Neither these tools or Chavez give a damn about the poor - they are just props in their propaganda game.
Of course they are props...but oil is his mainstay and even though the poor are still poor (and gowing) there is not enough being done to reduce the world's oil fixation.
Quoting one analyst: "If you look behind the façade, what you have is a country in which poverty really hasn't been reduced very much. Most of what he has done is handouts to the poor, but no real long-term investment decisions have been made. Oil production is down from where it was ten years ago. PVDSA [Petroleos of Venezuela, the state- run oil company], which was once one of the best-run oil companies in the world, is no longer very well run. And Chavez has been purchasing oil in European markets to meet his forward contracts. So that doesn't give you a very healthy picture of the economy.”
http://www.contactomagazine.com/hugochavez0606.htm