Cult of the Personality

I'm sure that Hugo Chavez - the former president of Venezuela who died the other day - did some good things in his time.

But like many ideologues - on both the left and right of politics - in recent years Chavez acted  like  a despot - tearing up the country's constitution so that he could rule for an uninterrupted 14 years.

The problem now for Venezuela is whether the country succumbs to a Cult of the Personality as others have done around the world - North Korea (The Kim Dynasty), China (The Mao Legacy), Cuba (The Castro Club) and Russia (The Putin Years) - for example. 

I suppose to balance up this rogue's gallery from the political right - you could also mention General Pinochet (the Chilean Dictator) and General Franco who turned Spain into a fascist tyranny for the best part of 40 years.

The thing that all of these leaders have in common is that having achieved power - they begin to regard themselves as indispensable instead of handing the baton on to another democratically elected politician.

The end result is a terrible cult of the personality in which the 'Dear Leader' dominates the political landscape so completely - that their word effectively becomes law and woe betide anyone who wishes to criticise or even question their actions.

Venezuela has announced seven days of mourning for Hugo Chavez - which sounds like a rather over the top reaction to the death of a 'socialist' politician - especially the closing down of the country's schools and universities for a full week.

Maybe it's no worse than Chavez contesting last year's presidential elections and effectively never taking up his presidential post - due to the fact that he was terminally ill.

What this looks like to me is a cynical attempt to turn a elected politician into some kind of legend or modern-day saint - which smacks of demagoguery and manipulation.