n How else could a leader with a 21 percent approval rating win 68 percent of the vote<\/a>?<\/p>\n Oil producer Venezuela, once among Latin America\u2019s more prosperous nations, has seen severe food and medicine shortages since 2014<\/a>. Thousands of people flee dire crisis there every day<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most Venezuelans hold Maduro \u2013 the late Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s handpicked successor, first elected president in 2013<\/a> \u2013 responsible for their suffering.<\/p>\n But holding Maduro accountable has proven vexingly difficult.<\/p>\n Seeking change democratically<\/strong><\/p>\n Citizens can democratically demand change from poorly performing leaders in three ways: vote them out of office, protest for them to change course or resign, or make demands through face-to-face dialogue.<\/p>\n Venezuelans have tried all three.<\/p>\n The last free elections in Venezuela were held in December 2015. Opposition parties won the Venezuelan legislature in a landslide<\/a>, securing a super-majority that gave them unprecedented strength to check Maduro.<\/p>\n His ruling United Socialist Party responded by progressively stripping the legislature of its powers and ensuring the Socialists would not lose another election.<\/p>\n First, the government-run national electoral agency canceled a proposed presidential recall vote<\/a> in 2016. Then, in July 2017, the Socialist Party called an unconstitutional vote to elect an alternative legislature. Later that year, party officials openly committed fraud<\/a> in regional elections.<\/p>\n When Maduro stood for re-election in 2018, Socialist Party officials disqualified leading opposition politicians and parties from running<\/a> and forced the vote seven months early to prevent them from reorganizing.<\/p>\n Many Venezuelans fought for their democracy.<\/p>\n From April to July 2017, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets nationwide<\/a>, mostly in peaceful protest. Marchers in Caracas who neared the presidential palace or government ministries were met by police and soldiers in riot gear who scattered them using tear gas, water cannons and, often, live ammunition.<\/p>\n At least 124 people were killed during Venezuela\u2019s 2017 protests. Another 4,000 were injured and 5,000 were arrested, according to the Inter-American Human Rights Council<\/a>. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, were tortured.<\/p>\n Amid all of this, Venezuela\u2019s opposition also tried talking with Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n But dialogues in 2014, 2016 and 2018 \u2014 including one mediated by the Vatican<\/a> \u2014 achieved little. Arguably, the talks weakened the opposition-led protest movement<\/a> by giving the appearance of government concessions.<\/p>\n The military option<\/strong><\/p>\n After democratic elections, protest and dialogue failed to resolve Venezuela\u2019s political crisis, some international leaders proposed a more drastic measure to create political change.<\/p>\n In August 2017, shortly after the U.S. slapped economic sanctions on President Maduro himself<\/a>, President Donald Trump said that the United States was considering a \u201cmilitary option\u201d<\/a> in Venezuela.<\/p>\n \u201cVenezuela is not very far away and the people are suffering, and they are dying,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe have many options for Venezuela, including a possible military option if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n Administration officials even met with Venezuelan military officials<\/a> plotting a coup before declining to support their plan.<\/p>\n Latin American governments rejected<\/a> Trump\u2019s \u201cmilitary option.\u201d<\/p>\n But some exiled Venezuela leaders have embraced the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cMilitary intervention by a coalition of regional forces may be the only way to end a man-made famine threatening millions of lives,\u201d the former Venezuelan minister and Harvard professor Ricardo Hausmann wrote in a January 2018 Project Syndicate column<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hausmann pointed to the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama and World War II as positive precedents of foreign interventions that ended tyrannical regimes.<\/p>\n Former Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma has used euphemistic language to justify a foreign-backed removal of Maduro, saying it would be a \u201chumanitarian intervention<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Comparing the crisis there to the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s, Secretary General of the Organization of American States Luis Almagro has suggested that military intervention could be justified under international law<\/a>, which includes the \u201cresponsibility to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n In the view of \u201cmilitary option\u201d supporters, Venezuelans would welcome such an operation if it ended their suffering.<\/p>\n Intervention would be \u201cextremely popular<\/a>\u201d in Venezuela, according to Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations and a prominent Maduro critic.<\/p>\n Would Venezuelans support foreign military intervention?<\/strong><\/p>\n My research<\/a> in Venezuela suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n All credible polling in Venezuela says<\/a> that most Venezuelans desperately want Maduro out. But that does not necessarily mean they are open to desperate measures.<\/p>\n