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Yes, President Hugo Chavez is a populist, who represents the concerns of the illiterate and working class in Venezuela and all of Latin America, particularly in criticizing America. As such, he can sound and act like an irreverent, boisterous, outrageous, and innovative underdog. Like a media-hungry movie star, Chavez has a strong sense of the ability of shock to the politically correct sensibilities to give him a stage with the world's mass media. The leaders of most underdeveloped countries are too beholden to the rich in America and Europe to risk their ire, but Venezuela has huge oil reserves which give Chavez maximum leeway in expressing his opinions. He paints himself as standing up to an American bully, so he surely has a strong following among the poor and disadvantaged of Latin America and beyond.

America has a long legacy of intervention in the internal affairs of foreign countries, particularly in Latin America. That is part of the background to the Chavez Bolivarian revolution. Chavez claims that rich conservatives of Venezuela were supported by the US in a short-lived 2002 coup against him. After attempting to reverse the reforms of Chavez, his loyalists in the Venezuelan military orchestrated a counter coup with citizen support in the streets. Chavez had shown not only the American government, but also the wealthy Venezuelans that his legitimacy came from popular support. Although Chavez first came to prominence in a failed 1992 coup attempt, he has supported elections that have seen him and his Bolivarian socialists elected and reelected and a new constitution endorsed. However, when he proposed to eliminate the 2 term restriction on the president, Chavez met electoral defeat, proving that Venezuelans think for themselves and that elections are fair. His second 6 year term is up in 2013 and Chavez wants to continue in the limelight thereafter, so look for developments.

His socialistic policies have been controversial, as Chavez has shaken up the traditional power structure. Chavez has followed a populist agenda of ending privitizations in the public sector, providing free education to Venezuelans through university, along with free health care and land redistribution, including to the indigenous peoples. He has utilized Venezuela's oil wealth to decrease unemployment, nationalize industry and decrease poverty. He has supported a new labor union movement and joined with Cuba to train new doctors for free in exchange for their

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