The Slow Death of Chavismo
Venezuela’s President Maduro inherited a vast empire of propaganda from his charismatic predecessor. Here’s how he lost it.
BY DECEMBER 6, 2015
Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, seems to be stumbling towardselectoral defeat in the country’s legislative elections today, potentially triggering a long goodbye for the country’s seventeen-year-old socialist revolution. Polls show that, while Venezuelans may differ somewhat when assigning blame for their country’s ongoing economic collapse, discontent is nearly universal and only about 20 to 25 percentapprove of the president himself. As the hand-picked successor of Hugo Chávez, the country’s longstanding former leader, Maduro inherited one of the most innovative and successful propaganda models in the world, developed by Chávez between 1998 and 2002. Why hasn’t Maduro been able to use it?
