Chavez Takes up Social Media As Popularity Declines

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is now using social media to try to keep a grip on the country.
Chavez Takes up Social Media As Popularity Declines
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)
5/26/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/chavez99084403.jpg" alt="Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1819402"/></a>
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)
With parliamentary elections coming up in September and a sharp decline in popularity, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is now using social media to try to keep a grip on the country.

Chavez is already well-known for his lengthy televised addresses to the nation. Now, on a new website launched on Tuesday, Chavez will keep a blog. The site, which shows on its homepage more than 30 different images of Chavez, also contains short writings, speeches and his television appearances. 

Previously the socialist leader had strongly criticized social networking, but last month, Chavez launched a Twitter account to counter Venezuelan opposition’s presence on social networks. A 200-person strong team is managing the account, attempting to fulfill Chavez' ambition of becoming the most followed person on Twitter in the world. At present Chavez has 430,000 followers.