-
April
-
Pope Francis
-
Cypriot financial crisis (2012-2013)
-
Language education
-
Grammy Award
-
Russian oligarchs
-
Manga
-
Buffalo Bill
-
Giacomo Puccini
-
Google Play
-
Drug rehabilitation
-
Sandro Botticelli
-
Hugo Chávez
-
Speed dating
-
Miracles of Jesus
-
Italian literature
-
Screenplay
-
Agatha Christie
-
Great Depression
-
Eurogroup
-
Tex Willer
-
Tram
-
Bitcoin
-
Fiat money
-
English law
-
Buy Nothing Day
-
Homeschooling
-
Harlequin
-
Abba
-
Francis of Assisi
|
WIKIMAG n. 5 - Aprile 2013
Hugo Chávez
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional
terms may apply. See
Terms of
Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.
Traduzione
interattiva on/off
- Togli il segno di spunta per disattivarla
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈuɣo
rafaˈel ˈtʃaβes ˈfɾi.as]; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was
the
President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. He was
formerly the leader of the
Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997
until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until his
death in 2013.
Following his own political ideology of
Bolivarianism and "socialism
of the 21st century", he focused on implementing socialist reforms
in the country as a part of a social project known as the
Bolivarian Revolution, which has seen the implementation of a
new constitution,
participatory democratic councils, the nationalization of several
key industries, increased government funding of health care and
education, and significant reductions in poverty, according to
government figures.[1]
Under Chavez, Venezuelans’ quality of life improved according to a UN
Index[2]
and the poverty rate fell from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in
2011, according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America.[2]
Born into a working-class family in
Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military officer, and
after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system, he
founded the secretive
Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s
to work towards overthrowing it. Chávez led the MBR-200 in an
unsuccessful
coup d'état against the
Democratic Action government of President
Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992, for which he was imprisoned. Released
from prison after two years, he founded a
socialist political party, the
Fifth Republic Movement, and was
elected president of Venezuela in 1998.
He subsequently introduced a new constitution which increased rights
for marginalized groups and altered the structure of Venezuelan
government, and was
re-elected in 2000. During his second presidential term, he
introduced a system of
Bolivarian Missions,
Communal Councils and worker-managed cooperatives, as well as a
program of land reform, while also nationalizing various key industries.
He was
re-elected in 2006 with over 60% of the vote. On 7 October 2012,
Chávez won his country's presidential election for a fourth time,
defeating
Henrique Capriles, and was elected for another six-year term.[3]
Allying himself strongly with the communist governments of
Fidel and then
Raúl Castro in
Cuba and
the socialist governments of
Evo Morales in
Bolivia,
Rafael Correa in
Ecuador,
and
Daniel Ortega in
Nicaragua, his presidency was seen as a part of the socialist "pink
tide" sweeping Latin America. Along with these governments, Chávez
described his policies as
anti-imperialist, being a prominent adversary of the
United States'
foreign policy as well as a vocal critic of U.S.-supported
neoliberalism and
laissez-faire
capitalism.[4]
He supported
Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and was instrumental in
setting up the pan-regional
Union of South American Nations, the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the
Bank of the South, and the regional television network
TeleSur. However, Chavez had extensive disputes with
Colombia, and supported rebels in Colombia and Ecuador, causing
ambassadors to be recalled and troops to be mobilized. Chávez was a
highly controversial and divisive figure both at home and abroad, having
insulted other world leaders and compared U.S. president
George W. Bush to a donkey,[5]
and called him the devil.[6]
Whereas he was derided by the US media, others called him a progressive
democrat, saying the US tries to undermine and de-legitimize his
government in Venezuela.[7][8][9][10]
On 30 June 2011, Chávez stated that he was recovering from an
operation to remove an abscessed tumor with cancerous cells.[11]
He required a second operation in December 2012.[12]
He was to have been sworn in on 10 January 2013, but the National
Assembly of Venezuela agreed to postpone the inauguration to allow him
time to recuperate and return from a third medical treatment trip to
Cuba.[13]
He
died in
Caracas
on 5 March 2013 at the age of 58.[14][15]
Early life
Childhood
Hugo Chávez was born on 28 July 1954 in his paternal grandmother Rosa
Inéz Chávez's home, a modest three-room house located in the rural
village
Sabaneta,
Barinas State. The Chávez family were of
Amerindian,
Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish descent.[16]
His parents,
Hugo de los Reyes Chávez and
Elena Frías de Chávez, were
working-lower
middle class schoolteachers who lived in the small village of Los
Rastrojos.
Hugo was born the second of seven children, including their eldest,
Adán Chávez.[17][18]
The couple lived in poverty, leading them to send Hugo and Adán to live
with their grandmother Rosa,[19]
whom Hugo later described as being "a pure human being... pure love,
pure kindness."[20]
She was a devout Roman Catholic, and Hugo was an altar boy at a local
church.[21]
Hugo described his childhood as "poor...very happy", and experienced
"humility, poverty, pain, sometimes not having anything to eat", and
"the injustices of this world."[22]
Attending the Julián Pino Elementary School, Chávez's hobbies
included drawing, painting, baseball and history. He was particularly
interested in the 19th-century
federalist general
Ezequiel Zamora, in whose army his own great-great-grandfather had
served.[23][24]
In the mid-1960s, Hugo, his brother and their grandmother moved to the
city of
Barinas so that the boys could attend what was then the only high
school in the rural state, the
Daniel O'Leary High School.[25]
Military Academy: 1971–1975
Aged seventeen, Chávez studied at the
Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas. At the Academy,
he was a member of the first class that was following a restructured
curriculum known as the
Andrés Bello Plan. This plan had been instituted by a group of
progressive, nationalistic military officers who believed that change
was needed within the military. This new curriculum encouraged students
to learn not only military routines and tactics but also a wide variety
of other topics, and to do so civilian professors were brought in from
other universities to give lectures to the military cadets.[26][27][28]
Living in Caracas, he saw more of the endemic poverty faced by working
class Venezuelans, something that echoed the poverty he had experienced
growing up, and he maintained that this experience only made him further
committed to achieving
social justice.[29][30]
He also began to get involved in local activities outside of the
military school, playing both baseball and softball with the
Criollitos de Venezuela team, progressing with them to the
Venezuelan National Baseball Championships. Other hobbies that he
undertook at the time included writing numerous poems, stories and
theatrical pieces, painting[31]
and researching the life and political thought of 19th-century South
American revolutionary
Simón Bolívar.[32]
He also became interested in the Marxist revolutionary
Che Guevara (1928–67) after reading his memoir The Diary of Che
Guevara, although he also read books by a wide variety of other
figures.[33]
In 1974, he was selected to be a representative in the commemorations
for the 150th anniversary of the
Battle of Ayacucho in Peru, the conflict in which Simon Bolívar's
lieutenant,
Antonio José de Sucre, defeated royalist forces during the
Peruvian War of Independence. In Peru, Chávez heard the leftist
president, General
Juan Velasco Alvarado (1910–1977), speak, and inspired by Velasco's
ideas that the military should act in the interests of the working
classes when the ruling classes were perceived as corrupt,[34]
he "drank up the books [Velasco had written], even memorising some
speeches almost completely."[35]
Befriending the son of Panamanian President
Omar Torrijos (1929–1981), another leftist military general, Chávez
subsequently visited Panama, where he met with Torrijos, and was
impressed with his land reform program that was designed to benefit the
peasants. Being heavily influenced by both Torrijos and Velasco, he saw
the potential for military generals to seize control of a government
when the civilian authorities were perceived as serving the interests of
only the wealthy elites.[34][36]
In contrast to military presidents like Torrijos and Velasco however,
Chávez became highly critical of
Augusto Pinochet, the right-wing general who had recently seized
control in Chile with the aid of the American
CIA.[37]
Chávez later related that "With Torrijos, I became a Torrijist. With
Velasco I became a Velasquist. And with Pinochet, I became an
anti-Pinochetist."[38]
In 1975, Chávez graduated from the military academy, being rated one of
the top graduates of the year (eight out of seventy five).[39][40][41]
Early military career: 1976–1981
I think that from the time I left the academy I was oriented
toward a revolutionary movement... The Hugo Chávez who
entered there was a kid from the hills, a Ilanero
with aspirations of playing professional baseball. Four
years later, a second-lieutenant came out who had taken the
revolutionary path. Someone who didn’t have obligations to
anyone, who didn't belong to any movement, who was not
enrolled in any party, but who knew very well where I was
headed.
