The tears are not just for Hugo Chavez. They are more for what he rep­re­sent­ed–a change in the eco­nom­ic struc­ture of his coun­try, a cul­tur­al shift from haves/have nots to a greater de­gree of egal­i­tar­i­an­ism, a shift of fo­cus from ur­ban ar­eas to the de­vel­op­ment of sub­ur­ban and rur­al com­mu­ni­ties.It is easy for those who live abroad, who have aban­doned the strug­gle for greater dis­tri­b­u­tion of the coun­try's wealth to the less priv­i­leged, to glibly blame Chavez for the prob­lems in Venezuela.

They cre­at­ed the mon­ster and then fled, tak­ing with them as much of the wealth as they could. They left the econ­o­my in sham­bles and crit­i­cised Chavez for try­ing to bring it back to where it should be, with­out the knowl­edge and skills that were nec­es­sary.They used every ar­ti­fice at their dis­pos­al to place the Gov­ern­ment un­der in­ter­na­tion­al fi­nan­cial pres­sure, just is be­ing done to Cu­ba. Now they gloat that he has passed on and hope that who­ev­er re­places him will fail. But the dream will nev­er die.

Hugo Chavez lived for his peo­ple. He gave his every­thing, in­clud­ing his life, for them. He be­strode his coun­try and Latin Amer­i­ca like a Colos­sus, giv­ing where nec­es­sary and speak­ing against the ills of the cap­i­tal­ist sys­tem.Al­though he has passed on, his mem­o­ry will live for­ev­er and noth­ing his en­e­mies can do will ever erase that. Long live Com­rade Hugo Chavez's dream.

Karan Ma­habirs­ingh

Cara­pichaima