I'll be interested to see which is the first major US media outlet to use a new poll number not sanctioned by the Chavez government or provide a diversity of poll numbers.Congrats to today's Washington Post's front page article for being the first major article I've seen in the past month to move away from the 70% number other media outlets are using.
While critics at home and abroad warn of his increasingly dictatorial tendencies, Chavez enjoys broad support among the poor and popularity ratings exceeding 60 percent.It's a start. Chavez's poll numbers vary between 54% and 68% in recent polls and no single number really captures the situation. Some of those (probably 10-20%) are people who don't like Chavez, but don't like the opposition either and are waiting for a good alternative. Another 10-20% are militant Chavez supporters, ready to take to the streets to defend him.
The article on the whole does a good job capturing the complicated situation in Venezuela, especially with the oil money rolling in. Let's hope the Washington Post sticks around in the region and gives it a bit more attention. They have some of the best Mexico reporters out there, but in the past year they have tended to ignore the Andean Region.
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