Hugo Chavez: socialist showman who transformed Venezuela

[jsr]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-venezuela-chavez-obituary-idUSBRE92418X20130305

Hugo Chavez: socialist showman who transformed Venezuela
By Daniel Wallis
CARACAS | Tue Mar 5, 2013 5:24pm EST

(Reuters) - At two defining moments of his rule, Venezuela's theatrical leader Hugo Chavez took a small silver crucifix from his pocket and held it above his head.

Both marked a quasi-religious "return" for the socialist ex-soldier whom supporters loved with messianic fervor - first from a 2002 coup that saw him jailed on a tiny Caribbean island, and then from cancer surgery in Cuba in June 2011.

As he held aloft the crucifix from a balcony of his Miraflores Palace after returning from surgery, the maverick president of South America's biggest oil exporter said he was putting his fate in the hands of God and the Virgin Mary.

"Today, the revolution is more alive than ever. I feel it, I live it, I touch it ... If Christ is with us, who can be against us? If the people are with us, who can be against us?" he said, working his supporters into a frenzy.

[Common Sense Party]

1. It's amazing how the anti-Christians who are always mocking us "deluded" believers of

"fairy tales and superstitions" never say boo about Hugo Chavez' strong faith in God and Christ.

Why is that?

[sadbear]

2. "If Christ is with us, who can be against us?"

So many Christs on so many sides.