"Don't mess with me girl"

[L'Impresario]

A poll of Latin American elites found that 86 percent of them disapprove of Washington's management of conflicts around the world. The reliable Stroessners and Pinochets are no more, the Lulas and Chavezes are setting the tone and they have growing popular and elite support

Well, those elites are from both private and public sectors, and with centre left- and left-leaning governments on the rise, it's only natural that such attitudes become prevalent, esp. in countries that are also weary of the developed nations' promotion of the Doha agenda. But it certainly seems that a diversification of external economic ties in many latin american countries is thoroughly contemplated, and we see that China has made quite a few moves, but her reliability and sincerity are still being questioned.
With priorities taking the US' attention away from the continent, one can clearly see that such neglection is taking its toll. While the public might abhor free trade practices, the elites are naturally seeking them, but lately a certain moderation seems prevalent.
I suspect that discussions regarding the success (or not) of the so-called "chilean model" has much to do with it, but, in the end, I think that in the start of an election cycle such attitudes are more likely to surface.
And let's not forget that this poll mentions specifically the way conflicts are being managed by the US administration...and I don't believe you'll find many sympathisers worldwide anyway.
But I haven't looked extensively into other aspects of the poll and I cannot say for sure.

What I can say is that I'm not aware of the support Chávez receives from the elites, quite the contrary (unless you assume that he's constituing a new party-based elite...).
Venezuela is highly polarised and, as I'm currenly trying to analyse and put into context some Latinobarómetro statistics, it may appear suprising to some that its population rates with 7.6 out of 10 the level of democracy in the country, this being the highest score in the whole region.
Regarding the relation between public, elites and governments, helpful indicators of sorts can be found in the statistics of the first 20 Latinobarómetro pages .

[Soulforged]

A lot of the politicos, most of whom are 45+ in most cultures, aren't quite as in tune with this. 25 years ago, you gave your speech to the party faithful, they got pumped up, and everybody went home. Now, 6 bloggers have your words on the net in 20 minutes, 16 other bloggers from the other "team" are disecting your words, quoting anything outrageous, and feeding this into the mainstream media. Instead of going home, you get back to your room to find 3 reporters waiting for you to comment on the outrageous comments you made 34 mintues ago that "EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT." The semi-privacy of internal versus external, at least in politics, is gone. All statements are fully public at all times....and, Hilary, don't mumble too loudly while you take a nap on the plane.

I agree with you Seamus. It's kind of massive (however I cannot look at it for third party perspective because since I came to this world I live in the world you're describing), specially extravagant, exotic and exagerated comments such the ones that Chavez keeps saying (and why not, even humorous), are much more actractive than other subjects that could be discussed, but this could generate, nevertheless, a massive critical (mostly uneducated) actitud against the government or their visible heads, I would not call it democracy but at least you're right with it's public caracter.