Your opinion about Hugo Chávez

[MIKE]

Well I guess the title and the poll options say it all: are you a supporter of Chavez' politics or do you consider that's he's nothing more than a tyrant or a dictator?

[Antoine]

I voted second choice.

I actually had a very bad opinion of Hugo Chavez at first. I met a few Venezuelans and their opinions about their leader surprised me to say the least. In short their explanation was that yes Hugo Chavez wasn't the smartest and/or most righteous president, but that he made the necessary reforms to redistribute the wealth of Venezuela's natural resources, reforms that no former president made.

I then understood why and how he was elected and re-elected.

Even though those facts made me think and research that matter more, doubting some of the 100% anti-Chavez Western media, I still believe he's a bad thing that happened to Venezuela. Amongst some of the bad moves he made and that I recall:
- Wanting to change the constitution, in order to be able to represent himself indefinitely.
- Distributing key governmental positions across the country and especially in his home region to family and supporters.
- Shutting down or limiting the freedom of media groups that criticize him.
- Corruption raising with Petro-dollars and other advantages distributed to those who support the government.

[MIKE]

- Wanting to change the constitution, in order to be able to represent himself indefinitely.

Better late than never! Here's an update to that post, in relation to what you mentioned:

on February the 16th, the majority of Venezuelan voters (54%) backed the amendment abolishing term limits for electing officials, in other words allowing elected politicians to re-present themselves indefinately.

quoting an interesting read from the Gurdian.co.uk:

Voters had narrowly rejected a referendum to abolish presidential term limits in December 2007.

Chávez learned lessons from that defeat, this time widening the terms of the referendum to allow mayors and governors to run indefinitely, giving them an incentive to mobilise support.

The government's "red machine" waged a formidable campaign. Posters urging a "yes" vote saturated the country, state TV networks cheered for the "si" and civil servants were sent out to canvass.

A flyer gave 10 reasons for voting yes. Number one said: "Chávez loves us and love is repaid with love", and the second stated: "Chávez is incapable of doing us harm".

The opposition, a fragmented coalition of small political parties and university students, accepted defeat but complained that the government had hijacked state resources and hobbled the "no" campaign.

"There was an abuse of power," David Smolanksy, a student leader, said.

Analysts said Venezuela's vote could embolden leaders in countries such as Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador to seek indefinite re-election, a return of the "big man" syndrome of charismatic autocrats that marked much of the region's 20th-century history.

"Many who are worried about unlimited executive power will be dispirited by the results. The record of such indefinite re-election in the region has been very unhappy," Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank, said.

At a news conference on Saturday, Chávez sought to allay such concerns and said staying in office for more than a decade was not unusual. He cited examples including the US president Franklin Roosevelt.

The timing for this referundum was important. With the economical crisis spreading out slowly but surely, the Venezualan government has to make unpopular changes. The referendum had to take place before such economical measures and difficult reforms would take place.
This has now started: you can read it here Chavez Cuts Spending, Raises Tax in Anti-Crisis Moves