Reply #13: Chavez's dynamic speeches connect

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 17, 2006, 12:18AM
Chavez's dynamic speeches connect
His epic talks mix jokes, opinion, personal anecdotes

By JOHN OTIS
Copyright 2006 Hosuton Chronicle South America Bureau

CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Whether the subject is George W. Bush or the size of his own stomach, Hugo Chavez holds strong opinions— and rarely keeps them to himself.

Unlike the country's aloof leaders of the past, the Venezuelan president combines humor and personal anecdotes with stinging denunciations of the rich. His message connects with many poor Venezuelans, who gave him a landslide re-election victory earlier this month.
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As the country's first president to rise from poverty, Chavez speaks the street language of the bus drivers, cleaning ladies and peasants who make up his base. He entertains them, telling family anecdotes, war stories and even risque jokes, to make his points.

Pelted by sharp questions from reporters at a recent news conference, for example, Chavez sang a Colombian folk song, talked baseball, discussed his vacation plans and recalled how, after he was first elected in 1998, it took him a week to find the keys to the presidential palace.

Chavez delivers more than just rhetorical broadsides. By spending billions of petrodollars on schools, clinics and subsidized grocery stores, he has made good on promises to lift up poor Venezuelans.

As a result, "people have the feeling that Chavez means business," said Steve Ellner, an American who teaches political science at the Eastern University of Venezuela.
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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4406600.html