As far as Latin American Dictators went, Venezuela could have done a lot worse…

[The Magistrate]

4. Absolutely, Sir: This Is What Has Always Bothered My About The Obloquy Directed At Him

He played in a league where the norm is to torture your opponents to death,and either disappear their corpses or leave them on the street as an object lesson. There was none of this in his 'dictatorship', none of this in his 'disregard for human rights'. Even people known to have actively participated in armed rebellion continued to live free, even to own property.

Was he without flaw? Of course not. Was everything he did, every policy, every act in furtherance of his policies, the right thing to do? No. Did I agree with everything he did? Certainly not. But he was head and shoulders above the country's previous rulers over the last half century, head shoulders above the murderous creature ruling his neighbor Colombia ( who our government lavished with praise as an ally and friend ). He was a man who wanted to do something to improve the lives of the mass of poor persons in his country, and did everything in his power, by his own lights, to do that. And had some success at it.