Mas Miwa, former Engineer at Hughes Space and Communications

Thanks Dick. This is an accurate and well written answer on Quora. I started following the writer.

Things have really calmed down here in the last couple of months. It's my impression that the people among the  opposition have lost hope for an insurrection since the failures of the Juan Guaido fiasco and attacks on the electrical grid and that they would be willing to negotiate with the government for peace if they had rational and reliable leaders.

There hasn't been more pot banging, anti-government marches and guarimbas. Many have been sad to see members of their families move away; the ongoing cyber attacks and blackouts equally affect them and the price gouging is squeezing the middle class as they lack the ideological reasons of the poor who see their suffering as a worthy sacrifice for independence and sovereignty.

Likewise, the domestic business owners have been watching their profits going down the drain and their peers lose their businesses altogether. But the so-called opposition "leaders" and media are still financed and propped up by the US with attempts to strangle chavismo.

The chavistas, both fervent and marginal, and the poor, on the other hand, seem to be growing stronger and more confident by the day despite hunger, lack of medicines and many other forms of suffering. So the sanctions seem to be failing to achieve their goal of crushing chavismo here. For one example, last Sunday friends and I joined a celebration of Chávez birthday, a peaceful walk in the city ending in a park near my house where a major street was blocked off by the GNB and local police with volleyball, basketball and small soccer courts set up, a massive sound system with revolutionary music and a lot of dancing in the street. It was the biggest chavista turnout I've seen in La Victoria in years, a very upbeat and happy day.

So despite all the huffing and puffing by Elliot Abrams, John Bolton, Pence, Pompeo, Little Marco and Trump I'm cautiously optimistic at least for now. Of course we have to be vigilant, prepared for the next yanqui attack. Surely they have something else up their sleeve but short of an invasion, they appear to be gradually running out of options.

Best,

Les