“Whatever happened to Christmas?” Frank Sinatra once asked. In Venezuela, the answer is that it has been brought forward to October. The country’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, made the curious announcement that this year’s festivities would begin in October on Monday, in the midst of a political bleak midwinter for his crisis-stricken land. “It’s September and it already feels like Christmas. So this year – as a way of paying tribute to you and thanking you – I’m...