Chávez is a deeply disputed personality, both in Venezuela and abroad. His most steadfast domestic opponents state that Chávez is a dangerous militarist and authoritarian revolutionary who poses a fundamental threat to Venezuelan democracy. The opposition also reports that both poverty and unemployment figures under Chávez have not seen significant improvements and that official corruption under his government continues to be rampant,[77][78] and point to the 1% drop in Venezuela's per-capita GDP under Chávez. Opposition figures also cite the many public hospitals that lack even basic medicine and hygenic supplies, while others describe Chávez as a demagogue and his supporters as a personality cult, intended to help Chávez achieve power and adulation. For example, Chávez critics question the motives behind the Bolivarian Missions' regular cash and in-kind payments to the millions of poor Venezuelans enrolling in their social programs. They worry that receiving benefits from many Missions simultaneously will corrupt their work ethic and predispose them to support Chávez. However, the particular claims about the inefficacy of government programs that have eradicated poverty, illiteracy and ill health are also made specifically through media owned by the very upper class of Venezuela, and are strongly disputed by the lower classes who are the recipients of these government initiatives and constitute the bulk of the Chavista movement.
The opposition has also claimed that the Chávez government has engaged in extensive electoral fraud, especially during the 2000 and 2004 elections, and has reported that many anti-Chávez activists are detained as political prisoners.[79] More sympathetic criticisms arise from reports that Chávez is not fulfilling his major campaign pledges with respect to labor and land reform.[80][81][82] Many claim that the beaureaucratic setup Chávez inherited has strongly corrupted roots, and are subversive or inefficient elements in the programs for social change. Abroad, sources in the Western mainstream news media have reported that Chávez is a confrontational ideologue[83] who willingly harbors, funds, and trains terrorists in Venezuela and insurgents abroad.[84][85]
The human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented human rights violations under Chávez.[5][6] Scores of deaths and hundreds of injuries inflicted during both opposition and pro-Chávez demonstrations have resulted in little investigative action taken on the part of Chávez. These organizations have also made allegations of ill treatment of detainees, torture, and censorship by the police and military. However, there is also much repression of lower class Chávez supporters and even social workers, and the local police act on behalf of the local mayors, many of whom are wealthy anti-Chavistas, rather than the central government. The government is currently attempting to nationalize police to eliminate local corruption. Meanwhile, relatives of victims who were killed in the April 11, 2002 clashes have filed a case against Chávez and others at the International Criminal Court, stating that Chávez is legally complicit in crimes against humanity. A decision on the case has not been reached because of his position as acting President.
Chávez has also made controversial statements. In January 2006, he stated that “[t]he world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority, the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones that kicked Bolívar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession all of the wealth of the world...”[86] The Simon Wiesenthal Center omitted the reference to Bolívar without ellipsis, stated that Chávez was referring to Jews, and denounced the remarks as antisemitic by way of his allusions to wealth. Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela all defended Chávez, stating that he was speaking not of Jews, but of South America's white oligarchy. Why Chávez would refer to this oligarchy as the killers of Christ is unclear, and is not addressed by any of these groups; but would seem to be a reference to the Roman government, whose soldiers were directly involved in the torture and execution of Christ, and from which most western European nations are descended. [87]: