Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a Venezuelan living in the US and I am deeply familiar with the politics of both countries. Let me point out the obvious: when the Venezuelan goverment wanted to make a change to the constitution it was discussed by the whole country and put to a nation wide referendum. How does it compare to the Patriot Act? (where a group of politicians concoted a drastic change to the consitution and passed it without most of the congress having a chance to even read it). Seriously, in the "unbiased" reporting of the film makers they missed the point that the people in venezuela are the deciders, and not the elected officials. This is a corner stone of the Venezuela democracy that the US can only dream to have.

The last captions in the film said that Chavez "barred" opposition politicians to run for office. They did not mention that those politicians had been indicted for various crimes and THE CONSTITUTION prevented them from running.

Jesus Rivas
Somerset, KY

Dear FRONTLINE,

Hugo Chavez's intentions toward his country may be entirely humanitarian and benevolent, but his notion of social democracy through neo-Bolivarian revolution is both quixotic and of a bygone era. The rest of the world perceives such governments as unstable and not 'investment-grade'. The lack of educated citizens is also a problem. If Venezuela possessed the social democracy of Germany and the educated citizenry of Cuba, what an economic powerhouse and hemispheric leader it could be!

MW Stoakes
Kansas City, Missouri

Dear FRONTLINE,

It is not surprising to see another biased perspective of Hugo Chavez from the western view. As the New York Times, The Economist, and other allies of the Venezuelan oligarchy have done, the PBS Frontline program about Hugo Chavez portrayed an extremely unbalanced image of the Venezuelan president. It provided the point of view of disgruntled elements of the left and former members of the political power structure. This program caricatured Chavez and simplified the triumphs that he has in the last decade while in power through democratic means. The few pro-Chavez elements interviewed seemed to be taken from a religious cult which immediately took their credibility away. It ignored the racial issues confronting Latin American nations and the fact that the white oligarchy has had the power since the times of Bolivar. Chavez represents the majority of mulattos that live in that nation. I wonder why the producers of this propaganda piece, interviewed so called "experts" that do not reflect the racial, cultural and historical perspectives of the majority of Venezuelans. I am extremely disappointed with PBS and Frontline for their disservice to journalism.

Ernesto Diaz
Mount Tabor , NJ

Dear FRONTLINE,

Being exposed to the criticism from the Venezuelan expatriate community in Miami, I have come to compare the current leadership of Venezuela's allies (Castro in Cuba, Correa in Ecuador, and Morales in Bolivia), as nothing more than a pathetic comedy of errors, with Chavez being the "court buffoon". To categorize Hugo Chavez as the "court jester", would be to legitimize his standing in the Americas.

It is true that Fidel Castro is dying, he resembles nothing more than a tropical version of King Lear, with the "court buffoon" attempting to assume power by his standing.

Yuri Viera
Hialeah Gardens, Florida

Dear FRONTLINE,

I found the documentary to be shockingly racist, entirely in line with the standard narrative of the "crackpot Latin American dictator" threatening the "US interests". I also think there's a bit of US projection - unlike the conversion of a rather slight figure with no real history like Barack Obama vacuuming up $640 million and becoming the unstoppable BRAND OBAMA, Hugo Chavez is not just a "virtual president," he isn't just mouthing off, and he doesn't just make promises about "change." Other posts in the discussion have already pointed out how the writer/director used no sources of information except hysterically critical and deceitful voices we have heard over and over again re Venezuela since 1999. I didn't expect any more than this from PBS of course - and you delivered in typical Washington-Wall Street style. Too bad your viewers are dumber for it.

Esteban Martinez
New York, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

Chavez's ego, vindictiveness and impulsiveness may make him his own worst enemy, and as big a threat to the future of the Bolivarian Revolution as the greedy, parasitic elites or the Bush administration, but he has started something crucially important with the initiative to develop cooperative enterprise, however badly it has been administered.

Because this is what we should be doing here in the US now. Instead of bailing out the auto industry, we should be helping its employees buy out and manage democratically the companies wher they work, along with every other business that goes under. How can we claim to be a beacon for democracy when the corporations where we spend the vast majority of our waking lives are run like Stalinist dictatorships?

Bill J.
Mamaroneck, New

Dear FRONTLINE,

Frontline, to their credit, reports that Chavez graciously admits his failures, accepts his defeats, and is conciliatory in his victories, showing that when he lost the bid to extend term limits, he pledged to abide by the electorate's decision, and his first action upon being restored to office after the 2002 coup was to call for calm.

But Frontline later contradicts these conciliatory notes by calling Chavez's reaction to his reform losses, "grim and angry", and fades to black leaving in our minds a wildly imaginative claim that a phrase which he has long used, in English "for now", portends an ominously dangerous "threat" to the future of Venezuela.

"The Hugo Chavez Show" closes with a graphic claiming that Chavez barred hundreds of opposition political candidates from running for office in local and regional elections on November 23, 2008. No source is mentioned for the claim. Now that those elections are past, and the results are in, Chavez's political opponents have won governorships in many of the states in which his support is customarily low, as well as the mayoralty of Caracas.

I enjoy informative documentaries, and as always, find some are more biased than others. Frontline, who I usually hold in high regard, has provided a basically good primer on the rise and presidency of Chavez, but the unnecessarily injected drama is often forced and sophomoric.

Update: On November 25, Frontline added the November 23 election results to the program close.