Following his graduation, Chávez was stationed as a communications
officer at a
counterinsurgency unit in Barinas,[43]
although the
Marxist-Leninist insurgency which the army was sent to combat had
already been eradicated from that state, leaving the unit with much
spare time. Chávez himself played in a local baseball team, wrote a
column for the local newspaper, organized
bingo games and judged at beauty pageants.[44]
At one point he found in an abandoned car riddled with bullet holes a
stash of Marxist literature that apparently had belonged to insurgents
many years before. He went on to read these books, which included titles
by such theoreticians as
Karl
Marx,
Vladimir Lenin and
Mao
Zedong, but his favourite was a work entitled The Times of
Ezequiel Zamora, written about
the 19th-century federalist general whom Chávez had admired as a
child.[45]
These books further convinced Chávez of the need for a
leftist government in Venezuela, later remarking that "By the time I
was 21 or 22, I made myself a man of the left."[46]
In 1977, Chávez's unit was transferred to
Anzoátegui, where they were involved in battling the
Red Flag Party, a Marxist-Hoxhaist
insurgency group.[47]
After intervening to prevent the beating of an alleged insurgent by
other soldiers,[48]
Chávez began to have his doubts about the army and their methods in
using torture.[46]
At the same time, he was becoming increasingly critical of the
corruption in both the army and in the civilian government, coming to
believe that despite the wealth being produced by the country's oil
reserves, Venezuela's poor masses were not receiving their share,
something he felt to be inherently un-democratic. In doing so, he began
to sympathise with the Red Flag Party and their cause, if not their
violent methods.[49]
In 1977, he founded a revolutionary movement within the armed forces,
in the hope that he could one day introduce a leftist government to
Venezuela: the Venezuelan People's Liberation Army (Ejército de
Liberación del Pueblo de Venezuela, or ELPV), was a secretive cell
within the military that consisted of him and a handful of his fellow
soldiers. Although they knew that they wanted a middle way between the
right wing policies of the government and the far left position of the
Red Flag, they did not have any plans of action for the time being.[48][50][51]
Nevertheless, hoping to gain an alliance with civilian leftist groups in
Venezuela, Chávez then set about clandestinely meeting various prominent
Marxists, including Alfredo Maneiro (the founder of the
Radical Cause) and
Douglas Bravo, despite having numerous political differences with
them.[52][53]
At this time, Chávez married a working-class woman named Nancy
Colmenares, with whom he would go on to have three children: Rosa
Virginia (born September 1978), Maria Gabriela (born March 1980) and
Hugo Rafael (born October 1983).[54]
Later military career and the Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200:
1982–1991
Five years after his creation of the ELPV, Chávez went on to form a
new secretive cell within the military, the
Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200 (EBR-200), later redesignated the
Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200).[26][55][56]
Taking inspiration from three Venezuelans whom Chávez deeply admired,
Ezequiel Zamora (1817–1860),
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) and
Simón Rodríguez (1769–1854), these historical figures became known
as the "three roots of the tree" of the MBR-200.[57][58]
Later describing the group's foundation, Chávez would state that "the
Bolivarian movement that was being born did not propose political
objectives... Its goals were imminently internal. Its efforts were
directed in the first place to studying the military history of
Venezuela as a source of a military doctrine of our own, which up to
then didn't exist."[59]
However, he always hoped that the Bolivarian Movement would become
politically dominant, and on his political ideas at the time, remarked
that "This tree [of Bolívar, Zamora and Rodríguez] has to be a
circumference, it has to accept all kinds of ideas, from the right, from
the left, from the ideological ruins of those old capitalist and
communist systems."[60]
Indeed, Irish political analyst Barry Cannon noted that the early
Bolivarian ideology was explicitly capitalist, but that it "was a
doctrine in construction, a heterogeneous amalgam of thoughts and
ideologies, from universal thought, capitalism, Marxism, but rejecting
the neoliberal models currently being imposed in Latin America and the
discredited socialist and communist models of the old Soviet Bloc."[61]
In 1981, Chávez, by now a captain, was assigned to teach at the
military academy where he had formerly trained. Here he indoctrinated
new students in his so-called "Bolivarian" ideals, and recruited those
whom he felt would make good members of the MBR-200, as well as
organizing sporting and theatrical events for the students. In his
recruiting attempts he was relatively successful, for by the time they
had graduated, at least thirty out of 133 cadets had joined it.[62]
In 1984 he met a Venezuelan woman of German ancestry named
Herma Marksman who was a recently divorced history teacher. Sharing
many interests in common, she eventually got involved in Chávez's
movement and the two fell in love, having an affair that would last
several years.[63][64]
Another figure to get involved with the movement was
Francisco Arias Cárdenas, a soldier particularly interested in
liberation theology.[65]
Cárdenas rose to a significant position within the group, although he
came into ideological conflict with Chávez, who believed that they
should begin direct military action in order to overthrow the
government, something Cárdenas thought was reckless.[66]
However, some senior military officers became suspicious of Chávez
after hearing rumours about the MBR-200. Unable to dismiss him legally
without proof, they re-assigned him so that he would not be able to gain
any more fresh new recruits from the academy. He was sent to take
command of the remote barracks at
Elorza
in
Apure State,[67]
where he got involved in the local community by organizing social
events, and contacted the local indigenous tribal peoples, the
Cuiva and
Yaruro. Although they were distrustful due to their mistreatment at
the hands of the Venezuelan army in previous decades, Chávez gained
their trust by joining the expeditions of an
anthropologist to meet with them. His experiences with them would
later lead him to introduce laws protecting the rights of indigenous
tribal peoples when he gained power many years later.[68]
While on holiday, he retraced on foot the route taken by his
great-grandfather, the revolutionary
Pedro Pérez Delgado (known as Maisanta), to understand his family
history; on that trip, he met a woman who told Chávez how Maisanta had
become a local hero by rescuing an abducted girl.[69]
In 1988, after being promoted to the rank of major, the high-ranking
General Rodríguez Ochoa took a liking to Chávez and employed him to be
his assistant at his office in Caracas.[70]
Operation
Zamora: 1992
In 1989,
Carlos Andrés Pérez (1922–2010), the candidate of the
centrist
Democratic Action Party, was elected President after promising to
oppose the United States government's
Washington Consensus and financial policies recommended by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nevertheless, he opposed neither
once he got into office, following instead the
neoliberal economic policies supported by the United States and the
IMF. He dramatically cut spending, and put prominent men in governmental
posts. Pérez's policies angered much of the public.[71][72][73]
In an attempt to stop the widespread protests and looting that followed
