# TUESDAY SEMINAR SERIES: Can Venezuela Still Democratize? ![TS Poster logo](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-09/Water%20series%20Thumbnail%202026%20%282%29.png?itok=eq26g3oA) #### calendar\_today Date and Time **October 6, 2026** 12:00PM - 01:30PM EDT #### pin\_drop Location **CGIS South, Room S216** No registration required to attend in person. [ Register to Attend Virtually arrow\_circle\_right ](https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uzE9VXuyQKe7iv3HuOYZWw#/registration) Since U.S. Forces Removed Nicolas Maduro in January 2026, the Trump administration has launched what can only be described as a neo-colonial project in Venezuela. This is a transition without precedent in modern Latin America. Where is Venezuela headed? And what are the prospects for democracy? *This event is presented in collaboration with the* [*Weatherhead Center for International Affairs*](https://wcfia.harvard.edu/)*.* ### Arturo Peraza Panelist Universidad Católica Andrés Bello ![Arturo Peraza, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello ](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-09/Arturo-Peraza-2021-2.jpg?h=c1111247&itok=3NwVwEZ0) ### David Smilde Panelist Charles A and Leo M Favrot Chair in Human Relations, Chair, Department of Sociology, Tulane University ![David photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-08/1217827664698377.D03Wxh8U49MlMtgFZlU2_height640.png?h=2a5eff7e&itok=J6uMXq3z) ### Jose Morales-Arilla Panelist Research Professor Graduate School of Government and Public Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey ![jose morales arilla](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-08/images%20%283%29.jpg?h=4c37fe74&itok=hrKbWcsx) ### Margarita López Maya Panelist Historian and PhD in Social Sciences of the Universidad Central de Venezuela ![Margarita López Maya,](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-08/images%20%284%29.jpg?h=6077c0a5&itok=Gm34ilQh) ### Steven Levitsky Moderator Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies; Professor of Government, Harvard ![steve photo](/sites/g/files/omnuum12451/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-02/060417_Portraits_16-e1689548468915-300x300_1.jpg?itok=4Zi2d9nl) ## Bios Open all sections Close all sections ### David Smilde expand\_more **David Smilde** is the Charles A. and Leo M. *Favrot* Professor of Human Relations and Chair of the Sociology Department at Tulane University. At Tulane’s Center for Inter-American Policy and Research he leads the Venezuelan Conflict and Peacebuilding Research Group. He was Program Chair of the Latin American Studies Association’s 2023 Congress and served as Chair of the Venezuelan Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association from 2010-12. He has researched Venezuela for over thirty years, living there for sixteen. His research focuses on culture, violence, political conflict, peacemaking, and human rights. He is an author or editor of six books, and author of thirty peer reviewed articles or chapters. He was editor of the journal *Qualitative Sociology* for eight years. In addition to his academic career he has done policy-work with the Washington Office on Latin America, the Atlantic Council, the Wilson Center for Scholars, the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation and Luminate. He has published opinion articles in the *New York Times*, *Washington Post*, *Foreign Policy* and *El Pais*, and is a frequent media commentator on the crisis in Venezuela ### Jose Morales-Arilla expand\_more **Jose Morales-Arilla** is currently a Research Professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey’s Graduate School of Government and Public Transformation and a Fellow at the BBVA-TEC Center for Trade Policy and Global Value Chains in North America. His research focuses on political economy and development economics, using advanced quantitative methods to study issues such as inequality, violence, trade, migration, and economic growth. He holds a PhD in Public Policy, with a focus on Economics, from Harvard University and has conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton University and Harvard’s Growth Lab. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. ### Margarita López Maya, expand\_more **Margarita López Maya,** historian and PhD in Social Sciences from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). She is a retired tenured professor at the Center for Development Studies (CENDES) at the same university. She was the director of the Journal of Economics and Social Sciences of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (FACES, UCV), a member of the Steering Committee of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), president of the Venezuelan Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and president-elect of LASA (2022-2023). She has been a visiting professor at prestigious universities such as ILAS at Columbia University, PLAS at Princeton University, the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame, CIPR at Tulane University, and is an emeritus professor at the University of Florida. She has also taught at the Woodrow Wilson International School in Washington, D.C., the University of Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia, and the University of Salamanca in Spain. Author of numerous academic articles, her books include the trilogy: From Black Friday to the recall referendum (Caracas, Alfadil, 2005), The decline of Chavismo. Venezuela 2005-2015 (Caracas, Grupo Alfa, 2016) and Democracy for Venezuela: representative, participatory or populist? (Caracas, Editorial Alfa, 2024). ### Steven Levitsky expand\_more **Steven Levitsky** is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard. He is Senior Fellow at the Kettering Foundation and a Senior Democracy Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His research focuses on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions, with a focus on Latin America. He is co-author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of *How Democracies Die*, which was a *New York Times* Best-Seller and was published in 30 languages, and *Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point*. He has written or edited 11 other books, including *Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective* (Cambridge University Press 2003), *Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War* (with Lucan Way) (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and *Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism* (with Lucan Way) (Princeton University Press, 2022). He and Lucan Way are currently working on a book on democratic resilience across the world. Professor Levitsky has written for *New York Times*, *The Washington Post*, *The Atlantic*, *Foreign Affairs*, and *The New Republic*, and he has been a columnist for *La Republica* (Peru) and *Folha de São Paulo* (Brazil). See also:- [ Cambridge ](/locations/cambridge-office) - [ Tuesday Seminar Series ](/programs-initiatives/tuesday-seminar-series) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#) Save: [ Add to calendar calendar\_today ](https://www.drclas.harvard.edu/node/1589701/event-feed.ics) Copy link link