I suppose the right time to have closed down the stations that supported the coup might have been immediately afterwards. But that would have been attacked as excessively hardline and as a totalitarian reaction. The option (copied from Thatcher) of waiting till the licence expired and needed to be renewed, and then not renewing it, did at least open the possibility of a move to a more measured and responsible type of opposition - which from all I have read was not taken. (And by "measured and responsible type of opposition" I mean real opposition, such as is demonstrated every day in other countries.)

"...one of the worst caudillos Latin America has brought forth" - not really. Caudillo is a fair enough term to use, but as Latin American caudillos go calling Chavez "one of the worst" is hardly justified. (Batista, Somoza, Pinochet...) He's a populist politician, which is what most politicians actually aspire to be, one way for another. Better than some, worse than some. No grounds for idolising him or demonising him.