Quico says: How big a hit did Chávez’s popularity take after his referendum defeat last year? According to Datos, by the third week in December just 30% of Venezuelans were expressing confidence in Chávez personally, and a paltry 21% still had confidence in the government. That’s just dismal. We haven’t seen numbers like these since the height of the hyper-polarization period in 2002 and 2003.

Alvaro Vargas Llosa thinks he knows why that is: the misiones have basically fallen apart.

If this keeps up, OD will be shooting at an open goal in October. Can they miss?