The party’s reaction to Florencio Marin’s decision to hold a convention defies elementary political calculus and holds lessons for the leadership of Johnny Briceño. Mr. Briceño is placing diversions on his own road and leading himself into a political cul-de-sac. There, he might find that he is a sitting duck without ever becoming a lame one.

As the effects of climate change set it, governments in underdeveloped countries are reduced to holding crumbling infrastructure together. Their promises of social progress rapidly evaporate in the sweltering reality of sudden, unbudgeted losses caused by climate change. They seem fated to be consigned to another decade of underdevelopment.