Hugo Chávez’s regime was a mixed bag, but though the Bolivarian bureaucracy has its issues, the advances he made have seen him canonized among poor and working class Venezuelans. He’s responsible for massive developments in infrastructure like rural schools, free university and excellent, free hospitals. He democratized natural resources and largely dismantled the oligarchy that previously ran the country—these are the sorts of accomplishments that predictably produced a palpable cult of personality around Chávez as a leader. 

Still, it’s a little odd to see his handwriting commemorated in an “anti-imperialist” font. A group called Creative Trench actually reproduced his penmanship from his prison letters, and are giving it away for free (naturally), on their website.
 

 

For the full effect, try picturing the scrawl over this letter to his daughter, written from prison in February of 1992 after the failed coup. By the way, “Maisantera” is the name of their home, “the boy” is probably Chávez’s son, and the cuatro is a Venezuelan instrument.

My love: Hello, my heart!

I want you to know that day and night I carry you in my heart and in my mind.

I’m so happy that you are well.  As always, I am proud to have a daughter like you, pretty, intelligent and brave.

Maria, I’m in good physical health and above all have a tranquil conscience. I did what I had to do, with the hope that things would change, with the Bolivarian hope that there will be a better world for you in the future, a world where there is not so much injustice and such corruption, were children have food, shelter, medicine, toys, schools.  All of Venezuela’s children.

You are already a young lady so I’m sure you understand me.

The only thing, my baby girl, is that now I will not be very close to you [...] as before.  But my heart and my spirit are always there in the “Maisantera” and wherever they [the family] go.

Remember to apply yourself to your studies and to your reading, as well as to art and music. It will cultivate a noble and libertarian spirit that you will carry within.

Likewise with sport, to have “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. Keep going to the pool (be very careful).

I entrust the boy to you.  Encourage him to learn to play the cuatro, to write stories and to draw, and to keep going to swimming and to baseball. But please take care of him.

I must go now, my Maria, with the hope of seeing you soon and with the greatest love from,

Papa

ChávezPro (yes, that’s what it’s actually called) isn’t completely unprecedented. In Venezuela, Chávez’s handwriting is on all kinds of swag, from buildings to clothing. Still, the best use of ChávezPro has to be for covert trolling, no? I know exactly what font I’m using for my Republican relatives’ birthday cards, anyway.

Below, Oliver Stone’s Hugo Chávez documentary South of the Border:

 
Via Fast Company

 
Hugo Chávez was a unique figure in the world of geopolitics. The Venezuelan president was in office for fourteen years until his death earlier this year and was arguably the most successful communist head of state, ever. Venezuela’s status as one of only two South American countries in OPEC (the other is Ecuador) ensured the possibility for an unusual regime. As a popular communist leader harboring an open hostility to the United States (and especially George W. Bush—I can relate), Chávez was never going to get a fair hearing in the U.S. press. Not to excuse some of the conduct his government perpetrated, but it’s not that easy to be a populist Marxist leader in a neoliberal world.

Starting with his first year in office, Chávez commenced hosting an unscripted talk show, broadcast on both radio and television. It was called Aló Presidente, and it went on the air every Sunday afternoon for nearly 13 years (the show started at 11 am every Sunday and had no fixed ending time; it usually ended around 5 pm most days). The show ran 378 times. He required cabinet ministers to appear on the show and submit to an interview, and he occasionally forged important policy decisions on the program. According to Wikipedia, on the March 2, 2008, show, Chávez “ordered a top general to send ten battalions of troops to the border with Colombia in response to a bombing by Colombian forces inside Ecuador which killed Raúl Reyes, a top member of FARC [Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia].” In the event, the battalions were not deployed.

Below is a generous compilation of some of moments from Aló Presidente. Regardless of your opinion of his politics, it’s difficult not to concede that he wasn’t bad at all at being a talk show host. Of course, running the country probably helps to get people to play along.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Hugo Chavez joins Twitter: Socialist leader’s social media volte-face
‘Christ is with the Revolution’:  Watch Hugo Chavez doc, ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’
Remembering Hugo Chavez… particularly that hip-hop marketing campaign