A mixed legacy
Hugo Chavez, the 58-year-old President of oil-rich Venezuela who succumbed to cancer on Tuesday after a two-year fight, was a charismatic if polarising anti-American political genius who used his nation’s massive oil revenues to wage a war on poverty.
He succeeded in great measure in the 14 years he was at the helm, having been elected twice. The percentage of the poor in the country fell from 61 per cent to 31 per cent, and extreme poverty declined to a mere seven per cent.
Mr Chavez’s passionate concern for the marginalised was noted in the UN Security Council’s tribute as it observed a minute’s silence to honour the departed President.
While the Venezuelan leader followed in the tradition of the great Latin American radical democrat Simon Bolivar (and some even compared his zeal with Latin American romantic revolutionary Che Guevara), it is far from certain if his political legacy can really be carried forward.
Mr Chavez fought poverty but was not known to build democratic institutions that might sustain the fight after him. The emphasis on his own leadership, and that of a handful of others, was his preferred way. The question now is whether Venezuela will be hit by political turmoil — with likely consequences for international energy economics — or can maintain a modicum of stability.
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