This is a great post on the plight of Venezuela, and that you live there definitely gives the post more authenticity. I hadn't realized that Chavez apparently started out with a fairly obnoxious use of state media, on the one hand it doesn't affect the economy yet, on the other hand it's very disruptive to people just trying to relax and watch a show that they want. At that time, was it still possible to vote him out? Doing something so flagrant and often seems like a good way to make people not like you, even if you didn't kill the economy. My initial guess is that maybe he had his own base of fervent supporters, and his message got through to enough people as a political base that they protected him but that's just a guess.

It's really easy for people in general to not want to pay attention to politics, indeed one reason that say young people in America use to not vote is "it doesn't affect my daily life!" But that's flawed, today it might not seem like that but 10 or 20 years of gradual decline results in a situation like Venezuela. For democracy to work, voters must be educated and constantly vigilant and suspicious of power grabs by those in power.

It's so annoying to think about powerful mechanisms that those in power didn't use much out of respect for the people that get abused by those without that respect. We don't think that we have to codify respect but maybe when that respect is breached, we have a strong hint that we're at a crossroads...