Death of Chávez Leaves Leftist Void in Latin America
Death of Chávez Leaves Leftist Void in Latin America
AS/COA’s Christopher Sabatini points out that despite Vice President Nicolás Maduro’s anti-U.S. rhetoric it would be difficult for him to uphold President Hugo Chávez’s charisma and symbolic legacy.
(Reuters) - The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday left a large void in the leftist leadership of Latin America and raised questions about whether the oil largesse he generously spread through the region would continue.
Allies such as Bolivian President Evo Morales vowed to carry on Chavez's dream of "Bolivarian" unity in the hemisphere, but in Cuba, heavily dependent on Venezuelan aid and oil, people fought back tears when they heard he had lost his battle with cancer.
His influence was felt throughout the region from small Caribbean islands to impoverished Nicaragua in Central America, and larger, emerging energy economies such as Ecuador and Bolivia and even South America's heavyweights Brazil and Argentina, where he found favor with left-leaning governments.
Without his ideological presence, Venezuela's influence is likely to wane and the pure financial weight of the Brazilian juggernaut could fill the gap in the region's diplomatic realignment….
The mustachioed Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, shares Chavez's taste for anti-U.S. bombast, but not his flare.
"Chavez gave momentum, voice and leadership to the movement, but his leadership concealed the differences among all the leaders," said Christopher Sabatini, senior policy director at the Americas Society in New York.
"But the fiery, charismatic voice and symbol of that era - and that's what it was - has vanished," he said….
