Hugo Chavez

[Pedro9604]

Hello, I'm an IB student from Venezuela, the president of my country Hugo Chavez died yesterday and suddenly Venezuela is the spotlight for the international press and community.

I think that with the dead of the president its just the first step for a new era, Hugo Chavez divided the country in 2 sides, the officialism (supporters of his government) and the opposition of chavez's government.

The government of chavez was full of constitution's violations, human right's violation, bad economic situation, corruption and insecurity "the bright side" was the help for the poor class, his supporters nowadays, he helped them and put them in the "spotlight" I think if he supports so much that class, in 14 years of his government they wouldn't be poor, and they still.

The socialism is dead, Chavez tried to bring the socialism to this century, he had an slogan "Homeland, Socialism or Dead" the dead is the only thing he had left.

The constitution said that in the next 30 days must be elections to choose a new president, Nicolas Maduro is the "succesor" of Chavez and he asked in December 2012 (the last time we saw him in public) to vote for him. Henrique Capriles possibly will be the candidate of the opposition for the elections. He lost against Chavez in the last presidential elections in October of 2012.

What do you think?

Will Venezuela be free of the socialism/communism/Castro's regime? or The ideas or chavez / and his succesor Nicolas Maduro will last for a long time in my country?

[Luka Petrovic]

Sure it may be a step towards a new era, but it doesn't mean a better era. FYI I'm a political pessimist so get ready for a little rain on parade, for Chavez or against him.

Realistically any government will be fraught with those kinds of issues, no offence especially in South America, its just the political nature of the region I don't think there is much you can do about that, its due to history, culture and society, can;t really change it so you have to work within it. So Socialist or capitalist. A friendly of the Cubans or the Americans, it doesn't matter. Both will have human rights violations, poor economic situations and corruption.

To say socialism is dead is a rather broad unsupported statement, I'm pretty sure countries with high taxes and high government control in Northern Europe such as Sweden, Iceland and Denmark are doing great, so yes maybe the Castro/ Marx brand is dead, but not socialism by any means, infact its saved these very countries from the ills of other developed nations.

And to answer your prediction I think the opposition will win, people sway easily when things don't go well for a president, even for a party that has been trying its hardest (ex. Obama, he can't reverse economics/ financial mistakes with a 40 year history in 2 terms) so I think the people of Venezuela will want to try something new. That being said, no promises on positive or political stability.

On a more personal and less political note, I hope everything works out in your favour.

Good luck!

[Guest]

Well, it took South Korea, where I come from, quite a bit of time to become somewhat politically stable. Lots of demos, a military coup, messed up voting and etc.

It's probably gonna take some time for Venezuela some time to become politically stable.

Don't get discouraged.

In terms of economics......I don't know...Looks pretty bad...

But overall, probably gonna take 50~70 years-ish for Venezuela to become politically stable and economically sound.

But I'm just a random 11th grader. Don't take what I say seriously.

[dniviE]

While he did in fact divide the country in two, the one half is way larger (the poor or less fortunate) than the other one (the rich and more fortunate). I think who you ask gives a lot of different answers on the future situation of Venezuela. If you ask a rich person, they will surely say that it is part of a new and better era as Chavez' tax-regime and socialist practices are more prone to crumble under a new government. If you ask someone that is poor or less fortunate, they will say it's going to get worse and that Chavez was the hero. And he was really a hero for them; he brought millions out of poverty and helped millions of poor citizens to mobilise in the political climate. He made them feel that they had an important role in the political climate and therefore they voted for him. He enabled them to do so.

Edited March 7, 2013 by dniviE