There's the issue Pam... Chavez is a despot ego-maniacal nut-job. He is blinded by his own power and cares not about the welfare of Venezuelan citizens (save for his wealthy family). You might have thought that he may have had a lucid moment or two when he thought "I'm gonna die, maybe I need to tone down the rhetoric a bit and try to fix a few of the things I've fecked up in the last 10 years"... not this guy. Hell bent on destruction... too bad we got caught up in that. Life goes on.