


The homecoming

The return of Hugo Chávez to his country suggests that one way or another an end to Venezuela’s constitutional limbo, and a fresh election, may be in sight

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Readers' comments



El Urogallo

The bolibanana government is playing hide-and-seek with chabz for almost 3 months and still no credible evidence of his health has been shown. The country is plummeting into increasing levels of inflation, December and January combined at 11%. Serious aggressions have taken place against our indigenous Pemon community in the south of the country. Criminality is out of control, over the last few weeks - day time shootings at shopping centres are becoming commonplace. Scarcity of staple foods has continued. Problems again at an oil refinery and rumours abound stating that the hydroelectric power plants have collapsed turbines. But despite all this, the people of Venezuela are complacent, except for a minute group of middle-class students and very strong Pemon protests, the vast majority of working-class Venezuelans just do nothing! So I guess this is what they like and want, it’s sad to be part of such a pathetic society..

Leo A.

At SOME point in the early hours of Monday morning, a plane APPARENTLY landed in Venezuela, SUPPOSEDLY carrying SOMEONE or SOMETHING deemed to be Hugo Chavez, PERHAPS coming from Cuba. That SOMETHING/SOMEONE was taken to EITHER the military hospital or Tiuna Fort in Caracas. We have been told that this SOMETHING/SOMEONE is in the 9th floor of the military hospital, but no one has been able to confirm it. For all we know, they will be swearing in a ghost in a private ceremony.


Considering the medical reports of the past 10 weeks sparse though they were, I would be willing to wager a very large portion of my meager fortune that this photo is a product of the magic of Photoshop. I have never seen an intestinal cancer patient look as pleasantly plump as Senor Chavez short of at least a couple of years into a complete recovery.

El_Patricio in reply to Monica Yriart

Yes! This evil left-right wing democrat pro-west pro-socialism pro-corporate takeover of the world anti-corporate Obamaite neoliberal neoconservative rightist rag. I have probably heard it called every single one of those things in the comment section.

Have you considered the possibility that you simply disagree and refuse to permit opposing viewpoints? The Economist is essentially an editorial magazine. It takes positions, generally. The vast majority of these are in accordance with a classical liberal ideology. However, the suggestion that it misrepresents facts is an absurd one. You can, if you like, fact-check. Unless, of course, you believe that all Western media is ignorant of all facts and are engaged in collective manipulation of citizens, in which case I recommend you take off your tin foil hat.

James AntiBr

There is a silver lining in all this.

1)Raul Castro is stepping down in 2018 if his life term limits
don't take him out before then.

2)Fidel Castro cannot live forever. He has to step down to the grave.

3)Hugo Chavez is probably going to beat Raul and Fidel to the grave.

4)Without the foundations above, the rest of Latin America will have
to wake up to the 21st Century. In the ensuing power struggle, a half
decent Enrique Capriles and other more market oriented leaders may
finally give Latin America the prosperity it has always hoped for.
We may even see a global Arepas Venezuelan chain to be enjoyed with
a nice cup of Starbucks in the morning.

in Caracas

The clue behind the baffling statements made by Mr. Chavez' supporters is their assumption that Marxist ideology is scientific. It is not, as countless economists of the 20th century and 100 years of disasters and millions of dead can testify. Mr. Chavez' guru, professor Heinz Dieterich, who repolished utopian communism and renamed it the Socialism of the XXI century, can easily be proven totally wrong. So the only real thing left behind the socialist facade of this regime, is a militaristic and fascistoid regime run by a military clique and a group of extreme leftists obeying orders from the atavistic regime in Havanna, Cuba. After Chavez is gone, he will pull the whole leftist movement in Venezuela with him into the abyss, leaving behind a gutted country.

