Venezuelan protest overrun by government forces.

[MADem]

100. The point that is escaping your notice is that the poor--and the brown, and the black--are on the

barricades.

The "politicians" are out of this fight. This is not about Lopez, or Capriles. It's about Maduro not because of his party affiliation, but because of his brute incompetence. Any of Chavez's compatriots, like Cabello (who was far closer to Chavez than Maduro, but less friendly to Cuba than Nicolas is, so -- as Cuba lied to Hugo about his prognosis and treated him incompetently for his cancer--he didn't get the "anointing" nod, because Hugo believed those idiots who kept lying to him), could step up and people wouldn't mind so long as the lights stay on, the water runs from the tap, there's food to buy in the shops, and Cuba stops meddling in domestic VZ affairs (and helping themselves to oil revenues VZ needs to pay their OWN bills).

The "opposition" as a political force is not unified. You can't say that for the people in the streets, many of whom are what must be defined, by any measure, as once-upon-a-time "Chavistas." They are very much unified in that they want the crime rate to be lowered, the murders to stop, the shortages to end, inflation to abate, and they want a tolerable quality of life and a future for themselves. NO ONE has that now, regardless of their "station" in life, their political affiliation, where they live, and Maduro lacks the ability to fix the situation.

That's what the issue is, here. And every time the police or NG murder a protester in the street (which they keep doing), it only serves to energize the students and their supporters.