his social spending cuts, Pérez ordered the violent repression and
massacre of protesters, known as
El
Caracazo, which "according to official figures ... left a
balance of 276 dead, numerous injured, several disappeared and heavy
material losses. However, this list was invalidated by the subsequent
appearance of mass graves", indicating that the official death count was
inadequate.[74][75][76]
Pérez had used both the
DISIP political police and the army to orchestrate El Caracazo.
Chávez did not participate in the repression because he was then
hospitalized with
chicken pox, and later condemned the event as "genocide".[77][78]
Disturbed by the Caracazo, rampant government corruption, the
domination of politics by the Venezuelan oligarchy through the
Punto Fijo Pact, and what he called "the dictatorship of the IMF",
Chávez began preparing for a military coup d'état,[76][79]
known as Operation Zamora.[80]
Initially planned for December, Chávez delayed the MBR-200 coup until
the early twilight hours of 4 February 1992. On that date, five army
units under Chávez's command moved into urban Caracas with the mission
of overwhelming key military and communications installations, including
the
Miraflores presidential palace, the defense ministry, La Carlota
military airport and the Military Museum. Chávez's immediate goal was to
intercept and take custody of Pérez, who was returning to Miraflores
from an overseas trip. Despite years of planning, the coup quickly
encountered trouble. At the time of the coup, Chávez had the loyalty of
less than 10% of Venezuela's military forces,[81]
and, because of numerous betrayals, defections, errors, and other
unforeseen circumstances, Chávez and a small group of rebels found
themselves hiding in the Military Museum, without any means of conveying
orders to their network of spies and collaborators spread throughout
Venezuela.[82]
Furthermore, Chávez's allies were unable to broadcast their prerecorded
tapes on the national airwaves, during which Chávez planned to issue a
general call for a mass civilian uprising against the Pérez government.
Finally, Chávez's forces were unable to capture Pérez, who managed to
escape from them. Fourteen soldiers were killed, and fifty soldiers and
some eighty civilians injured during the ensuing violence.[83][84][85]
Realising that the coup had failed, Chávez gave himself up to the
government. On the condition that he called upon the remaining active
coup members to cease hostilities, he was allowed to appear on national
television, something that he insisted on doing in his military uniform.
During this address, he invoked the name of national hero
Simón Bolívar and declared to the Venezuelan people that "Comrades:
unfortunately, for now, the objectives we had set for ourselves were not
achieved in the capital city. That is, those of us here in Caracas did
not seize power. Where you are, you have performed very well, but now is
the time for reflection. New opportunities will arise and the country
has to head definitively toward a better future."[86]
Many viewers noted that Chávez had remarked that he had failed only "por
ahora" (for now),[26][87][88][89][90]
and he was immediately catapulted into the national spotlight, with many
Venezuelans, particularly those from the poorer sections of society,
seeing him as a figure who had stood up against government corruption
and
kleptocracy.[91][92][93]
Chávez was arrested and imprisoned at the San Carlos military
stockade, where he remained wracked with guilt, feeling responsible for
the coup's failure.[94][95]
Indeed, pro-Chávez demonstrations that took place outside of San Carlos
led to his being transferred to Yare prison soon after.[96]
The government meanwhile began a temporary crackdown on media supportive
of Chávez and the coup.[97]
A further attempted coup against the government occurred in November,
which was once more defeated,[79][98]
but then led to Pérez himself being impeached a year later for
malfeasance and misappropriation of funds for illegal activities.[99][100]
Political rise: 1992–1998
While Chávez and the other senior members of the MBR-200 were in
prison, his relationship with
Herma Marksman broke up in July 1993.[101]
She would subsequently become a critic of Chávez.[102]
In 1994,
Rafael Caldera (1916–2009) of the centrist
National Convergence Party was elected to the presidency, and soon
after taking power, freed Chávez and the other imprisoned MBR-200
members as per his pre-election pledge. Caldera had however imposed upon
them the condition that they would not return to the military, where
they could potentially organise another coup.[103][104]
After being mobbed by adoring crowds following his release, Chávez went
on a 100-day tour of the country, promoting his Bolivarian cause of
social revolution.[105]
Now living off a small military pension as well as the donations of his
supporters, he continued to financially support his three children and
their mother despite divorcing Nancy Colmenares around this period. On
his tours around the country, he would meet
Marisabel Rodríguez, who would give birth to their daughter shortly
before becoming his second wife in 1997.[106][107]
Travelling around Latin America in search of foreign support for his
Bolivarian movement, he visited Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and
finally Cuba, where the Communist leader
Fidel Castro (1926–) arranged to meet him. After spending several
days in one another's company, Chávez and Castro became friends with the
former describing the Cuban leader as being like a father to him.[108]
Returning to Venezuela, Chávez failed to gain mainstream media attention
for his political cause. Instead, he gained publicity from small,
local-based newspapers and media outlets.[109]
As a part of his condemnation of the ruling class, Chávez became
critical of President Caldera, whose neoliberal economic policies had
caused inflation and who had both suspended constitutional guarantees
and arrested a number of Chávez's supporters.[110]
According to the United Nations, by 1997 the per capita income for
Venezuelan citizens had fallen to US$ 2,858 from US$ 5,192 in 1990,
while poverty levels had increased by 17.65% since 1980, and homicide
and other crime rates had more than doubled since 1986, particularly in
Caracas.[111]
Coupled with this drop in the standard of living, widespread
dissatisfaction with the representative democratic system in Venezuela
had "led to gaps emerging between rulers and ruled which favoured the
emergence of a
populist leader".[112]
A debate soon developed in the Bolivarian movement as to whether it
should try to take power in elections or whether it should instead
continue to believe that military action was the only effective way of
bringing about political change. Chávez was a keen proponent of the
latter view, believing that the oligarchy would never allow him and his
supporters to win an election,[113]
while
Francisco Arias Cárdenas instead insisted that they take part in the
representative democratic process. Cárdenas himself proved his point
when, after joining the
Radical Cause socialist party, he won the December 1995 election to
become governor of the oil-rich
Zulia State.[114]
Subsequently changing his opinion on the issue, Chávez and his
supporters in the Bolivarian movement decided to found their own
political party, the
Fifth Republic Movement (MVR – Movimiento Quinta República)
in July 1997 in order to support Chávez's candidature in the
Venezuelan presidential election, 1998.[83][115][116][117]
1998 election
The election of a leftist president in Venezuela in 1998
foreshadowed what would, in the following seven years,
become a wave of successes for left-leaning presidential
candidates in Latin America...
Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva in Brazil in October 2002,
then
Lucio Gutiérrez in Ecuador in January 2003,
Néstor Kirchner in Argentina in May 2003,
Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay in October 2004,
Evo Morales in Bolivia in December 2005,
Rafael Correa in Ecuador in November 2006, and then
Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, also in November 2006. While
some of these moderated [towards the centre or centre-right]
significantly shortly after taking office, such as Gutiérrez
and da Silva, they represent a wave of left-of-center
leaders whose election came as a bit of a surprise given
the... disorientation within the left around the world.
Gregory Wilpert, German-American political analyst (2007). [118]
At the start of the election run-up, most polls gave
Irene Sáez, then-mayor of Caracas' richest district,
Chacao, the lead. Although an independent candidate, she had the
backing of one of Venezuela's two primary political parties,
Copei.[119]
In opposition to her right-wing and pro-establishment views, Chávez and
his followers described their aim as "laying the foundations of a new
republic" to replace the existing one, which they cast as
"party-dominated"; the current constitution, they argued, was no more
than the "legal-political embodiment of
puntofijismo", the country's traditional two-party
patronage system.[120]
This revolutionary rhetoric gained Chávez and the MVR support from a
number of other leftist parties, including the
Patria Para Todos (Motherland for All), the
Partido Comunist Venezolano (Venezeuelan Communist Party) and
the
Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism), which
together fashioned a political union supporting his candidacy called the
Polo Patriotic (Patriotic Pole).[117][121]
Chávez's promises of widespread social and economic reforms won the
trust and favor of a primarily poor and working class following. By May
1998, Chávez's support had risen to 30% in polls, and by August he was
registering 39%.[122]
Much of his support came from his 'strong man' populist image and
charismatic appeal.[123]
This rise in popularity worried Chávez's opponents, with a part of the
media proceeding to attack him with a series of allegations, which
included the claim – which he dismissed as ridiculous – that he was a
cannibal who ate children.[124]
With his support increasing, and Sáez's decreasing, both the main two
political parties, Copei and
Democratic Action, put their support behind
Henrique Salas Römer, a
Yale University-educated economist who representated the
Project Venezuela party.[125]
Chávez won the election with 56.20% of the vote. Salas Römer came
second, with 39.97%, while the other candidates, including Irene Sáez
and Alfaro Ucero, gained only tiny proportions of the vote.[100][126]
Academic analysis of the election showed that Chávez's support had come
primarily from the country's poor and the "disenchanted middle class",
whose standard of living had decreased rapidly in the previous decade,[127]
although at the same time much of the middle and upper class vote had
instead gone to Salas Römer.[128]
Following the announcement of his victory, Chávez gave a speech in which
he declared that "The resurrection of Venezuela has begun, and nothing
and no one can stop it."[126]
Presidency: 1999–2013
First presidential term: 2 February 1999 – 10 January 2001
Chávez's presidential inauguration took place on 2 February 1999, and
during the usual presidential oath he deviated from the prescribed words
to proclaim that "I swear before my people that upon this moribund
constitution I will drive forth the necessary democratic transformations
so that the new republic will have a
Magna Carta befitting these new times."[129][130]
He subsequently set about appointing new figures to a number of
government posts, including promoting various leftist allies to key
positions; he for instance gave one of the founders of MBR, Jesús
Urdaneta, the position in charge of the
secret police; and made one of the 1992 coup leaders, Hernán Grüber
Ódreman, governor of the Federal District of
Caracas.[131]
Chávez also appointed some conservative, centrist and centre-right
figures to government positions as well, reappointing Caldera's economy
minister Maritza Izaquirre to that same position and also appointing the
businessman Roberto Mandini to be president of the state-run oil company
Petroleos de Venezuela.[132]
His critics referred to this group of government officials as the "Boliburguesía"
or "Bolivarian bourgeoisie",[133][134]
and highlighted the fact that it "included few people with experience in
public administration."[129]
He also made several alterations to his presidential privileges,
scrapping the presidential limousine, giving away his entire
presidential wage of $1,200 a month to a scholarship fund,[135]
and selling off many of the government-owned airplanes, although
alternately many of his critics accused him of excessive personal
expenses for himself, his family and friends.[136]
The involvement of a number of his immediate family members in
Venezuelan politics has also led to accusations of
nepotism, something Chávez denies.[137]
Meanwhile, in June 2000 he separated from his wife Marisabel, and their
divorce was finalised in January 2004.[138]
A triumphant Hugo Chávez visiting
Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2003.
