The 13-year presidency of Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026) came to a dramatic end on 3 January when US special forces seized the Venezuelan leader and his wife against a backdrop of airstrikes in Caracas and whisked them away to face drugs and weapons charges in a New York courtroom. Few Venezuelans will miss Maduro, who after a narrow victory in the 2013 election clung to power through ever more repressive and dictatorial means.

Recently, the electoral pattern across Latin America and the Caribbean has been for incumbent governments to be thrown out by voters angered by poor economic performance. In Guyana, President Irfaan Ali of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has bucked the trend: in polls on 1 September, he was re-elected to serve another five-year term.

Newly re-elected President Irfaan Ali will have to move fast on promises to convert his country's sizable oil income into tangible benefits for Guyana's poor, beyond huge prestige infrastructure projects.