Hugo Chávez won the presidency of Venezuela by a landslide in 1998. Has he also won the hearts of his people?
The president of Venezuela has many enemies—partly, at least, because he so clearly relishes the fight. In late 2002 the anti-Chavista workers and managers of Petróleos de Venezuela joined forces to stage a two-month strike, crippling the Venezuelan economy. The president sought to take control of the company by firing nearly half its workforce, but there is no way to tell whether those who got to keep their jobs are any more loyal to him now than they were before the strike. The middle classes appear to be almost unanimous in their hatred of him. Doctors have marched in the street against him, demanding better wages. An unknown number of military personnel—including several army officers I interviewed—dislike Chávez and his leftist politics intensely, if not openly (many others joined forces to lead the coup against him in 2002 and have since been discharged). For the moment, however, the aggregate numbers of his enemies don't add up to an opposition, and they have lost every battle so far.
