Nicolas Maduro so far has led by imitation, seeking to fill the shoes of a president whose uncanny vigor, mischievous humor and political wiles sowed a revolution and transformed a nation.
As Hugo Chavez did during his 14-year presidency, Maduro has stoked confrontation, and shed tears.
While steering Venezuela through the trauma of Chavez’s death, Maduro has pinned his move to the top on his beloved predecessor.
Yet there are serious doubts, even among die-hard Chavistas, about his ability to lead the nation.
At his swearing-in Friday evening as acting president in the National Assembly chamber where less than a decade ago he was just another lawmaker, Maduro pledged his “most absolute loyalty” to Chavez.
Then he launched into another fiery, lionization-of-the-masses speech punctuated by tears, Chavez-style harangues and attacks on capitalist elites and the international press.
“This sash belongs to Hugo Chavez,” he said, choked up, after assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello slid the presidential band over his head. Hours earlier at Chavez’s funeral, Maduro delivered a speech similarly strident in content and tone.
Maduro, 50, hasn’t stopped idolizing the outsized leader who made him Venezuela’s foreign minister, then vice president and, before going to Cuba for a final cancer surgery in December, publicly selected him as the presidential successor.
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