i've pointed out before that chavez is easy for a canadian to understand because the story actually has a lot of parallels with trudeau - he was somebody who was attacked as a far leftist by his opponents, to the point where some of his supporters began to believe it, but was in actuality simply an establishment liberal that actually believed in liberalism for liberalism's sake, rather than as a means to an end.
the idea that he was this ideological leftist is actually simply republican propaganda - although he certainly took advantage of it as best he could.