Leaders of Latin America's New Left Gather to Say Farewell to Hugo Chávez
Leaders of Latin America's New Left Gather to Say Farewell to Hugo Chávez
One element of Hugo Chávez's legacy is that “he spoke for a certain dimension of the political spectrum in Latin America, and in that sense he’s going to be hard to replace,” says AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.
CARACAS, Venezuela — With her friend President Hugo Chavez dead, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner came to Venezuela dressed in black and ready to mourn.
Jose “Pepe” Mujica, a former rebel turned president of Uruguay, flew at once from the other side of the continent. Evo Morales, the Aymara Indian president of Bolivia, choked up as he spoke of “being very hurt” by Chavez’s passing as he stood just feet from where El Comandante lay in state...
Eric Farnsworth, who runs the Washington office of the Council of the Americas policy group, said he believes that what also set Chavez apart was the symbolism he evoked, of a populist hero leading the masses out of darkness.
“He spoke for a certain dimension of the political spectrum in Latin America, and in that sense he’s going to be hard to replace,” Farnsworth said. “No one has Hugo Chavez’s combination of charisma, vision and money. He had a vision he was working for. He had charisma to inspire whole populations, and he had the money to finance it.”
