Hugo Zavez Rhetorical Analysis

The populist leaders of Latin American countries fought vigorously against the strong-headed elites and foreign countries who had the power, wealth, and prestige to undermine populist rule. Populism was a new political tool and movement that was of the people. The leaders had to be charismatic and would often pledge to yield to the concerns of the masses who they wanted support from. Two of those leaders include, Getúlio Vargas and Hugo Chávez whom hold very similar views regarding the working-class masses and the imperialism inflicted upon them by the United States. Despite their similar targeted followers of the working-class, they had contrasting issues of focus they wanted to get across. In Vargas’s, “A Consummate Speechwriter,” he wanted

To counteract his more adamant strategies, he used populism to gain the people’s support by making reforms relating to health, salaries, and resources. This populist leader clearly “understood the importance of the growing proletariat in Brazil” and implemented all his plans to give immediate benefits to the workers in order to instantly gain all their support. In his notes and instructions for his press secretary, Lourival Fontes, he made it blatantly clear to avoid any slang language or “stilted wording” because he wanted to keep his sentences short and simple. The intention was to make his industrial workers and the rest of the masses to understand and feel like they were at the same standing as their leader. In order to continue having the support the populist leader needed, he wanted to make an impression that was not academic or considered too proper for his intended audience, whom a majority did not have a proper education, which meant most were illiterate. The absence of proper education is being indirectly addressed by Vargas because he constructs the syntax and diction of his speeches so the masses could relate and understand. He places focus on the equality between all his people no matter race, he says “there are no superior or inferior races, nor races of masters and slaves” which is a controversial issue

Chavez had a quarry relationship with the United States and their president in 2006, which was George W. Bush. In his speech to the United Nations, he focused on the U.S. imperialism that President George W. Bush was trying to persuade the other world leaders as beneficial. He constantly refers to Bush as the “devil” who came to endorse “domination, exploitation and pillage over the peoples of the world” and those are institutional concepts that Chavez would not allow in his country or any others in Latin America. Throughout his address, the diction Chavez led with was colloquial in a sense that the tone he set was humorous and made his audience laugh. There is great importance when looking at the approach Chavez took when speaking to all the other world leaders; making them feel united and being able to enjoy themselves was a great tactic to ensure the effectiveness of his speech. Chavez also employed common ground, he depicted George W. Bush as the universal enemy which aided him into stating all the issues within his country that he wanted to