According to a survey conducted by Datanalsis, six out of ten Venezuelans are currently thinking about, or are in the process of, emigrating from the country.
Luis Vicente Leon, explained that while wealthier Venezuelans are more likely to be actively pursuing emigration due to the economic requirements of the process, the majority of Venezuelans who wish to one day be able to leave the country tend to be poor.
The survey revealed that the average Venezuelan leaving the country now is 18-35 years old, and has a combination of education and capital that allows them to become attractive candidates for immigration to foreign countries.
The Datanalisis survey suggests that the rate at which Venezuelans are moving out of the country is steadily increasing at least to the United States. According to U.S. Census data, the number of Venezuelans residing in the United States rose 135% between 2000 and 2010, from 91,507 to 215,000 Venezuelans.
Capriles Pessimistic About State of MUD
Henrique Capriles, current governor of Miranda state and former presidential candidate, expressed pessimism over the current state of the largest opposition bloc, the Mesa de Unidad Democratica (MUD). Capriles said that while he believed the MUD suffered because of its diverse make-up, he wants the different opposition parties to put aside their differences and agree on unifieid electoral platforms:
There are different visions… from what I’ve seen, there’s no way to form links, there’s no willingness to respect each other. Well, let’s try to reach an electoral agreement, an agreement so that when elections come, you won’t take those of us who want change and split us across two platforms, or three platforms, or four platforms, because that simply will not allow us to win.
Capriles also called on the MUD to “put aside hypocrisy and falsehoods”, and to get to work on creating a better Venezuela.
RUMOUR: Venevision Bought by Government
UPDATE: As of the writing of this post (August 10, 2014) Venevision’s purchase has not been confirmed.
The Venezuelan government finalized its purchase of Venevision today, one of the country’s largest television networks. The network will cease independent operations on January 1 2015, at which time it will be entirely owned and operated by the Venezuelan state.
Venevision’s purchase brings bleak news for the Venezuelan television media landscape. RCTV, a large independent network, was shut down by the government in 2007. Globovision, another originally-independent network, has come under increasing government control in recent years, starting with the government’s purchase of a 25.8% stake in the network in 2010.
In Venezuela 
Is it really government-bought (a nationalization) or a private, pro-government sell out such as Globovision or Últimas Noticias?
Hi Raul,
Oops! I forgot to link my source. I’ve updated the Venevision section to include it. The news is unconfirmed at this time – I will update the post to reflect that fact.
It looks like it’s the latter. It appears that Gustavo Cisneros, who was the owner up until the completion of the sale, has passed on a majority share to (according to dirariolavoz.net) “the hands of the government of Nicolas Maduro Moros”). So it looks like, if true, this is a Globovision-style situation.