With Chávez’s Illness, Is the Left All Right in Venezuela?
By Robert Valencia, Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
When Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez spent a long absence from his country in Cuba earlier last year, opponents and sympathizers alike wondered about his future as his nation’s undisputed commander in chief. Indeed, Chávez’s current health condition has fostered many questions about the expectations of his left-leaning constituency in Venezuela, while the opposition will have to struggle for little success in trying to convince Venezuelans outside of the middle class that Chávez will eventually mean totalitarianism for the country; the Venezuelan president must realize that his Bolivarian Revolution is genuinely seen by many of his countrymen as a threat to free and independent institutions, and that his sometimes heavy-handed rule could lead to a robust comeback by his foes.
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