Twenty years is just the beginning: Hugo Chávez, the 2012 elections, and political continuity in Venezuela

This article examines the continued predominance of Hugo Chávez in Venezuelan politics. The year 2012 was marked by several chavista electoral successes, despite growing economic, infrastructural, and security problems and a unified coordination effort by the country's opposition. To help explain Hugo Chávez's predominance after fourteen years of uninterrupted rule, the article points to Venezuelan public opinion in the years since the 2006 election. It finds that evaluations of Chávez and his government were, at a mínimum, ambivalent and for many Venezuelans, quite positive. Additionally, ideological weaknesses within the opposition prevented it from offering Venezuelans a truly distinct alternative. The article suggests, by way of conclusion, that the consequences of Chávez's revolutionary project will likely outlast his time in office.