espanolLa ruptura populista ocurre cuando tiene lugar una dicotomizacion del espacio social por la cual los actores se ven a si mismos como participes de uno u otro de dos campos enfrentados. Implica la equivalencia entre las demandas insatisfechas, la cristalizacion de todas ellas en torno de ciertos simbolos comunes y la emergencia de un lider. Esto no anticipa nada acerca de los contenidos ideologicos del viraje populista. En el caso venezolano, la transicion hacia una sociedad mas justa y democratica requeria el desplazamiento de la elite corrupta y desprestigiada, para lo cual era necesario construir un nuevo actor colectivo ?cuyo simbolo es el bolivarianismo y cuyo emergente es Hugo Chavez? a traves de una ruptura populista. EnglishThe populist rupture occurs when the social space is reduced to a dichotomic confrontation in which actors see themselves as participants of one or other of the conflicting bands. This implies that the different unsatisfied demands are attributed a common status, are subsumed under certain common symbols and represented by a leader. This phenomenon tells us nothing about the ideological content of a particular populism. In the Venezuelan case, a transition towards a more just and democratic society, required the displacement of a corrupt and discredited elite and to this end a new collective actor was required ? symbolized by Bolivarianism and led by Chavez? as was the populist rupture.