The Trial (And Errors) of Hugo Chávez

Venezuelans are debating whether Chávez is putting the windfall of revenue from oil revenues to good use or squandering it through disorganization, corruption and misplaced priorities

By Steve Ellner

In April 2006, after a failed attempt to demolish the structurally unsafe bridge on the highway connecting Caracas with the Port of La Guaira, the Chávez opposition expressed outrage at government incompetence. Manuel Rosales, the opposition candidate in the December 2006 presidential elections, accused President Hugo [RETURN TO ARTICLE]

  • Reader Comments

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    Thanks to Steve Ellner for a thoughtful discussion of Chavez and his politics and challenges. Given the close relationhip between Chavez and Fidel, and thus between Venezuela and Cuba, readers of this might be interested in the CubaNews list, a free Yahoo news group which has been active for seven years. Lots of material about Venezuela and about Cuba’s relations with Venezuela can be found in this news group, including a database with over 70 thousand items which is easily searchable and you don’t have to be subscribed to use it.

    Details:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/

    My father and his parents lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1942. They were German Jewish refugees from Hitler

    United States Posted by walterlx on Aug 27, 2007 at 3:28 PM

    Interesting, but I would strongly recommend people check out an analysis in Revolution newspaper that gets into the economic nitty gritty of why, although there have been some advancements, Chavez’s strategy can never be truly liberating.

    Hugo Chavez Has an Oil Strategy…but can this lead to liberation?

    United States Posted by MLMrev on Sep 2, 2007 at 4:16 PM

    I think steve puts too much faith on the trial and error process as a viable strategy for chavism, and that it will be accepted by the venezuelan population. Errors in the chavism performance has taken high costs on his popularity and the credibility of its potential, especially when it has used the state coercion and despotism techniques from authoritarian regimes (political clientelism) against its owns and the disidents.  Horizontal governance and participation, freedom of speech, political freedom, economic freedom, are values shared between 90% of venezuelans…..in contrast to a vertical and centralized radical socialism. Because of this, Opposition now seems like the only option for future Venezuela, especially when opossition is capitalizing social aid strategies and better governance performance in federal states.

    Canada Posted by carlosportillo on Jul 30, 2008 at 5:14 PM
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