Hugo Chavez is a colorful and bombastic character, who makes life easy for the US media. But it hasn’t covered the social and economic discontent which led to the rise Chavez, said Nikolas Kozloff, Latin America expert.
Nikolas Kozloff, the author of “Revolution: South America and the Rise of the New Left” said:
“The US public doesn’t really have a fundamental understanding of what’s going on with the left in South America”.
“US media tends to focus on what Hugo Chavez said at the General Assembly of the United Nations. For example, Chavez first came to US attention when he went to the UN and he insulted George Bush,” he said.
“I think what’s lacking in the coverage is any kind of context,” he went on. “US media never asked itself what would prompt Hugo Chavez to even insult the leader of the United States.”
“Hugo Chavez had a legitimate reason to be concerned about US foreign policy. Unfortunately, the American public is not always informed about the machinations of US imperialism or the shenanigans of the State Department,” Kozloff said.