Although he publicly used strong revolutionary rhetoric from the
beginning of his presidency, the Chávez government's initial policies
were moderate, capitalist and centre-left, having much in common with
those of contemporary Latin American leftists like Brazil's president
Lula da Silva.[139][140]
Chávez initially believed that capitalism was still a valid economic
model for Venezuela, but that it would have to be
Rhenish capitalism that would be followed rather than the
neoliberalism which had been implemented under former governments
with the encouragement of the United States.[141]
He followed the economic guidelines recommended by the
International Monetary Fund and continued to encourage foreign
corporations to invest in Venezuela,[142]
even visiting the
New York Stock Exchange in the United States in an attempt to
convince wealthy investors to do so.[143][144]
To increase his visibility abroad, Chávez spent fifty-two days of his
first year as president outside of Venezuela, travelling the world
meeting various national leaders, such as American President
Bill Clinton, Governor of Texas
George W. Bush and Chinese Premier
Jiang Zemin.[145]
While he was remaining fiscally conservative, he introduced measures
in an attempt to alleviate the poverty of the Venezuelan working class.
Chávez immediately set into motion a social welfare program called
Plan Bolívar 2000, which he organised to begin on 27 February 1999,
the tenth anniversary of the Caracazo massacre. Costing
$113,000,000, Plan Bolívar 2000 involved 70,000 army officers going out
into the streets of Venezuela where they would repair roads and
hospitals, offer free medical care and vaccinations, and sell food at
cheap prices.[146][147][148]
Chávez himself described the Plan by saying that "Ten years ago we came
to massacre the people. Now we are going to fill them with love. Go and
comb the land, search out and destroy poverty and death. We are going to
fill them with love instead of lead."[149]
In order to explain his latest thoughts and plans to the Venezuelan
people, in May he also launched his own Sunday morning radio show,
Aló Presidente (Hello, President), on the state radio
network, as well as a Thursday night television show, De Frente con
el Presidente (Face to Face with the President). He followed
this with his own newspaper, El Correo del Presidente (The
President's Post), founded in July, for which he acted as
editor-in-chief, but which was later shut amidst accusations of
corruption in its management.[150]
In his television and radio shows, he answered calls from citizens,
discussed his latest policies, sung songs and told jokes, making it
unique not only in Latin America but the entire world.[151]
Constitutional
reform
Chávez then called for a public
referendum – something virtually unknown in Venezuela at the time –
which he hoped would support his plans to form a
constitutional assembly, composed of representatives from across
Venezuela, as well as from indigenous tribal groups, which would be able
to rewrite the nation's constitution. The referendum went ahead on 25
April 1999, and was an overwhelming success for Chávez, with 88% of
voters supporting the proposal.[152][153]
Following this, Chávez called for an election to take place on 25
July, in which the members of the constitutional assembly would be voted
into power.[154]
Of the 1,171 candidates standing for election to the assembly, over 900
of them were opponents of Chávez, but despite this, his supporters won
another overwhelming electoral victory, taking 125 seats (95% of the
total), including all of those belonging to indigenous tribal groups,
whereas the opposition were voted into only 6 seats.[152][155][156]
On 12 August 1999, the new constitutional assembly voted to give
themselves the power to abolish government institutions and to dismiss
officials who were perceived as being corrupt or operating only in their
own interests. While supporters of the move believed that it could force
reforms that had been blocked by corrupt politicians and judicial
authorities for years, many opponents of the Chávez regime argued that
it gave Chávez and the Bolivarians too much power at the expense of
their political opponents, and was therefore dictatorial.[157][158]
The elected members of the constituent assembly put together
a new constitution, and a referendum on the issue of whether to
adopt it was held in December 1999; the referendum saw an abstention
vote of over 50%, although amongst those voting, 72% approved the new
constitution's adoption.[156][159][160]
The new constitution included increased protections for indigenous
peoples and women, and established the rights of the public to
education, housing, healthcare and food. It added new environmental
protections, and increased requirements for government transparency. It
increased the presidential term from five to six years, allowed people
to
recall presidents by referendum, and added a new presidential
two-term limit. It converted the
bicameral legislature, a Congress with both a Senate and a Chamber
of Deputies, into a
unicameral one comprising only a
National Assembly.[161][162][163][164]
The constitution gave greater powers to the president, not only by
extending their term but also by giving them the power to legislate on
citizen rights as well as the economic and financial matters that they
were formerly unable to do.[165]
It also gave the military a role in the government by providing it with
the mandated role of ensuring public order and aiding national
development, something it had been expressely forbidden from doing under
the former constitution.[165]
As a part of the new constitution, the country, which was then
officially known as the Republic of Venezuela, was renamed the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (República Bolivariana de Venezuela) at
Chávez's request, thereby reflecting the government's ideology of
Bolivarianism and the influence of Simón Bolívar on the nation as a
whole.[155][156]
Second presidential term: 10 January 2001 – 10 January 2007
Under the new constitution, it was legally required that new
elections be held in order to re-legitimize the government and
president. This
presidential election in July 2000 would be a part of a greater
"megaelection", the first time in the country's history that the
president, governors, national and regional congressmen, mayors and
councilmen would be voted for on the same day.[166][167][168]
For the position of president, Chávez's closest challenger proved to be
his former friend and co-conspirator in the 1992 coup,
Francisco Arias Cárdenas, who since becoming governor of Zulia state
had turned towards the political centre and begun to denounce Chávez as
autocratic.[169]
Although some of his supporters feared that he had alienated those in
the middle class and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy who had
formerly supported him, Chávez was re-elected with 59.76% of the vote
(the equivalent of 3,757,000 people), a larger majority than his 1998
electoral victory,[170][171]
again primarily receiving his support from the poorer sectors of
Venezuelan society.[172]
That year, Chávez helped to further cement his geopolitical and
ideological ties with the Cuban government of Fidel Castro by signing an
agreement under which Venezuela would supply Cuba with 53,000 barrels of
oil per day at preferential rates, in return receiving 20,000 trained
Cuban medics and educators. In the ensuing decade, this would be
increased to 90,000 barrels a day (in exchange for 40,000 Cuban medics
and teachers), dramatically aiding the Caribbean island's economy and
standard of living after its "Special
Period" of the 1990s.[173]
However, Venezuela's growing alliance with Cuba came at the same time as
a deteriorating relationship with the United States: in late 2001, just
after the
American-led invasion of Afghanistan in retaliation for the
11 September attacks against the U.S. by Islamist militants, Chávez
showed pictures of Afghan children killed in a bomb attack on his
television show. He commented that "They are not to blame for the
terrorism of
Osama Bin Laden or anyone else", and called on the American
government to end "the massacre of the innocents. Terrorism cannot be
fought with terrorism." The U.S. government responded negatively to the
comments, which were picked up by the media worldwide.[174]
Chávez's second term in office saw the implementation of
social missions, such as this one to eliminate illiteracy in
Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the 2000 elections had led to Chávez's supporters gaining
101 out of 165 seats in the Venezuelan National Assembly, and so in
November 2001 they voted to allow him to pass 49 social and economic
decrees.[175][176]
This move antagonized the opposition movement particularly strongly.[168]
At the start of the 21st century, Venezuela was the world's fifth
largest exporter of
crude oil, with oil accounting for 85.3% of the country's exports,
therefore dominating the country's economy.[177][178]
Previous administrations had sought to privatise this industry, with
U.S. corporations having a significant level of control, but the Chávez
administration wished to curb this foreign control over the country's
natural resources by nationalising much of it under the state-run oil
company,
Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA). In 2001, the government
introduced a new Hydrocarbons Law through which they sought to gain
greater state control over the oil industry: they did this by raising
royalty taxes on the oil companies and also by introducing the formation
of "mixed companies", whereby the PdVSA could have joint control with
private companies over industry. By 2006, all of the 32 operating
agreements signed with private corporations during the 1990s had been
converted from being primarily or solely corporate-run to being at least
51% controlled by PdVSA.[177]
Opposition and
the CD
During Chávez's first term in office, the opposition movement had
been "strong but reasonably contained, [with] complaints centring mainly
on procedural aspects of the implementation of the constitution".[168]
However, the first organized protest against the Bolivarian government
occurred in January 2001, when the Chávez administration tried to
implement educational reforms through the proposed Resolution 259 and
Decree 1.011, which would have seen the publication of textbooks with a
heavy Bolivarian bias. The protest movement, which was primarily by
middle class parents whose children went to privately run schools,
marched to central Caracas shouting out the slogan "Don't mess with my
children." Although the protesters were denounced by Chávez, who called
them "selfish and individualistic," the protest was successful enough
for the government to retract the proposed education reforms and instead
enter into a consensus-based educational program with the opposition.[179]
That year, an organization known as the
Coordinadora Democrática de Acción Cívica (CD) was founded,
under which the Venezuelan opposition political parties, corporate
powers, most of the country's media, the
Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the
Frente Institucional Militar and the
Central Workers Union all united to oppose Chávez's regime.[175][180]
The prominent businessman
Pedro Carmona (1941–) was chosen as the CD's leader.[175]
They received support from various foreign sources.
The CD and other opponents of Chávez's Bolivarian government accused
it of trying to turn Venezuela from a democracy into a dictatorship by
centralising power amongst its supporters in the Constituent Assembly
and granting Chávez increasingly autocratic powers. Many of them pointed
to Chávez's personal friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro and the
one-party socialist government in Cuba as a sign of where the
Bolivarian government was taking Venezuela.[175]
Others did not hold such a strong view, but still argued that Chávez was
a "free-spending, authoritarian
populist" whose policies were detrimental to the country.[181]
For instance, Venezuelan lawyer and academic Allan R. Brewer-Carías, a
prominent and vocal opponent of Chávez, made the claim that under his
regime the country had "suffered a tragic setback regarding democratic
standards, suffering a continuous, persistent and deliberate process of
demolishing institutions and destroying democracy, which has never
before been experienced in the constitutional history of the country."[182]
Other academics have argued that the opposite was true, and that "the
Chávez government is in fact more democratic than previous ones" because
of the increased checks and balances introduced by the 1999 constitution
and the introduction of workers' councils.[183]
The pro-Chávez political analyst Gregory Wilpert argued, in his study
of the Bolivarian administration, that the opposition movement was
dominated primarily by members of the middle and upper classes. He
further argued that this wealthy elite was particularly furious at the
Bolivarian government because they themselves had lost much of their
dominance over Venezuelan politics with the introduction of the 1999
constitution and the relegitimization of all areas of government that it
required.[184]
He went on to argue that this wealthy elite subsequently used its
control of the country's mass media to create an anti-Chávez campaign
aimed primarily at the middle classes, stirring up the latent racism and
classism that existed in Venezuelan culture.[185][186]
One of the most prominent examples of this was through the
popularization of the racist term ese mono ("that monkey") which
began to be applied to Chávez by his opponents,[153][187][188]
who would also often accuse him of being "vulgar and common".[170][187][189]
Both Venezuelan and Western opposition media also characterized Chávez's
supporters, who were known as the Chávistas, as being "young, poor,
politically unsophisticated, antidemocratic masses" who were controlled,
funded and armed by the state,[190]
and they were regularly referred to as "hordes" in opposition media
discourse, which also commonly referred to the Bolivarian Circles as
"terror circles".[188]
Such descriptions have been refuted by certain academics, such as
Cristóbal Valencia Ramírez, who, after studying Chavista groups, have
argued that they consist of people from many classes of society, and are
educated and largely non-violent.[191]
Chavista-run organizations have since claimed to have been the target of
violent attacks from opposition groups: for instance, the Ezequiel
Zamora National Farmers' Coordinator estimated that 50 Chavista leaders
involved in the land-reform program had been assassinated during 2002
and 2003.[192]
Coup, strikes and the recall referendum
On 11 April 2002, mass protests took place in Caracas against the
Bolivarian government, during which guns were fired, and violence ensued
involving both pro- and anti-Chávez supporters, the police and the army.[193]
Twenty people were killed and over 110 were wounded.[194]
A group of high-ranking anti-Chávez military officers, likely supported
by figures in the business community, media and certain political
parties[which?],
had been planning to launch a coup against Chávez and used the civil
unrest as an opportunity.[195]
After the plotters gained significant power, Chávez agreed to step down,
and was transferred by army escort to
La
Orchila, and although he requested to be allowed to leave the
country, he refused to officially resign from the presidency at the
time. Nonetheless, the wealthy business-leader
Pedro Carmona declared himself president of an interim government.[196]
Carmona abolished the 1999 constitution and appointed a small governing
committee to run the country.[168]
Protests in support of Chávez along with insufficient support for
Carmona's regime, which many felt was implementing
totalitarian measures, led to Carmona's resignation and Chávez was
returned to power on 14 April.[197]
Chávez's reaction to the coup attempt was to moderate his approach,
implementing a new economic team that appeared to be more centrist and
reinstated the old board of directors and managers of the state oil
company
Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), whose replacement had been one
of the reasons for the coup.[198][199]
At the same time, the Bolivarian government began preparing for
potential future uprisings or even a US invasion by increasing the
country's military capacity, purchasing 100,000
AK-47
assault rifles and several helicopters from Russia, as well as a number
of
Super Tucano light attack planes from Brazil. Troop numbers were
also increased, with Chávez announcing in 2005 the government's
intention to increase the number of military reserves from 50,000 to
2,000,000.[200]
In December 2002, the Chávez presidency faced a
two-month management strike at the PdVSA when he initiated
management changes. As Wilpert noted, "While the opposition labelled
this action a 'general strike', it was actually a combination of
management lockout, administrative and professional employee strike, and
general sabotage of the oil industry."[201]
The Chávez government's response was to fire about 19,000 striking
employees for illegally abandoning their posts, and then employing
retired workers, foreign contractors and the military to do their jobs
instead. This move further damaged the strength of Chávez's opposition
by removing the many managers in the oil industry who had been
supportive of their cause to overthrow Chávez.[201]
Following the failure of these two attempts to remove Chávez from
power, the opposition finally resorted to legal means in order to try to
do so. The 1999 constitution had introduced the concept of a recall
referendum into Venezuelan politics, and so the opposition called for
such a referendum to take place. A
2004 referendum to recall Chávez was defeated. 70% of the eligible
Venezuelan population turned out to vote, with 59% of voters deciding to
keep the president in power.[171][202]
Unlike his original 1998 election victory, this time Chávez's electoral
support came almost entirely from the poorer working classes rather than
the middle classes, who "had practically abandoned Chávez" after he "had
consistently moved towards the left in those five and a half years".[203]
Meanwhile, some figures in the opposition movement began calling for the
United States military to intervene and invade the country in order to
topple Chávez.[202]
"Socialism of the 21st century"
[Bolivarian] socialism would be 'based in solidarity, in
fraternity, in love, in justice, in liberty, and in
equality' and would mean the 'transformation of the economic
model, increasing cooperativism, collective property, the
submission of private property to the social interest and to
the general interest', created 'from the popular bases, with
the participation of the communities'. This socialism was
not a dogma, however, but 'must be constructed every day'.
Barry Cannon, Irish political analyst (2009) [61]
The various attempts at overthrowing the Bolivarian government from
power had only served to further radicalize Chávez. In January 2005, he
began openly proclaiming the ideology of "Socialism
of the 21st Century", something that was distinct from his earlier
forms of Bolivarianism, which had been
social democratic in nature, merging elements of capitalism and
socialism. He used this new term to contrast the
democratic socialism which he wanted to promote in Latin America
from the Marxist-Leninist socialism that had been spread by socialist
states like the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China during
the 20th century, arguing that the latter had not been truly democratic,
suffering from a lack of participatory democracy and an excessively
authoritarian governmental structure.[61]
In May 2006, Chávez visited Europe in a private capacity, where he
announced plans to supply cheap Venezuelan oil to poor working class
communities in the continent. The Mayor of London
Ken Livingstone welcomed him, describing him as "the best news out
of Latin America in many years".[204]
Third presidential term: 10 January 2007 – 10 January 2013
In the
presidential election of December 2006, which saw a 74% voter
turnout, Chávez was once more elected, this time with 63% of the vote,
beating his closest challenger
Manuel Rosales, who conceded his loss.[202]
The election was certified as being free and legitimate by the
Organization of American States (OAS) and the
Carter Center.[205][206][207]
After this victory, Chávez promised an "expansion of the revolution."[208]
United Socialist Party of Venezuela and domestic policy
On 15 December 2006, Chávez publicly announced that those leftist
political parties who had continually supported him in the Patriotic
Pole would unite into one single, much larger party, the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de
Venezuela, PSUV).[117]
In the speech which he gave announcing the PSUV's creation, Chávez
declared that the old parties must "forget their own structures, party
colours and slogans, because they are not the most important thing for
the fatherland."[117]
According to political analyst Barry Cannon, the purpose of creating the
PSUV was to "forge unity amongst the disparate elements [of the
Bolivarian movement], providing grassroots input into policy and
leadership formation, [and] uniting the grassroots and leadership into
one single body."[209]
It was hoped that by doing so, it would decrease the problems of
clientelism and corruption and also leave the movement less dependent on
its leadership:[209]
as Chávez himself declared, "In this new party, the bases will elect the
leaders. This will allow real leaders to emerge."[209]
The logo for the PSUV, Chávez's socialist political party
founded in 2007.
Chávez had initially proclaimed that those leftist parties which
chose to not dissolve into the PSUV would have to leave the government,
however, after several of those parties supporting him refused to do so,
he ceased to issue such threats.[210]
There was initially much grassroots enthusiasm for the creation of the
PSUV, with membership having risen to 5.7 million people by 2007,[209][211]
making it the largest political group in Venezuela.[212]
The United Nations'
International Labour Organization however expressed concern over
some voters' being pressured to join the party.[213]
In 2007, the Bolivarian government set up a constitutional commission
in order to review the 1999 constitution and suggest potential
amendments to be made to it. Led by the prominent pro-Chávez
intellectual
Luis Britto García, the commission came to the conclusion that the
constitution could include more socially progressive clauses, such as
the shortening of the working week, a constitutional recognition of
Afro Venezuelans and the elimination of discrimination on the
grounds of
sexual orientation.[202]
It also suggested measures that would have increased many of the
president's powers, for instance increasing the presidential term limit
to seven years, allowing the president to run for election indefinitely
and centralizing powers in the executive.[202]
The government put the suggested changes to a
public referendum in December 2007.[214]
Abstention rate was high however, with 43.95% of registered voters not
turning out, and in the end the proposed changes were rejected by 50.65%
of votes.[202][215]
This would prove to the first electoral loss that Chávez had faced in
the thirteen electoral contests held since he took power,[202]
something analysts argued was due to the top-down nature of the changes,
as well as general public dissatisfaction with "the absence of internal
debate on its content, as well as dissatisfaction with the running of
the social programmes, increasing street crime, and with corruption
within the government."[216]
In order to ensure that his Bolivarian Revolution became socially
engrained in Venezuela, Chávez discussed his wish to stand for
re-election when his term ran out in 2013, and spoke of ruling beyond
2030.[217]
Under the 1999 constitution, he could not legally stand for re-election
again, and so brought about a
referendum on 15 February 2009 to abolish the two-term limit for all
public offices, including the presidency.[218]
Approximately 70% of the Venezuelan electorate voted, and they approved
this alteration to the constitution with over 54% in favor, allowing any
elected official the chance to try to run indefinitely.[217][218][219]
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the Bank of the South
The Bolivarian government placed a great emphasis on providing
financial and medical aid to the rest of Latin America, bolstered by the
profits produced by the Venezuela oil industry: indeed, in the first
eight months of 2007 alone, Venezuela spent $8.8 billion in doing so,
something which was "unprecedented for a Latin American country" in
terms of scale.[220]
Adding to this, the Chávez administration sought greater political,
economic and military alliances with those Latin American countries who
had seen leftist, and in particular socialist governments elected in the
early 21st century.[221]
The widespread success of left-leaning candidates at the time had led to
what political analysts have described as a "pink
tide" sweeping the region, although there was a great deal of
diversity within this leftist trend. Those that became the closest
allies of Bolivarian Venezuela were
Evo Morales and his
Movement for Socialism, which was elected into power in Bolivia in
2005, and
Rafael Correa and his
PAIS Alliance, who won the election in Ecuador in 2006.[118]
Chavez's government gave money, weapons and support to the
FARC, a
rebel guerilla movement in Colombia known for extensive kidnappings and
control of the drug trade. The suspicion of Venezuelan support was
repeatedly confirmed. In 2005,
captured laptops belonging to FARC leaders showed Chavez's
involvement and support. The FARC rebels sought Venezuelan assistance in
acquiring surface-to-air missiles. These files were confirmed by
Interpol as being authentic.[222]
Files found in Equador showed FARC spent $400 000 to support the
presidential campaign of
Rafael Correa, an ally of Chavez. The documents allege that Chavez
met personally with rebel leaders.[223]
In 2007, the socialist
Daniel Ortega and his
Sandinista National Liberation Front were elected into government in
Nicaragua, and his administration immediately entered into deals with
the Venezuelan government. On Ortega's first day in power, Chávez
announced plans to aid the impoverished Central American country by
forgiving the $30 million it owed Venezuela, and agreed to supply them
with a further gift of $10 million in aid, as well as providing them
with a $20-million loan with little or no interest and designed to
benefit the country's poor.[224]
In 2004, Venezuela had been one of the founding states in the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA).
