Chavez- at it again

[Tribesman]

If anything, the asset freeze that's been granted indicates there may be merit in Exxon's case.

You mean that it managed to make it past the "barely capable of serious arguement" benchmark neccesary to secure an order .

How on Earth that can happen?

Its quite simple really Caius .
It can happen because some of his policies are actually not bad and some are quite good .
Large parts of the population have been screwed badly by former regimes , it is elements of those former regimes that form the main opposition , so when the choice is someone who may turn out bad and someone you know for sure is corrupt and is going to screw you over again at the first chance the probability is that the one who may turn out to be bad will be more popular than the one you already know is bad .
If the opposition wasn't so much of a bunch of idiots then perhaps Chavez wouldn't be able to get so much support in Venezuela .