Venezuela's Maduro gives ultimatum to Caracas protesters

[MADem]

49. Raul just left....he was no doubt filling Maduro's ear...I get the sense either Maduro

isn't listening (he's fearful of doing a full-bore crackdown, which I suspect Raul is pushing) or isn't listening hard enough and doesn't quite get what Raul wants out of him.

I heard that some of the VZ "troops" that were beating on the protesters weren't Venezuelan. No idea if that's accurate, but there have been charges of Cuban accents under those helmets and behind those shields.

Cabello, who by most accounts was Chavez's logical successor, wanted a little distance from Cuba; that's why Raul told Chavez to pick "Maburro" as the students call him. He's more easily manipulated, but the problem, I think, is that he's a lot like Karzai in Afghanistan...he needs a lot of care and feeding, he's a whiner, and he's not all that smart.