The Hugo Chavez Cult

I have tried to avoid discussion about the ongoing political issues in Venezuela. There were a large number of threads on the subject about his death among other issues. That has died down now ,so I feel it is the right time for such a thread.

First a little about me. I am from the UK but I have lived in Venezuela on and off for seven years. My wife is Venezuelan. I feel I understand the culture, people and the political divide that has been created.

I will now try and explain my personal opinion of the Chavez Legacy.
From opinions of friends and family members when Chavez first came to power in 1999 it was seen pretty much by all as a breath of fresh air, a change from the corruption and a step in the right direction.
This soon changed.....

A clear divide had been created. Mainly a class one but more importantly an education divide. The middle class (of which my Venezuelan family would be classified) now in the eyes of the government has become the underdog.
There is a lot of poverty in Venezuela. There is no need for a single person to be poor. Venezuela has huge oil,gas,and gold reserves.
Personally I agree that resources should be nationalized ,but the wealth needs to be used to make the infrastructure of the country. Investment in roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, agriculture, industry, properly trained police force, all of which would provide jobs and a sustainable economy for all, not just a select few.
Allthough some projects were started Chavez failed on all accounts. Whether it is incompetence or simply not caring, one things for certain it is not due to not having the available funds.

The main Chavez supporters are the poor. I don't like classifying them as that but that is what they are.
They mostly live in make shift shelters, made with a few blocks and corrugated iron, with a cable connected to the main overhead power cable, stealing the electricity to power what little electrical appliances they own. The authorities turn a blind eye to the electricity theft. This is probably due to the fact most of Chavez's propaganda was done through a television set.

Chavez is notorious for his long speeches and unless you have cable or satellite (which almost none of the poor do) if the tv was on then his propaganda could not be avoided.

So back to the point of the thread....

Chavez while alive was loved and supported by a vast number of people. In their eyes he could do no wrong.
Now in his death he is being elevated to a saint like persona. A second Simon Bolivar who Chavez clearly idolized. As most of you have probably seen Chavez's body (against his wishes) will be put on display in Caracas.
Linky

This will create a shrine to followers. He will become a cult figure, a hero, a legend a man of the people when in reality it couldnt be further from the truth.
Crime in Venezuela is at extreme levels, jobs are hard to find, there is serious lack of investment in infrastructure and inflation is crippling the people.
I am not saying he did not do some good. I am saying with the funds available the little he did is laughable.

Maduro who is the acting president (against the constitution) is obviously using Chavez's cult like obsession to secure his place as president of which will be decided on the 14th April.

There is a site that counts the amount of times in speeches he brings up Chavez. At the moment he has mentioned him 4672 times.
maduro says

The only way he can win the election is by using the cult status of Chavez not by his own merits.
In a county divided, even after his death I fear the legacy of Chavez will continue to divide. I hope one day the people can be united and the country can prosper as it certainly has the potential.

I could write all day but most have probably stopped reading already . I know there is divided opinion here about Chavez ,but history tells us, it never works out well when one person is idolized so much.

Thanks for reading comments and questions welcome

reply to post by maythetruthbeknown

Interesting piece sir, thanks for posting. S&F
It's always interesting to hear the opinions of someone with first hand knowledge of what they post rather than from a commentator.

I heard a radio interview recently with a journalist who was on a Venezualan tv chat show with 'El Presidente' and it was quite an insight into the man and how carefully his public persona was managed.

The cult of personality is a very powerful tool to influence people and has since time began been used by charismatic people to hide the fact that they are ineffectual rulers.
Politicians rely upon such phenomena and the short memories of the population.

As the old saying goes; 'Politics is showbusiness for ugly people'
A bit of razzmatazz fools the many

As the old saying goes; 'Politics is showbusiness for ugly people' A bit of razzmatazz fools the many

reply to post by HumansEh


Chavez due to his humble begins almost certainly wanted good for the underclass and the country. That said, being put on a pedestal and worshiped changes a person. I guess they feel all powerful. Stick two fingers up to the Americans ( oil and gas was always still traded) for show and amass huge amounts of wealth for both himself and inner circle.
Another familiar saying comes to mind "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" and how that rings true on so many occasions.

Thank you Op.

The problem I have is that when I read other stories and statistics I get the opposite view.

Always hard to separate reality from fiction on the internet. There will always be people who do not like a sitting Government and some of them go to extremes to make their dislike known.

So was he good or not. There are people who loved him as their leader, quite a few from the information I have seen. That is always a good sign.

P

reply to post by pheonix358


I grant you it is hard to determine fact from fiction. I have no love for corporations and in my opinion it was a good move to nationalize certain companies. However when there is no investment in the maintenance of said company's and the profits just seem to be siphoned off then obviously that is a bad thing.
An example of this is the electrical infrastructure. There are constant power outages due to lack of updating and maintenance of the equipment.
Crime is out of control. Life for some people is cheap. Personally not far from My wife's family's house outside a shopping center there was an attempted robbery. Two youths tried to grab a woman's handbag. She had a baby in a pram. She refused to hand it over. They shot the baby.
Now I would say this was an extreme case but sadly this is becoming more common.The divide has been created and whether it is to buy food or drugs it seems that the "bad " elements in the society (who by the way almost certainly support Chavez) have been conditioned to take from those that seen to be privileged.

When the country is united again and people are not afraid to go out is when the real change will happen.

"the hugo chavez cult"

oh, i thought for a minuet there this thread was going to be about the democrat party.

"hugo chavez isn't dead, he is in the whitehouse"--the great one


why is the middle class now considered the "underdog"?
because thats how it was planned.
there can't be a middle class marxist nation.
there can only be two classes, rich, and poor.
you must keep the two divided, and at each others throat at all times, so that the savior(dictator) can come in and make everything all warm and fuzzy again.

it's really quite simple why venezuala is in the shambles that it is in.

it's called marxism.

America will look just like venezuala in just a few short years, and then we will all be equal.
yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy