It is shameful to see all of the comments in support of Hugo Chavez after his passing. He was an authoritarian, plain and simple and created a cult of personality to mask his woeful management of Venezuela that led to a massive rise in violent crime, enormous inflation, and constant rolling blackouts. This editorial published in the New York Times provides an excellent summary of his terrible reign: http://www.nytimes.com/...
Then there is the whole matter of his highly questionable human rights record that involved restriction on freedom of speech and the press and the rewriting of the nation's constitution to allow him to rule indefinitely. Human Rights Watch has further information on this matter: http://www.hrw.org/...
I do not want to see liberalism here in America tarnished by being associated in any way with supporting Chavez and his autocratic regime.