Just a heads up — you live in an echo chamber

And I guess you’re willingly ignorant.

I am not the person to whom you’re responding, but I feel compelled to say that I would very much recommend you broaden whatever literature or media you consume. Your statements are really at odds with a more nuanced reality. I don’t think having a second opinion will help much, but I don’t think it could hurt necessarily.

I don't think you realize how utterly disastrous Chavez was for Venezuela. Maybe consider taking your own advice.

Chavez' officials, like Venezuela's own Elizabeth Warren, Karlin Granadillo, claimed "the law of supply and demand is a lie", and her socialist party nodded in unison to this ideological rhetoric:

https://web.archive.org/web/20201112003937/http://www.bloomb...

Only an echo chamber can allow this kind of economic illiteracy to proliferate.

This is off topic for a thread about a dying man.

But I'll bite. There's lots of legit criticism of Chavez. However, democracy is not one. He was popular. I believe his elections were legit.

I also think it's a mistake to mix up Chavismo with the US right/left axis. Venezuela is not an extension of the United States. You can get into trouble when you mix up American political contrasts and inject them into places that work very differently. Chavez did not have anything in common with US democrats.

He was much worse. An actual communist who closed down and locked up opposition media.

I don't think you can say he was in favor of communism, he was ultimately in favor of Chavez. That may have something to do with the fact that it's called "chavismo" and not "communism".

He did seize private oil companies for the state. He had a lot of propaganda with his TV program and whatnot, and bullying and demonizing opponents. But he was popularly elected. I think even your short sentence above is an exaggeration. (This is not my first consideration of the man. I've listened to him in his original Spanish.)