The Legacy of Hugo Chávez: Revolutionary hero or ruthless dictator?

What else can be said about Hugo Chávez? For some, he was a hero of the people, a champion of the Global South. For others, he was a ruthless dictator that oppressed his people and drove his country into bankruptcy. Let's take a look into his legacy.

On March 5, 2013, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez passed away from cancer at the age of 59. Over a decade later, his polarizing legacy still sparks heated arguments in his home country and around the world.

Hundreds attended Hugo Chávez’s funeral, from Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the future Felipe VI of Spain.

When he was alive, many lauded Hugo Chávez as a “hero of the people”, fighting against his country’s elite and US intervention in domestic affairs.

Hollywood celebrities such as Sean Penn and Oliver Stone visited him on more than a few occasions in Venezuela.

In one of his most memorable moments, Hugo Chávez compared to then-US President George W. Bush to the devil in the UN General Assembly.

During his time in power, Chávez was seen as a hero by some for-nationalizing companies and land.

Here you can see Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

Pictured: Jorge Campos / Unsplash

Others accused him of being an autocrat and a populist, buying votes and pressuring people to remain in power as much as he could.

What’s true is that he remained in power until he passed away, only to be replaced by Nicolás Maduro, his handpicked successor.

In many ways, Maduro has continued the economic and social policies of his predecessor, with dismal results.

What is true is that in the past 10 years, Venezuela has faced one of the biggest inflations ever recorded.

At the same time, over 7 million Venezuelans have left their home country seeking better opportunities abroad. This has become one of the biggest mass exoduses in modern history.

Political repression has also made any possibility of change in the future almost impossible and has caused controversy regarded to the legitimacy of Maduro’s government.

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Venezuela’s oil wealth made it one of the most prosperous nations in South America.

From 1958 to 1998, the country was a bipartisan democracy that, among other things, nationalized oil in the 1970s.

However, in the 1980s Venezuela entered into an economic crisis when the price of oil, the country’s biggest export, took a dive. Social unrest led to two military coups, one of them which was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez.

Now the remains of Chávez rest in a military fort in the mountains of Caracas. Will history be kind to him, turn him into a monster, or simply forget him, as it has happened to so many people before?