2026-08-13
21 分钟The Economist.
Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist.
I'm Rosie Blaw.
Today on the show, Americans may be falling out of love with fast food.
And would you sit through 15 hours of Wagner?
First up, though,
In January, American troops seized Venezuela's leader, Nicolas Maduro, in a dramatic dawn raid on the capital Caracas.
His deputy was installed as interim president, backed by the Trump administration.
Maduro was taken to New York.
At the time, Donald Trump boasted about how he now controlled Venezuela's oil.
Restoring democracy in a country known for its rigged elections didn't seem to be much of a priority.
But in recent weeks, negotiations have been taking place between the Venezuelan regime
and figures from the opposition, coaxed or perhaps pushed along by American support.
The first round of those talks ended yesterday with a joint statement.
Working groups established, an initial agreement on reforming the Supreme Court, and more dialogue to come.
That may not sound like riveting stuff, but it could be progress of a sort.
America's efforts to restore democracy in Venezuela have been gathering speed recently with talks in the capital Caracas.
Kinley Salmon is our Latin America correspondent.
These talks are between the Venezuelan regime and opposition parties in Venezuela,
but they're controversial also because of the glaring absence of by far the most popular opposition leader,