Joseph Rogozinski
Oxford, Wisconsin

Dear FRONTLINE,

In response to the question regarding this program ignoring the Venezuelan media participating in the coup against Chavez, Frontline's editors argue that they did in fact mention it. But Frontline failed to mention anything significant. The media didn't simply oppose Chavez, they actively promoted a military coup against him. The television networks did a lot more than simply try to embarrass Chavez with a split screen of street fighting and Chavez on television.

In particular, the incidents during the coup when the television anchors and guests joyfully talk about how they helped orchestrate the coup, promoted the rallies, and provided a platform for the folks trying to seize power. One need not be a fan of Chavez to recognize that this episode was grossly uneven.

Dallas, Texas

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am disappointed but not surprised that the reading list that PBS supplies is uniformly hostile to Hugo Chavez. Here are 2 websites that should be consulted for a different perspective:

1. http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/2. http://www.narconews.com/3. http://www.marxist.com/venezuela_gen_analysis.htm

Louis Proyect
New York, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

I know that you are not going to publish my letter. So this is for you. My president is the best president in the world because he helps his people and give us hope. When the USA economic is in bad situation, the venezuelan economy is not bad. He is not a dictator because 75% of the venezuelan people support and love him.

Carelis Velasquez
Maracaibo, Venezuela

Dear FRONTLINE,

I am a Venezuelan living in the states for the past 10 years. I left Venezuela right before Chavez was elected..It is difficult to respond to questions about Chavez when people ask me what is going on in my country. How can I sum up what I have seen, what my family has endured and what my own country has become under his ruling in a few minutes? There is not enough time, and the stories I can't tell never seem to end.

This documentary finally sheds light on a few examples of the many, many moves Chavez has made over the years to gain control over every aspect of Venezuelan life. He has a communist agenda and the country is left a mess in his path...

I recently went back for a month and a half and someone mentioned to me : "Oh but the foreign media unfairly portrays Chavez, and exaggerates the problems in Venezuela. It really isn't all that bad."

The problem is, it is MUCH worse when you are there and realize that you have to parade in a Red uniform to get anything done such as getting a passport or a simple Identity card.

Chavez does not care about his country and the opposition is not composed of wealthy or upper-middle class oligarchs . IT is composed of people who see through his political agenda. It is composed of those who once believed in him, waited for him to come true to his promises but never did. It is composed of those living in shanty-towns who cannot see where the distribution of the nation's oil wealth is going, other than foreign countries and CUBA. Just because Chavez dislikes Bush, why does that make him a hero?

To say his movement is Bolivarian is to take the country back to the times of colonialism. We are not a colony, we are wealthy in many natural resources and we have a democratic system that is being shredded apart. His people, the Venezuelan people, suffer every day and they are tired, hungry and poorer. Where is their president who likes to sit in front of a camera more than he does working FOR his nation as a president should.

For everyone who defends Chavez without having ever been to Venezuela and witnessed or suffered from the injustices under his government: Would you want to have a president who tells you if you do not vote for his party candidate, your state will not receive government funds? If you do not support him spending your tax and oil revenues on his political campaigns you are a traitor and a "petit-yankee".

Here in America you would NOT allow that. You would not let one man control every aspect of your life...So don't tell us that you wish you had someone like Chavez in America.

Vanessa Soto Jimenez
New York, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

This was a very cool program. It told so much more of Hugo Chavez than just the ten-second soundbites of him funneling his criticisms and accusations at the "empire" [America], etc., and shows there is much more to him, Venezuela, and the issues and stories behind them.

Thanks, as always, for the great reporting, it has given me a new look at a man that, before, I have rarely known about.

Joshua Brown
Arlington, TX

Dear FRONTLINE,

As usual, Frontline delivers yet another Pulitzer-worthy piece of reporting! Bravo!

It is especially ironic that Frontline should be this example at a time when it and the rest of the public television establishment in the country are so roundly criticized for "left-leaning" and "liberal-biased" reporting by the conservatives in our country that appreciate your reporting the least.

Once again, Bravo and Vivat!

Kenneth Stoner
Redmond, WA

Dear FRONTLINE,

This TV special paints Hugo Chavez as a dictator who deludes the uneducated masses with his weekly program, rather than a democratically elected President. This characterization does an injustice to the 60% plus of the Venezuelan public that continue to support him and his party. (Pro-Chavez canidates today won 17 of 22 governorships.) I would have liked to have heard more about the programs that have made Hugo Chavez and his party so popular such as redistribution of land and nationalization of key industries.

There is also the unfair assciation made between the country's crime problems and Hugo Chavezs' policies.

I recently visited Guatemala, a country that has a long and continuous history of being ruled by a small group of elites that wholeheartedly support capitalism. Crime is rampant and in the captial, Guatemala City, murder is commonplace. It seems that capitalism doesn't cure crime; perhaps it creates it, judging by U.S's percent of the population that is in prison.

I am not suggesting that Chavez is without faults, but rather that his policies receieve widespread support because the alternative capitalistic policies of the elites are detested by the majority.

Anthony Franklin
redmond , OR

Dear FRONTLINE,

Excellent program. The timeline of the web site is also very good, but hardly cites any of Chavez's life or academic/professional achievements (if any) prior to his coup d'etat. He is, after all, a byproduct of the status quo that collapsed in 1998.

Very entertaining, thanks.

Remberto Herbert
Caracas, Venezuela