Yesterday's official announcement that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez was dead confirmed the suspicions of many and turned the deepest fears of Venezuela's communist Chavistas into a reality. Chavez, their benefactor, their protector, their sugar daddy, if you will, was gone - forever. Now, they are left wondering and fearing if the dolts he left behind will be as proficient at the criminal corruption and cronyism Chavez turned into an art form and which they had become so accustomed to.

Naturally, fear and dismay breeds desperation. And when people who thrive on violence and criminality become desperate, they begin to commit indiscriminate acts of violence and criminality. Like the one that took place yesterday in Chacao, Venezuela, when mobs of Chavista police officers attacked a group of students who had set up a protest camp in that city demanding the government tell the truth about Chavez's health. The pro-Chavez police thugs set fire to the tents while others swooped in to steal the students' possessions:

In what surely will not help allay the fears of Chavismo's benefactors, the administration of Nicolas Maduro seems to be just as scared of a Venezuela without Chavez. As Maduro made his announcement that Chavez was dead and gone, the military was ordered to take to the streets in a show of force that says more about his weakness than it does about his strength:

When you have no ideas, no solutions, no honor, no respect for humanity, and no respect for the rule of law, you resort to violence and intimidation.