Venezuelan leader hunkers down in standoff with opposition

In his bid to maintain power over a crumbling nation, President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela has returned to a strategy that has served him well in the past: Hold tight and wait out his opponents.

It’s what the president did in 2014, when the opposition barricaded streets to try to topple him. He used the same strategy three years later when his effort to nullify the country’s opposition-controlled legislature set off protests that petered out after four months.

And now, as the opposition’s latest attempt to end his presidency drags into its third month, Maduro appears to be digging in once again — weathering sanctions on the country’s oil industry, isolation from more than 50 countries, a parallel government set up to challenge him, a steady trickle of military desertions and a days-long national power failure unlike any the country had seen.

At the same time, the United States, which has been pushing to oust Maduro, gambled on a strategy of sanctions and other pressure that it thought would work quickly, but hasn’t.

Last week, Maduro even took the offensive.

On Thursday, Venezuelan intelligence agents stormed the home of Roberto Marrero, chief of staff of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, taking him into custody on charges of being part of a terrorist cell.

“The government is doing everything it can to force a sense of exasperation with Guaidó and force people to lose faith in him,” said Geoff Ramsey, assistant director for Venezuela at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

“The surge of support for Guaidó came within weeks,” he continued. “They know it can vanish just as quickly.”

Since Guaidó returned to Venezuela on March 4, the two men, who both claim to be the country’s rightful leader, seem to be playing a...