He appeals to a group, the downtrodden, who truly need help and some redistribution of wealth in that country. His rise via the vote is quite understandable and he does support a certain constituency that needs the help.
However, he's got a big corruption problem himself.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13989898/site/newsweek/
And he's rapidly changing constitutional issues and individual rights to suit his own power . . . if I'm not mistaken, as an example, opposition groups n the last election were forbidden from appearing on television for longer than a few minutes - literally - while Chavez was on the air for hours at a time. He's also going to introduce legislation to have the president serve unlimited number of terms. The persistent scare-mongering of an imminent American invasion is pretty comical. Its not hard to see where all this is going for Castro, er, Chavez:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exer...AA5918C9BC.htm
Nationalization will probably dry up investment capital. Venezualian stock markets are plunging. An unstable business climate where investors can't rely on normal institutions nearly always drives capital to more palatable places in the world and that, in the end, leads to lower living standards. Money is like a river, usually flowing the easiest course. :
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...gpw&refer=news
A fair look:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_...pposition.html
He's had an opportunity to do great things but I can see why Chomsky refused to acknowledge him waving his book at the UN . . . probably worried about having his name attached to another Communist China or Pol Pot disaster.
Cowperson