My Comment: Growing up in the former Soviet Union gives me a perspective on what it feels like to grow up in a society that is dominated by a group of men who use the apparatus of the state to keep their power and privilege. In short .... it was a life that was incredibly depressing and stifling for someone like me. But when all the old former revolutionaries (Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko) died .... and they all died in a very short period of time ....life did change very quickly .... especially when the state apparatus started to fall apart. And while someone like Gorbachev did try to keep to keep the system in place, he lacked that revolutionary zeal and determination of his predecessors .... and more importantly he lacked the will. This absence of a characteristic demagog who knows how to manipulate a good percentage of the population to his point of view is what eventually brought down the Soviet Union .... we (the opposition) were embolden because we knew that the men at the top were weak and scared .... and they just could not marshal their supporters to stop us.
This is what is going to happen in Cuba when the Fidel brothers are finally gone and the technocrats take over, and this is what is going to happen in Venezuela when Chavez's designated predecessor takes over and everyone see him for who he is .... a former bus diver with little imagination but whose loyalty to Chavez was (in the eyes of Chavez) his one and only redeeming quality. Change will happen .... it is now only a question of time.
As for Hugo Chavez's legacy .... some on the left will always adore him and in their hearts he will always be remembered .... but (for everyone else) in a few years he will be forgotten.
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