Monday, July 18, 2005
Oil Wars, here and here, cites Venezuelan polls that are reporting an 80.5% approval rating for Hugo Chavez. Here's a little of OW's commentary:
The opposition has always made the arguement that Chavez is trying to “buy” support through his social programs and that is what accounts for his high popularity. Yet in this poll only 37.4% say they have personally benefitted from the Missions. When asked if they had family members who had the number rises to 48.8%. So obviously there are a lot of pro-Chavez people who aren’t even involved with his social programs.
There were some other interesting numbers. For examle, 74.3% of Venezuelans believe they live in a democratic country as opposed to 23.4% who don’t. The opposition propogandists sure aren’t doing their job very well. The most favorably viewed institution in the country – the armed forces at 71.8%. And for those who are ideologically inclined 47.9% would prefer that Venezuela had a socialist system against 25.7% that prefer capitalism.
