Earlier this week, Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela staged parliamentary and regional elections stripped of any legitimacy. The leading opposition coalition, led by María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, boycotted the vote after key candidates were barred and electoral conditions rendered fair competition impossible. Maduro’s party declared near-total victory, seizing 253 of 277 seats and 23 of 24 governorships. For most Venezuelans, it was not an election — it was a farce.

Just over two weeks earlier, white smoke had risen over St. Peter’s Square in Rome, announcing the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV. Shortly after, the Kyiv Independent reported on a previously published interview with the Peruvian outlet Semanario Expresión, in which the then-cardinal denounced Russia’s war on Ukraine as “a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power.”

Though spoken before his election, the statement stands out for its moral clarity, especially in contrast to the often-diplomatic language of the late Pope Francis, who was frequently criticized for his reluctance to condemn authoritarian regimes, even on his home continent.

A member of the Order of Saint Augustine, Pope Leo XIV spent decades in pastoral and missionary work in Peru’s impoverished Chiclayo region, embodying what it means to be “American” in the universal, catholic sense. His Augustinian roots — and his choice of the name Leo — have drawn early attention. Likely a nod to Leo........

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