it's a nifty way to do away with your political opposition while telling the masses that you're protecting them from all those evil capitalists.

It has the hallmarks of his Cuban mentors, who like draconian and repressive solutions whenever possible. After all, we have to remember Fidel Castro was quoted by Mario Silva as saying democracy was a worthless invention of the burguesie.

If he doesn't, then it exposes his political weakness and he'll be gone in short order.

If he does, then I wonder whether he would use this authority to move against his more dangerous internal political rivals (Diosdado Cabello, in particular) or the opposition.

However I think he has a good enough handle on things that his faltering government will survive. Just as Chavez has done during times of crisis.

Diosdado Cabello won't move until the rest of his class gets promoted. And Maduro is taking his good old time on that one.

It's more of a persecution grab, get anyone you can of the opposition, and hope the anti-corruption program doesn't affect chavistas (there may be a few dangling chavistas who aren't trusted and who need to be taken down).

Fidel is a pig and he can't be worm food soon enough.