Venezuela’s opposition is melting away. Agencia EFE gives a good description of how 200,000 opponents of the Chavez regime have largely drifted over into Miami, where they are both invisible and increasingly irrelevant to the revolution.

Coming to the U.S. is, in a sense, a revolution of its own, because it’s a transformative experience, that of becoming a free person amid vast opportunities, and given the choice between freedom here and fighting a thug at home, most people prefer to melt into the milieu. But it doesn’t do much for Venezuela.

The regime knows this and is using it as a safety valve to take popular pressure off itself as its failures become clearer. Mexico has been doing this for decades. This is one revolution that has failed because its own people don’t think it’s worth defending.