Datanalisis pollster Luis Vicente Leon anticipated the trend last weekend and now a poll conducted by the firm Datos ("Facts") confirms it: Hugo Chavez's popularity is at its lowest point. Only 21% of the population approves of the job his government is doing and confidence in the president himself has fallen to 30%.
According to a study undertaken by Suhelis Tejero and published today in El Universal, "confidence in president Hugo Chavez has fallen nine points in one year, according to polls conducted by the firm Datos, which show a decline from 39% in 2006 to a mere 30% of the population by the end of last year."
The director of Datos, Joseph Saade, highlights the fact that the "strategy of scapegoating " no longer functions for the president, explaining the decline in this indicator for 2007.
However, with respect to the job the government is doing, the results of the poll were even worse. By the end of last year, confidence among Venezuelans in their government had fallen from the 35% registered in 2006 to a mere 21% approval rate.
Teodoro Petkoff (editor of TalCual) affirmed, in his editorial of last Monday, that "Chavez is in a free fall."
The Datos poll also made reference to the failed attempt to reform the constitution: "26% of those polled considered that the worst of the proposed modifications to the Constitution was the proposal for unlimited terms, followed by changes to the Armed Forces, and those modifications affecting the character of private property."
