What does Hugo Chávez leave to the Venezuelan people? Three legacies, all of which are poisoned: a harebrained way to govern, the mindless 21st-Century socialism, and a neopopulist model based on welfare-patronage.
• First, he leaves them the memory of a colorful character who was very funny. He governed badly but was amusing and monopolized the newscasts. Fourteen years of surprises, never a boring moment. He sang, played baseball, insulted others, fought with practically everybody and then befriended them again, as happened with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, against whose country he almost declared war but eventually avowed friendship — a feeling that, ended up being mutual.
That’s no way to lead a country. It is a bad example that propagates swiftly. Nicolás Maduro, the heir-designate, is a Chávez apprentice. That eccentric way of appearing in public, what some people call “charisma,” usually generates much attraction among the less-educated Latin American classes but inevitably leads to disaster.