True, Venezuela’s immense natural riches have been exploited and often squandered by elites more accustomed to the boulevards of Miami than to the slums of Caracas. But it is equally true that Venezuela enjoyed 40 years of democratic rule before Chávez, under the 1958 Punto Fijo Pact, whereby two parties, one social democratic and the other social Christian, alternated in power peacefully.
为查韦斯辩护的第二个看法更为有理，但也乏力。诚然，委内瑞拉的丰富的自然资源由习惯迈阿密林荫大道更甚于加拉加斯贫民区的精英开采并（通常）挥霍着。但委内瑞拉在查韦斯之前因1958年菲霍角协议（Punto Fijo Pact）而经历了40年的民主，社会民主党和社会基督党两党和平轮流执政也是事实。