But Chavez doesn't need much defense at this moment in history, let alone defense from Chuck's outburst or a lone ISO man's dismissive remark about him. I doubt Chavez asks us to be vigilant against occasional statements like those by leftists. Besides, as Chuck suggests, folks in Venezuela will eventually have to think about who will succeed him, just as Cubans will have to think about who will succeed Fidel (hopefully, they won't postpone that till Fidel's death). Otherwise, their revolutions may die with them.
I'd be happier if folks took interest in Chavez' foreign policy. He's always busy trying to find allies and trade partners, because he realizes the dangers of Caracas getting diplomatically isolated (you may not have noticed, but both Iran and Venezuela failed to get elected to the UN's new Human Rights Council <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=axq3WSCRtQ_c&refer=latin_america>) and of the Venezuelan economy being too dependent on trade with the US; and his relation to Iran, which predates Ahmadinejad's presidency, is one of his efforts to ensure the Bolivarian Revolution's survival. If Washington succeeds in regime change in Iran, it's not likely that the resulting government will be very favorably disposed to the Chavez government (though the process of regime change will push up oil prices yet higher, so there will be ironic short-term gains from it).
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>