What is the Chavismo Ideology Without Chavez?

The World

Without Hugo Chavez can his ideology of “chavismo” survive?

This was the question that anchor, Marco Werman posed to Moises Naim, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Miguel Tinker-Salas a professor of Latin American History at Pomona College

Each had very different ideas about the future of chavismo without Hugo Chavez.

“Chavismo depended on an economic model that was clearly unsustainable that is already showing strains that will make and force whoever is in charge to make very fundamental economic changes that will be very painful to the Venezuelan people,” says Naim.

But not so according to Tinker-Salas.

“The reality is that there’s been fundamental changes in the political culture in the political landscape and that change has also been seen throughout South America…There is no going back. The Venezuela of 2013 is not the Venezuela of 1998,” says Tinker-Salas.

Invest in independent global news

The World is an independent newsroom. We’re not funded by billionaires; instead, we rely on readers and listeners like you. As a listener, you’re a crucial part of our team and our global community. Your support is vital to running our nonprofit newsroom, and we can’t do this work without you. Will you support The World with a gift today? Donations made between now and Dec. 31 will be matched 1:1. Thanks for investing in our work!