Caracas—Last July, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer, he announced on his 57th birthday that he had changed the slogan defining his Bolivarian Revolution. Until then, soldiers were required to salute their superiors with “Motherland, socialism, or death.” Standing next to his daughters on the balcony of the Miraflores Palace, the president’s official workplace in Caracas, and wearing a yellow shirt instead of his trademark red, he proclaimed, “We have to live, and we have to come out victorious. That’s why I propose a new slogan. There’s no death here. There’s life.” Then thrusting his left fist into the air, he shouted, “Socialist motherland and victory, we will live, and we will come out victorious.” His followers responded to the new salute with a mass ovation.
Chávez’s decision to change this slogan as a result of his cancer diagnosis reveals the depth...
