Hugo Chavez is dead, his legacy will linger

It can't be denied he was a flawed man. By the end, it became all too clear that Hugo Chavez was a bad administrator. One could even say he behaved tyranically, seduced by power and tripped up by his own machismo. But I think what remained true to the end was he truly cared about social justice.

He began with the best of intentions and surely his people loved him. Chavez was the champion of the mestizo, Venezuela's shockingly poor underclass. He was one of them. He empowered them. He gave them a voice. He lifted them a little from undeserved, grinding poverty. They re-elected him in a democratic process more than once.

The wealth holders, the upper class -- native and foreign -- who had until then so freely exploited the country's treasures, hated him for his egalitarian policies. He disrupted their stranglehold on power. And again, he was a very imperfect man. He made a lot of mistakes. Still, on the balance, he was a better man at heart than many of his critics.

Addendum: You have to go the foreign press to find out, but proof his people loved Chavez. The wealthy Venezuelans who loathed him, to their credit, are lying low and allowing the people space for public mourning.