If he wasn't a despot, why did he fight to amend the Constitution to allow him to be elected for the rest of his life?
He put all media outlets that opposed him out of business, he would, for theatrics, wlak down the street point to certain properties and business and demand that they be nationalized, which they summarily were, he basically destroyed any semblance of the Rule of Law, and destroyed the country's already not so great economy and currency.
No he wasn't Stalin or Castro, but he was a piece of ****.
Hugo Chavez dead at 58