William Dobson at Slate:
‘What does it stand for? Populism, socialism, militarism, xenophobia, nationalism, Marxism, anti-Americanism, class warfare, Bolivarian revolution, lawlessness, corruption, financial collapse—it depends on where you stand.’
Christopher Hitchens at Slate-Hugo Boss:
‘The boss loves to talk and has clocked up speeches of Castro-like length. Bolívar is the theme of which he never tires. His early uniformed movement of mutineers—which failed to bring off a military coup in 1992—was named for Bolívar.’
A video at The Economist-What’s Next For Chavismo?’
Do the Chavistas go on?
There are a loyal group of followers crying in the autocratic populist’s wake, as he directed the spigot of oil wealth somewhat in their direction. There are also some other anti-American, anti-capitalist types who hold him up as a model.
Addition: From the comments at this Foreign Policy piece:
‘I like to think of Hugo Chavez as the result of what would happen if a politician of the limited intellect, naiveté and fiery populism of a Jesse Jackson on the left or Sarah Palin on the right were to win the presidency in our country, or better yet, if a reality TV star became president.’
He found a useful friend in Sean Penn: