"The graveyards are full of indispensable men," said Georges Clemenceau, prime minster of France during the First World War. He promptly died to prove his point. He was duly replaced, and France was just fine without him. Same goes for Hugo Chavez and Venezuela.
"Comandante Presidente" Chavez's death last Tuesday came as no surprise. He was clearly coming home to die when he returned from his last bout of surgery in Cuba in December, and since then everybody in politics in Venezuela has been pondering their post-Chavez strategies.
But none of them really knows what will happen in the election that will be held by the end of April, let alone what happens afterwards.