silver, the national assembly september elections will tell a lot imo. i'd like to see the opposition take control of the NA (i dont know that they can)...either way we're stuck with hugo until at least 2012...from what i see in ven papers there is a popular trend away from nationalizations and a growing concern about communism.

once hugo is gone venezuela is going to have a lot of debt and promises to pay back for the next couple decades...i would expect a much better business environment at that point but the next couple years are probably going to be rocky...

unfortunately, hugo's done an excellent job of breaking any opposition unity. anyone who had a chance with leadership skills is in jail or dead.

i'm not sure about arias but some of the chamber of commerce leaders look very promising but they wont make any political moves without a popular change in the NA imo..if the opposition does somehow pull out a unified victory then i would suspect the next "el presidente hopefuls" will start coming out of the woodwork.