His mentor, Luis Miquilena, who taught him politics when he wasn't thinking past just his first coup attempt, and who also then became his first Vice President, and Minister of Interior & Justice, and Head of the Commission that wrote the new Constitution of 1999, is an elderly gentleman who lives around the corner from where I stay there in Atamira Plaza, and had first come out vigorously against him this past spring. In fact, a week ago last Saturday, he was on TV again denouncing him.
That tells me Hugo Chavez either changed along the way or fooled everyone all along, either way he's not today what most folks who voted for him thought he was going to be.
BTW, speaking of prominent folks deserting Chavez, for anyone new to these Venezuela threads, be sure to also see the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force, etc., that have recently left him here...
http://www.militaresdemocraticos.com/sp/oficiales.html
BTW#2, good recent released scholarly primer on Venezuela politics and Chavez (in english) here...
http://militaresdemocraticos.com/desobediencia/en/20021215-02.html.
It doesn't include his Cubanization, terrorism and drug running shenanigans, that have driven the top military out, but it's a good start.
-Shane