[Oldsguy]

If that button is electric you need to make sure all your fuses are good and then make sure you have good wiring to the button and have 12 volts to it. If you do then make sure that there isn't damaged wiring from the button to the trunk. It is most likely routed down the passenger side under the stainless door sill strips. If the wiring has been damaged then that might be why the fuse which supplies that circuit has blown if you found a blown fuse earlier and it kept blowing when you replaced it. At any rate if you do all that and the trunk release still doesn't work remove the back panel of the back seat and see if you can get a really small neigbor kid to squeeze through one of those holes and operate the realease from inside the trunk. Of course run a drop light in there first. If junk or a spare tire is in the way then your hosed. All it takes to operate a trunk release from inside is a small straight blade screwdriver on most GM cars. If all that does'nt work, or you might try this first, get a new key cut from the old one, the finessing the PO described might be due to the worn key and a new one might work.