It was a curious week for President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela to launch a jovial radio show.

Venezuela’s political polarization appeared likely to devolve into widespread street violence this week until divine intervention, in the form of Vatican-mediated talks between the government and the opposition, led everyone to take a step back from the brink. Two nephews of the country’s first lady are scheduled to go on federal trial in Manhattan next week for drug trafficking. Inflation has grown so severe that businesses have begun to weigh, rather than count, stacks of Bolivares, Venezuela’s increasingly worthless currency.

But there was no hint that the roof is caving in at the presidential palace when Mr. Maduro launched “The Hour of Salsa” on Tuesday. The midday radio show hosted by the president airs daily on the government-run station and will pay homage to the country’s cultural heritage and the essence of “a people that the oligarchy will never manage to decode or understand,” Mr. Maduro explained during the inaugural broadcast.

The intent of the show, which the president vowed to host even when he’s on the road in Saudi Arabia, Moscow or Havana, is to “multiply happiness, because our people have the right to be happy.”

History offers a long line of embattled leaders who were slow or unwilling to grasp the severity of their problems as their time in power drew to an end. It’s impossible to say whether Mr. Maduro’s days in power are numbered, but it’s hard to see him holding on much longer as the economic situation deteriorates and opposition leaders argue over how to oust him.