I fear though, Huey who, Lazaro what? Both have been creatively "disappeared" from history.

And that his party behaves better than the PRI did.

America hasn't had many populist demagogues, let alone leftist autocrats, so we lack for analogous figures.

because I don't honestly think you can make a comparison of Chavez to any American political leader; the context is too different. Chavez' charismatic populism was more Huey Long than FDR; as to what Chavez' leadership means in the broader context of Latin American socialism, and in the still-ongoing narrative of the emergence of the global south from the long shadow of American and Western imperialism? Time will tell. He was no Gandhi, or probably even Bolivar, but he compares favourably with Castro, for instance.

Even if Castro became a patron saint. The reforms are a modern version of Mexico's Cardenas...the nationalization in 1938 were heady and scary days in Mexico.

Populist leaders are far more proper, including Bolivar. You got close with FDR.

I haven't made a scholarly evaluation, though.

career cut short