mexico city — Hugo Chavez has called the United States an “empire” and President George W. Bush “the devil.” Condemning capitalism as “the road to hell,” he pushed an alternative economic model that led to the nationalization of key industries and the redistribution of wealth.
During his fourteen years as president of Venezuela, Chavez warned of a CIA plot to kill him and steal his country’s vast oil reserves, saying: “Motherland, socialism or death!”
Now that the United States has attacked Venezuela and imprisoned Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, the future of the leftist movement formed by Chavez – known as Chávez – may be at stake.
Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodriguez, insists her country “will not be a colony” of any imperialist power, but appears willing to tolerate President Trump’s demands that the US get “full access” to Venezuelan oil.
Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, called for reforms in Venezuela’s energy sector to attract foreign investment, and released dozens of dissidents who were previously considered enemies of the Chavista revolution.
“Venezuela is entering a new political era, one that allows for understanding despite political and ideological differences and diversity,” Rodriguez said last week. On Thursday, she sat in the capital, Caracas, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, whose agency helped plan Maduro’s kidnapping.
“It is interesting to see how a hardline Chavista like Delsey has turned 180 degrees after just one week of assuming the presidency,” said Imdat Oner, a former Turkish diplomat in Caracas.
Some analysts now wonder whether the days of Chavismo, which has allowed Chavez to concentrate power under the banner of glorifying nationalism, populism and what he describes as “21st century socialism,” are numbered.
“I think he is in intensive care, and I don’t think he will leave the operating room,” said Enrique Krauz, a Mexican historian who wrote a biography of Chavez. Krause said the movement was undermined by the US attack, discredited by authoritarianism, rampant corruption among leaders and the economic crisis caused by falling oil prices and US sanctions that prompted a quarter of the population to flee.
Krause said the ideas of Chavez, a charismatic figure who inspired a generation of leftists in Latin America, have been irrevocably distorted.
“Venezuelans are exhausted after 26 years of Chavismo,” Venezuelan journalist Boris Muñoz wrote in an article. time magazine. It is understandable that many are willing to accept American guardianship as a price to pay.”
Other political analysts say Chavismo remains strong, even if aspects of its identity have changed since its name died from cancer 13 years ago.
Chavismo is not a fad. It is a way of life and conviction in principles.
-Wilson Barrios
“What’s left of Chavismo? Everything,” said Javier Corrales, a political science professor at Amherst College. Except for the removal of Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, who now face drug trafficking charges in the United States, “no one has been displaced,” Corrales said. “The inner circle, the military generals, Collective“And the governors and the mayors – they’re all there.”
He noted that Chavez, despite his fierce anti-American rhetoric, maintained extensive oil trade with the United States. He said that making current deals with the Americans “does not constitute a departure from anything Chavismo has ever stood for.”
In Caracas, where faded pictures of Chavez still adorn the walls, there is a sense that little has changed since American bombs shook residents awake in the pre-dawn hours of January 3. In the eyes of many Venezuelans who despised Maduro and his rule, this was disappointing. For those who support the government, this is a relief.
On a sunny morning last week, about 2,000 Chavistas gathered on a downtown street.
“It won’t be easy to wipe out socialism overnight with a few bombs and kidnapping a president,” said Wilson Barrios, 37, who works in the Education Ministry.
“Chavismo is not a fad,” he said. “It is a way of life and a belief in principles.”
Leader of the Pink Tide
Chavez, a former army officer inspired by Marxist and revolutionary thinkers such as Simón Bolívar and Fidel Castro, was one of the most important political figures in modern Latin American history.
His election in 1998 helped unleash a pink tide in Latin America, as leftist leaders rose to power from Argentina to Brazil to Ecuador.
His populist rhetoric and mixed-race background have drawn audiences in a country long run by a minority elite of pro-business white politicians, with close ties to the United States and foreign oil giants.
At a rally in Caracas in 2024, a supporter holds a statue of the late President Hugo Chavez as his successor, Nicolas Maduro, delivers a speech formalizing his bid for re-election.
