In a tweet hinting at defeat two hours before polls closed in congressional elections on Sunday, Venezuela’s vice-presidency praised Salvador Allende, the former Marxist president of Chile, for forging ahead “with parliament against him”. The tweet was deleted within minutes. But for those who saw it, the socialist government’s intentions were clear. The ruling party of the most polarised country in Latin America would not let its worst defeat in 17 years derail the Bolivarian revolution started by the late Hugo Chávez. Millions of Venezuelan voters punished the socialist PSUV party for allowing the custodian of the world’s largest oil reserves to become a virtual failed state rife with runaway inflation, rampant crime and severe shortages of basic goods. Official figures show that the opposition coalition won at least 99 out of 167 seats, but coalition insiders are certain they have secured 108 and perhaps five more on top of that. “We are not going to govern the assembly, we are going to govern the crisis,” said Jesús Torrealba, head of the coalition of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, or MUD.