Hugo Chávez's cult of personality

[6][8] At a Workshop on Socialist System Design Training gathering held by the PSUV on 1 September 2014, participants recited a modified version of The Lord's Prayer.

The modified version, recited by Maria Uribe, a delegate of the Committee on Communication and Propaganda of PSUV-Táchira, read:[14] Our Chavez, who art in heaven, on earth, in the sea and in us the representatives, hallowed be thy name, Thy legacy come, So we can bring it to towns here and there, Give us this day your light so it guides us every day, Lead us not into the tempation of capitalism, but deliver us from the evil of the oligarchy, and the crime of smuggling, Because the mother land is ours, and so is peace and life.

[15]CNN reported that Christians in Venezuela were offended, saying that "the words of a prayer found in the books of Matthew and Luke in the Bible should not be changed for political propaganda or any other purposes".

[16] Another domestic reaction came from the Venezuelan newspaper La Verdad, who compared the act to something "from the mind of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda father".

[21] Ennio Cardozo, a political scientist at the Central University of Venezuela, states that acts like "Our Chávez" is the Venezuelan government's "effort to sustain its legitimacy".

[22] Latin American literary scholar at UCSB, Juan Lupi, sees parallels between the veneration of Chavez to that of Evita Perón in Argentina.

[1] In a report about Chavez's funeral Spiegel Online wrote, "His last procession is also a TV marathon, presented in the tone of a sermon, during which Chávez, the freedom fighter Simón Bolívar and Jesus Christ merge into one person.