New Delhi, March 17 -- FOR 12 years Nicolas Maduro terrorised Venezuela. He stole elections and, when people objected, his goons killed, raped or tortured them by suffocation with plastic bags. His comrades looted and mismanaged the economy so wantonly that GDP fell by 69%. A quarter of the population fled abroad. Both the economic collapse and the exodus have been worse than is typical during the bloodiest of civil wars.

Mr Maduro was also an international menace: colluding with drug gangs, threatening oil-rich Guyana and propping up Cuba's communist tyranny with cheap fuel. He supported Hizbullah, helped Iran evade sanctions and gave Russia and China a foothold across the water from Florida. And then he was gone-snatched by US special ...