I have the sense that the students (bless their brave hearts) protest, started to open the flood gates.

1. We had resignations of vice president and his lovely wife.

2. We had ex judges voice out loud, their dismay at the erroding of the democratic process.

3. We had a group of influencial business, political, social and other leaders in VZ put out a statement to the same affect, as well as criticizing the arrest of judges for following the law, and closure of newspapers, and radio and tv stations.

4. We had a judge ( who herself got arrested) release a political opposition leader who had been held for 2 years without trial.

5. We've had news articles that have been much more forthright in their cricizm of Chavez.

6. We've had enough sh#t raised about the lack of investment in VZ industry and resource extraction, that Chavez is starting to ask for international investment.

More and more have started to raise their voices, ( I can't remember all of them )with little to no response from Chavez, other than to buy more arms, build 'community' armies, and threaten anyone who's thinking of a coupe.......

Looks to me that our man in Caracas is kinda backing up to the preverbial fence with his friends ( at least he hopes their his friends )

We'll really know he's sh#tting his pants when he really starts arresting more of his armed forces leaders.

Pen