(Getty Images)
Buoyed by record oil prices that swollen state coffers, Chavez launched social programs that reduced poverty rates. His government built homes for the poor and provided free and subsidized basic items to the needy. It opened hospitals and schools and reduced the infant mortality rate.
An outspoken critic of US intervention in Latin America and what he saw as rampant materialism in the “imperial” United States, Chávez forged alliances with Washington’s adversaries, such as China, Cuba, and Iran.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly in 2006, one day after Bush gave a speech about the Iraq War, Chavez declared: “The devil was here yesterday… and this place still smells of sulfur!”
Venezuela’s unhappy elite tried to oust Chavez – especially during the short-lived coup in 2002 – but he continued to win elections.
That tide began to turn after his death in 2013 and the rise of Maduro, a former union leader who lacked the charisma of his mentor. Then came the big drop in oil prices — inevitable in an industry prone to boom and bust cycles.
As revenues declined, the economy collapsed amid rising inflation. Lines for bread and medicine stretched for hours. Malnutrition and infant mortality cases rose. Millions fled the country.
Support for Maduro declined, and the opposition easily defeated his party’s candidates in 2015 Parliamentary elections. Sanctions imposed on the Venezuelan oil industry during Trump’s first term made matters worse for Maduro.
From the beginning, Maduro was deepening the authoritarianism that began under Chavez, a model that Corrales said was “based on the idea that the revolution will never give up power.”
Maduro announced that he had won a disputed election in 2018, although the United States and other countries refused to recognize the results. In 2024, Maduro claimed victory again, although tallies from voting machines compiled by the opposition showed he lost by a large margin.
Maduro has cracked down on dissent, imprisoned hundreds of activists, and ordered government forces to shoot protesters, sparking another mass exodus of migrants.
These days, the pink tide is far in the rearview mirror, with conservatives winning recent elections in Ecuador, Argentina and Chile.
Migration from Venezuela to neighboring countries in recent years has affected many people’s views on leftist politics in general and Chavismo in particular, said John Bulga Hesimovic, a Latin America expert at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Across the region, it is now common for right-wing candidates to accuse left-wing opponents of being like Chavez and wanting to turn their country into “another Venezuela.”
True believers or pragmatists?
Rodriguez has deep revolutionary roots. Her father was a Marxist fighter who was killed after kidnapping an American businessman in 1976. One of Chavez’s first disciples, Rodriguez, who still refers to him as “Commander,” said building a socialist state was “personal revenge” for her father’s death.
But in recent years, as she has risen through the ranks of Maduro’s government, Rodriguez has shown a realistic side.
To help right the economy, she made deals with the business elite and pushed for a reform that would allow Venezuelans to use dollars instead of bolivars. It helped change laws to make the energy industry more attractive to foreign capital.
Her efforts caught the attention of White House officials last year when they were considering a possible operation to remove Maduro.
Now Rodriguez must walk a fine line, continuing to signal her revolutionary intentions to hardline Chavista supporters while appeasing Trump, who has warned that she will “pay a very heavy price” if she does not comply with US demands.
She denounced the “terrible military aggression” carried out by US forces, but also had what she described as a “long, polite phone conversation” with Trump, saying they discussed, with “mutual respect,” a bilateral agenda for the benefit of both countries. He, in turn, described her as a “wonderful person.”
A government supporter holds paintings of the late President Hugo Chavez during an election rally on November 18, 2021 in Caracas.
(Manor Quintero/Getty Images)
Honor, the former diplomat, said her alignment with Washington does not mean that Rodriguez has abandoned her revolutionary ideology. She and other leaders are believed to have sacrificed some of the basic principles of Chavismo in order to save it.
“They are doing this for the survival of the regime,” Oner said. “They have to be flexible to stay in power, otherwise they will lose everything.”
However, Honor said there is no doubt that Chavez will be disappointed.
“He will feel deeply betrayed by Delsey’s actions.”
Linthicum and McDonnell reported from Mexico City and James from California. Special correspondent Meri Mogollon contributed from Caracas, Venezuela.