D. Sherman

Who would have thought that a Constitution would need to include a clause providing for some sort of periodic proof that the President of a country is still alive, and if so, is conscious and capable of some basic level of cognition and communication?

in Caracas in reply to SharPen

The pictures are photoshopped and dating from 2010. The daughter on the left has had plastic surgery last year, and till this date, no sign from Chavez dead or alive has come out, except through contradictory official reports. That leaves you enough to ponder on my fate as a Venezuelan resident. It's total chaos at this moment.

guest-lmajama in reply to Monica Yriart

Monica, you may be and say whatever you want, but I'll just say this: the things us Venezuelans see each day under this horrific so-called "government", which is (by far) the worst in Venezuela's history, is what really counts, and not some third person giving opinions from the comfort of its desk in the US. You're like Sean Penn (it's easy for him to talk good of The Revolution from the comfort of his mansion in LA) and most pro-Chavez bourgeoisie: they dispise the US and rant about how the Capitalist system fails, yet they love driving a Hummer or a Ferrari, they love their Iphones, they can't live without visiting the US twice a year, and they have to have the most expensive US-made clothing, oh but they HATE Capitalism and the so-called 'US Empire'. In other words Monica, foreigner opinions don't count. Live in Venezuela for a while and THEN we can talk. This comes from a Venezuelan.

Monica Yriart in reply to rkorba

Poverty down by 50%. Extreme poverty down by 70%. Unemployment down by 50%. College matriculation up by 200%. Infant mortality down by 35%. Illiteracy gone. The statistics go on and on. Shortages of groceries are paradigmatic in Latin American populist governed countries -- cause suddenly the masses are eating, and those nutrition numbers are climbing!! The business class, traditionally, back through 2 centuries, like to shake it up a little with hoarding, to worsen the shortages, create panic, and perhaps lay the foundation for a coup. When this was less underground they'd block roads and close factories, too. But the Bolivarians are students of history. They know the repetitive archetypes of the region, and have been ready.


Maduro is seen as being the puppet of the cubans who now run many levels of venezuelan government.
The man to watch is Diosdado Cabello, the president of the assembly; he is backed by the Alto Mando Militar who, together with many of the pueblo both oppo and chavista, want the cubans out.
The two of them faced off the other night in Miraflores. Nearly came to blows.


My goodness what will one do for 'entertainment' when the Red Circus has left town? As for what will the majority of nice Venezuelan people do; that is an entirely different question. With oil and mineral wealth pawned to Moscow and Beijing, with corruption, blatant inefficiency and narco business ever more prominent, a 'military' as well as narco-military almost totally infiltrated by Cuba's G2, an "election" as interpreted by the Red Circus, may only serve to try to perpetuate it's hold on that very profitable business via PDVSA. The lower social-economic 'classes' will be issued with more red shirts, red baseball caps, red slogans and general red rubbish and will end up having to queue 3 days for a packet of Harina Pan, the staple diet. What always amazes in human history is, just how simple it becomes to manipulate, indoctrinate and/or purchase human 'consciences'. Assuming there is such a thing. This once so special and beautiful country sadly reminds one of that abandoned ship floating in the Atlantic at present.

in Caracas

Writing from Venezuela, we are living in what probably is the strangest period lived in this country in living memory. There is absolutely no proof IF Chavez has come back and whether he is alive at all. The published pictures are almost certain fakes. Official reports concerning the president are rambling with inconsistencies and contradictions. Crime and anarchy are shooting up as well as prices. The lack in internl. interest baffles me as the Cuban regime depends 100% on the survival of this government. A factor that in view of Maduro's bungling, is not assured at all. The sane minded among us hope that the Marxist frenzy started under Chavez will stop before Venezuela dives down to Cuban levels of poverty and marginality.


The present Venezuelan government has totally mismanaged the financial administration. It is the only Venezuelan government in history that has had to devalue the currency while the price of oil is high.
As an anecdote to how well people are, I can say that in the middle class apartment complex where I live, the parking lot has fewer cars than a couple of years ago, and the cars are smaller and older. People are having a hard time, no matter what the official statistics say.


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