The Presidential Leaderships of Hugo Chávez y Álvaro Uribe. Two Sides of the Same Way of Ruling

Abstract

This article compares the presidential leaderships of Hugo Chávez Frías in Venezuela and Álvaro Uribe in Colombia from 1999 to 2010, taking into consideration the way in which both have ruled, generating and handling the resources of power. Within this framework, this paper departs from the studies that sort out leaderships and populisms according to their ideological connections, and analyses both presidents with respect to the way in which they exercise power. Therefore, it focuses on a kind of leadership that can have its ideological origin in the left or in the right, that runs the state from different political stances, that has different support bases and different international and national allies, but, on the other hand, has certain common characteristics: its attempt to set the foundation for structural changes in their countries, its immense popularity, and its similar style of running office in the way it handle resources and exercise power.