VENEZUELA-CHAVEZ/ANNIVERSARY Chavez socialism still reigns in troubled Venezuela on two-year death anniversary

Record ID: 633022

  • Title: VENEZUELA-CHAVEZ/ANNIVERSARY Chavez socialism still reigns in troubled Venezuela on two-year death anniversary
  • Date: 4th March 2015
  • Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (MARCH 03, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PRESIDENT OF THE SINAI COMMUNAL COUNCIL, DOMINGO REBOLLEDO, AT ENTRANCE TO HIS HOME CHAVEZ MURAL AT ENTRANCE TO REBOLLEDO'S HOME (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PRESIDENT OF THE SINAI COMMUNAL COUNCIL, DOMINGO REBOLLEDO, SAYING: "I feel the same pain I felt two years ago. Talking about Chavez is like talking about the loss of
  • Embargoed: 19th March 2015 12:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7VM7V5QWZPW9HP5X7NG7YQJBZ
  • Story Text: Almost two years after Venezuela's former President Hugo Chavez died from cancer, emotions are still running high in the polarised South American nation for their former strongman whose brand of 21st century socialism saw him both lauded and reviled as a populist champion of the poor.
    Although he died from cancer on March 5, 2013, the memory of Chavez remains vivid even as his legacy is being questioned.
    During nearly 15 years in office, Chavez pulled millions of Venezuelans from poverty with dozens of social programmes implemented thanks to decades of prolific oil revenues.
    Amongst Chavez's most popular policies was a commitment to build millions of new homes for the country's poorest.
    Domingo Rebolledo was one of the many who benefited from Chavism. He likened the loss of the former president to that of a father.
    "I feel the same pain I felt two years ago. Talking about Chavez is like talking about the loss of a father and we truly feel this because today we have a working-class president, a revolutionary, a socialist and many of us have made the error of saying that Maduro is not Chavez. However, it's totally the opposite because everyone says "we are Chavez", he said.
    Chavez's education programme saw the creation of public school programmes to raise tuition amongst the poor as well as a funding boost to medical services in the country's embattled public hospital system.
    Nurse Carmen Gonzalez told Reuters that Chavez's spirit still lives on.
    "Of course we've missed him because he's physically not here, but spiritually he is present. When we watch television all day we say "he's not there, he's not dead"," she said.
    But two years on not everyone is commemorating the former president. A series of violent protests, rampant inflation and product shortages has seen many turn sour on Chavism and successor President Nicolas Maduro.
    In an opinion poll released in January, Maduro's approval rating has slipped to 22 percent, the lowest of his nearly two-year rule. Venezuela enters 2015 with the ruling "Chavismo" movement at arguably its lowest ebb since a brief coup against Chavez in 2002.
    "The imprint that Chavez left behind has been declining in an important way. It's been declining because two years ago lots of people called themselves "Chavistas", more than those who identify themselves as "Chavista" today." Two years ago the number of ("Chavista") two years was about 40% and today it wouldn't reach 20%," said political analyst, Carmen Fernandez.
    Amongst one of Maduro and Chavez's fiercest critics is opposition lawmaker Maria Corina Machado, who was indicted last year on charges that she took part in an alleged plot to kill President Nicolas Maduro.
    Machado blamed a legacy of 15 years of Chavez rule for the country's myriad of economic problems and increasing political polarisation.
    "We are reaping what was sown during Hugo Chavez's mandate, the destruction of the productive capacity of the country, of institutions and it's independence, including the confrontation and polarisation of society as state policy," she said.
    But with recession-hit Venezuela reeling from a 64 percent inflation rate and a plunge in global oil prices, some of Caracas' residents say that have moved on and forgotten Chavez.
    "With how things are going we're not missing President Hugo Chavez. People have already gotten used to it and have practically forgotten him already," said local, Henry Delgado.
    Facing parliamentary elections this year, Chavism could well hang in the balance with Maduro.
    Today, Chavez's body remains enshrined in a sarcophagus in the Museum of Revolution in Caracas. His Bolivarian revolution did not die with him but it is facing challenges that even perhaps Chavez could not have foreseen.
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