The return of the Caudillos in the digital age - changing hegemony and Media Caesarism: Continuities and changes in the news media landscape under the Chavismo

Over the past two decades, the Chavista regime has been able to survive all attempts to outset it from power. From military uprisings, public mass protests, and even the possibility of US intervention all have but failed in trying to undermine the grip to power that the current regime holds. There is little doubt that the use of coercion has been central in this exercise of power. Something that has included the systematic assassination, jailing, and forcible disappearance of dissidents. Nevertheless, it is not less true that the Chavismo also kept a substantial number of followers who have remained loyal to what they call the Bolivarian Revolution. So, despite losing the 2015 parliamentarian election in an overwhelming defeat that was seen as an extensive erosion of its political base, the regime - now under Nicolas Maduro - clings to power despite US sanctions, scarcity of basic goods, struggle to juggle with a dollarized economy and in the face of fuel shortages and power cuts. The question is, therefore, what keeps the political base of the Chavismo mobilized and a great segment of the opposition paralyzed? The answer, as we suggest in this chapter, is that the regime has been successfully able to build a new media and cultural hegemony that changed the terms of reference for many people in that country and that helps its subdue attempts to outset it from power.