And that he’s given himself the ability to rule by decree (handy to remove any possibility of challenge from the few opposition politicians remaining).
He’s shut down media outlets which opposed him.

He speaks a lot of rhetoric which goes down well. He won two elections, but Mugabe has won many too.

The people remaining in the country like his rhetoric. He has enough oil money to spend to mitigate the effects of his policies, but in the long term he spells disaster.

The middle classes are fleeing Venezuela as fast as possible. It is the middle classes who generate wealth through investment, whose money funds welfare and pays the wages of the poor and allows them to rise above poverty.

The left like Chavez because he’s anti-American and a socialist. Democracy has nothing to do with it, just as it never has in the past with leftist dictators.

The Venezuleans seem to be quite happy with what he’s doing!