Thank you.
I will use the term "populism", which is well-known to Latin Americans and analysts covering Latin America. The word takes on a different meaning in Latin America as opposed to North America. It refers to a type of politics which is quite widespread over the continent. These are governments that are close to the people, which corresponds to our image of things, but there is also a vision according to which the state is getting closer to the people. Latin American populism always has a positive side, namely with regard to its capabilities—you mentioned the army—and the fact that institutions can get closer to the people. I stress the fact that it is not all people, but a targeted majority of people who, over the course of Venezuela's long history and that of other countries, have faced social injustice.
In a situation where the state, rather than turn to the elite, turns to more disadvantaged people, those who may have been set aside for decades, even centuries, populism may be viewed as a very interesting phenomenon. It engages citizens and according to political experts it leads to people's involvement in politics, for one. That is something we can see in Venezuela, as was seen in 1940s Argentina under Juan Perón.
That said, populism involves some downsides, of course. We should not deny that. Populism which enjoys popular support and rests on the image of one charismatic figure and his inflammatory rhetoric tends, as I mentioned, to centralize power and use state institutions to serve its political agenda. In that case, it can be dangerous. Is populism always positive or negative? It depends. In Latin America, it can lead to the involvement of men and women that have been excluded but it can also lead to authoritarianism. That has been the case in a number of countries. I believe that in Venezuela there are some worrisome trends. That said, the political system and Venezuelan society in general have both the instruments and the will needed to find a way to support true democracy, which may one day include the fundamental freedoms and social rights I referred to earlier on.