April 5, 2013 1:55 am
The death of a symbol means more than the death of a man
MONTREAL (CUP) — Despite a two-year battle with cancer and a conspicuously long absence from the public eye, the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez still came as a shock. Always a polarizing figure, the debate about how to define him — as a demagogical dictator or as a revolutionary — was renewed with his passing. The answer, however, isn’t so black and white. *** [**Click here for the original story from The Concordian**][1] *** After leading a failed coup in 1992 and spending two years in jail, Chavez won his first election in 1998 with an astonishing approval rating of 80 per cent. This would dramatically decline over the next four years, however, in reaction to his early heavy-handed governance. He rewrote the…
