1) He won four elections by a higher percentage of votes than any US president in the past two centuries.

2) All four elections received top grades from international monitoring agencies.

3) Voter participation in the elections were higher than US.

4) He demanded that Western oil companies keep 70% of oil profits from Venezuela rather than 84%.

5) He survived a US engineered coup d'etat much like the one that deposed Mosadegh in 1953. Massive popular support and loyalty of the military brought him back.

6) After the coup, US companies tried to destroy Venezuelan economy by closing down their plants and firing the work force. So, he nationalized the companies and opened them up again.

7) He used the oil profits to improve housing, health care, and education for the very poor in Venezuela, about 80% of the population.

8) Throughout his time in office, two US administrations (Bush and Obama) tried every old colonial trick to destroy the Venezuelan economy and to remove Chavez.

9) The Venezuelan parliament voted to remove term limits for presidency in face of continuing hostility from US and Western countries. The move was done so that Chavez could carry on with his social and economic reforms.

10) He never took any bribes from foreign governments or companies.

Wow, this man was such a dictator!!! Come on you old Pahlavi fossils. Jump up and down and call Chavez a dictator, because the puppet masters of your dead tinpot dictator are calling Chavez a dictator. Jump! Uncle Sam is telling you to jump!

Chavez!

آسوده بخواب بقیه ارازل و اوباش فعلان بیدارند

HYPOCRITE! This is the most crude sort of propaganda.

You can find the pictures of most of these same guys with Bush, Rumsfeld, Clinton, Blair and plenty of other government officials. Obama shakes hands with the Chinese premier, and so has every American president since Nixon. Are they all then dictators? How many political figures shake hands with the Saudi king each year? Let's put up their pictures; they are all dictators!

This is gullibility in action...

Venezuela Expels Two US Embassy Officials amid Chavez Cancer Conspiracy
TEHRAN (FNA)- Vice President Nicolas Maduro said President Hugo Chavez's enemies had poisoned him with cancer before announcing that two US Air Force officials would be expelled from the country for spying on the military and plotting to destabilize the country.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107150428

Michael Moynihan waves goodbye to the strongman:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/05/hugo-chavez-dead-at-58-good-riddance.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29


""His was a poisonous influence on the region, one rah-rahed by radical fools who desired to see a thumb jammed in America’s eye, while not caring a lick for its effect on ordinary Venezuelans. In his terrific new book (fortuitously timed to publish this week) Comandante: Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela, The Guardian’s Rory Carroll summed up the legacy of Chávez’s Venezuela as “a land of power cuts, broken escalators, shortages, queues, insecurity, bureaucracy, unreturned calls, unfilled holes, uncollected garbage.” One could add to that list grinding poverty, massive corruption, censorship, and intimidation.""

William J. Dobson doubts Chávez’s brand of politics will survive him:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/03/hugo_chavez_s_legacy_the_former_venezuelan_president_was_not_the_typical.html

""Chavismo served only to showcase the man who propounded it. A man whose humble origins and charismatic personality helped forge a connection with the country’s poor, a population who had long been excluded from politics. A man whose style, voice, and methods were so unpredictable that it took his opponents more than a decade to even understand whom they were opposing.""

Jennifer Cyr isn’t so sure:

http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2013/03/06/the-house-the-chavez-built/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themonkeycagefeed+%28The+Monkey+Cage%29

"The chavistas … could remain a political and social tour de force in the country for some time. After fourteen years in office, Chávez leaves behind an institutional, social, and international legacy that will be difficult to overcome. Perhaps just as important, his memory will surely live on among those Venezuelans who fell under his spell, declaring that they love Hugo Chávez (“yo lo amo”). Whether his closest confidants can continue to fuel that love after his death is an open question. (His refusal to cultivate any sort of progeny to succeed him, as well as potentially conflicting interests within Chavez’s coalition of support, help very little in this endeavor.)""

How Chavez Used the oil money: great article:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112596/hugo-chavez-dead-cuba-defined-him-much-venezuela-did#

Honestly, all the people he took pics with above are either killed or going to be. They all had one thing in common: animosity with the US. See where they are today and where USA is. They massacred their own people; US adds job to its economy...

Yeah Fred extremely uneducated assumption. I think you are confusing west animosity against you with being a bad person. you did pose one question that I have an answer(although I think even Carter was a fan). Didn't you shit talk the commie dude for making a lot of money because he had an oil company that was getting contracts through Chavez. Unless i am wrong but thats venezualian money in an iranian poket. Now white people hated him because it was not thier poket and i wonder if you hate him for a same reason. Please undrestand that i can name more example of him being "good" to Iranian, but i decided to use your own example since like me you like to hear your own voice.
Now if you read the comments there is an educated analysis on who Chavez was. A pragmatic carector that realized he is the diablo in American politics so he didn't mind talking to other diablos in theworld and try to get their help to build Venezuela. But good job searching the web for all "evil" man who ever took picture with him. Watch and read more about him. You may disagree with his mistrust with cooperation america (many do). But you realize why your view about him is only shared with white neo-cons who are chasing an extra buck.
He reminds me of Chris Christie in American politics. Why do you think he wasn't invited to GOP dick comparing contest? He can advertise his better.