The man is a dictator Stof. He may not yet be ruthless, but he is certainly a dictator, authoritarian to the bone. Regardless of what you may think of his social bribes, he is shutting down opposing media (print form and television) and attempting to remove review processes through legislation and constitutional changes. By definition these elections were not democratic, whether he wins or loses, as he suppressed the media heavily wherever it opposed him.
He uses the same anti-Western populist crap adopted by Vladamir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They simply tell their population's that the USA is responsible for all their troubles, throw oil money at the masses with no respect for the severe long-term economic impact of such policies (inflation and interest rates), and suppress the media and opposition groups to hide this sad truth.
I tend to find the same people that support Chavez and his political likenesses in other countries in their efforts to gain strong control over their populations through the violation of democratic rights, startlingly oppose George W. Bush's Patriot Act. As someone who opposes both the Patriot Act AND the policies of these authoritarian leaders, I can tell you that their human-rights abuses dwarf those of ANY US politician. Exactly what long-term political, social and economic price do you think the poor of these countries would accept for short-term oil-based relief, if they were permitted by their governments to know all the facts, and had access to all the information we do?
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