Ten years after the death of the former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the 58yearold Caracas still carries images of the country’s most valuable leader, who continues with a vigilant, almost ubiquitous presence. Walking through the capital one can see his face stamped on walls and walls, making Chávez a figure that no living politician, either Chavista or opponent, can overshadow.
For example, if a new election were held today, everything indicates that Chávez would emerge victorious, no matter who his opponent is. According to research firm Datanalisis, the former president has a 56% positive rating, compared to 22% for his successor, current president Nicolás Maduro.
Luis Vicente León, director of the research company, told the Spanish newspaper El País that the main reason was the death of the leader at the time of his rise, which would completely freeze his image and become an idol for many Venezuelans.
Mural with the face of Hugo Chávez in Caracas. 03/02/2023 (Miguel ZAMBRANO/AFP)
Chávez is considered the leader who connected with millions of Venezuelans and became an icon. Days before assuming the presidency, in February 1999, the Presidentelect and the writer Gabriel García Márquez shared a plane, and as he stepped off the plane, the Colombian Nobel laureate did not fail to write how “shocked “He was inspired by having traveled and conversed freely with two opposite men: the one whose eternal happiness offered him the chance to save his country. And the other an illusionist who could go down in history as another despot”.
The former president could have been either, but he was viewed by his people as a beloved leader. His death was announced by the current Venezuelan President in March 2013. At the time, many people believed that Chavismo’s days were numbered a false assumption.
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When Chávez took office as president, he had the money left over from the world’s largest oil and gas reserves as an ace up his sleeve. At the time, Venezuela thrived on waiting for technological modernization and infrastructure rather than social distribution or poverty, and Chávez promised to turn things around.
The Venezuelan founded a new model of political communication long before social media. From the Alô radio program he spoke to the people every Sunday and started and opened government projects. Despite scandalous poverty and a record flight of people fleeing the ongoing crisis, these are reasons why a system that came to liberate the poorest is still alive.
According to political scientist and author Colette Capriles, Chavismo is a complex movement: a selfinterested coalition that has entered a narrative of historical change, made up of people from the old left and the more moderate left, as well as military and social dissatisfaction with the built democracy.
“Chavismo was a moment of historical change for them, Chávez made it possible, but he was older than him,” Capriles told El País.
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Although Chavismo had its deepest moments, he managed to redirect them after his death. The brutal deterioration that the country has entered into after the death of the former president is not just Maduro’s fault, but the fault of the model created by Chávez, based on expropriation, populism and public spending.
“Chávez knew better than Maduro how to hide the weaknesses of the revolution,” added the director of Datanálisis.
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With presidential elections scheduled for 2024, democratic forces are a long way from articulating a coalition and finding a candidate to resolve deep disagreements. The past few years have shown Venezuela that Chavismo is bigger than Maduro, and even its critics remain Chavistas.
Several people are currently pointing to a “Peronization” of Chávez. In his last living speech, the former president even referred to himself in the third person.
“Chávez is not just this person, Chávez is a great collective. Chávez is the heart of the people and the people are the heart of Chávez,” said the Venezuelan, who died 87 days later, on March 5, 2013.