As of 26 September 2009, Chávez, along with allies such as Argentina,
Brazil and Bolivia, had set up a regional bank and development lender
called
Bank of the South, based in Caracas, an attempt to distance himself
from financial institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund. Chávez first mentioned the project
before winning the Presidential election in 1998.[225]
Chávez maintains that unlike other global financial organizations, the
Bank of the South will be managed and funded by the countries of the
region with the intention of funding social and economic development
without any political conditions on that funding.[226]
The project is endorsed by Nobel Prize winning, former
World Bank economist
Joseph Stiglitz, who said: "One of the advantages of having a Bank
of the South is that it would reflect the perspectives of those in the
south," and that "It is a good thing to have competition in most
markets, including the market for development lending."[227]
As the
Arab Spring erupted across North Africa and the Middle East in 2010,
Chávez openly criticised those leaders who had been backed by the U.S.,
such as Egypt's
Hosni Mubarak, but at the same time championed those who had adhered
to
Arab socialist ideals, such as Syria's
Bashar al-Assad, whom he called "a humanist and a brother" in spite
of Assad's government's violent crackdown on protesters.[228]
Following the outbreak of the
Libyan civil war, in which forces opposed to the socialist
government rose up against the regime, Chávez, who had always had good
international relations with Libya – describing its ceremonial leader
Muammar Gaddafi as "a friend of mine"[228]
– offered to act as an intermediary between the government and the
rebel-controlled
National Transitional Council (NTC); however the latter declined the
offer.[229]
During the subsequent
2011 military intervention in Libya, in which western forces
attacked the Libyan army in support of the NTC, Chávez criticised the
"indiscriminate bombing" of the country, accusing the United States of
simply trying to "lay its hands on Libya's oil".[230]
Upon the
killing of Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011, Chávez proclaimed that
"We shall remember Gaddafi our whole lives as a great fighter, a
revolutionary and a martyr. They assassinated him. It is another
outrage."[231]
Fourth presidential term: 10 January 2013 – 5 March 2013
On 7 October 2012, Chávez won election as president for a fourth
time, and for the third time he won a six years term. He defeated
Henrique Capriles with 54% of the votes versus 45% for Capriles,
which was a lower victory margin than in his previous presidential wins,
in the
2012 Venezuelan presidential election[3][232]
Turnout in the election was an unheard-of 80%, testifying that the
election was hotly contested between the two candidates.[233]
There was significant support for Chávez amongst the Venezuelan lower
class. Chávez's opposition blamed him for unfairly using state funds to
spread largesse before the election to bolster Chavezs support among his
primary electoral base, the lower class.[232]
The inauguration of Chávez's new term was scheduled for 10 January
2013, but as he was undergoing medical treatment at the time in Cuba, he
was not able to return to Venezuela for that date. The National Assembly
president
Diosdado Cabello proposed to postpone the inauguration and the
Supreme Court decided that, being just another term of the sitting
president and not the inauguration of a new one, the formality could be
bypassed. The
Venezuelan Bishops Conference opposed the verdict, stating that the
constitution must be respected and the Venezuelan government had not
been transparent regarding details about Chávez's health.[234]
Acting executive officials produced orders of government signed by
Chávez, which were suspected of forgery by some opposition politicians,
who claimed that Chávez was too sick to be in control of his faculties.
Guillermo Cochez, recently dismissed from the office of
Panamanian
ambassador to the
Organization of American States, even claimed that Chávez had been
brain-dead since 31 December.[235][236]
Near to Chavez's death, two American attachés were expelled from the
country for allegedly undermining Venezuelan democracy.[citation
needed]
Due to the
death of Chávez, Vice President
Nicolas Maduro took over the presidential powers and duties for the
remainder of Chávez's abbreviated term until presidential elections are
held. Venezuela’s constitution specifies that the speaker of the
National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim
presidency if a president cannot be sworn in.[237]
Political
philosophy
19th century general and politician
Simón Bolívar provided a basis for Chávez's political
ideas.
Hugo Chávez defined his political position as
Bolivarianism, an ideology he developed from that of
Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) and others. Bolívar was a 19th-century
general who led the fight against the
imperialist Spanish authorities and who is widely revered across
Latin America today. Along with Bolívar, the other two primary
influences upon Bolivarianism are
Simón Rodríguez (1769–1854), a philosopher who was Bolívar's tutor
and mentor, and
Ezequiel Zamora, (1817–1860), the Venezuelan Federalist general.[238]
Political analyst Gregory Wilpert, in his study of Chávez's politics,
noted that "The key ingredients for Chávez's revolutionary Bolivarianism
can be summarized as: an emphasis on the importance of education, the
creation of civilian-military unity, Latin American integration, social
justice, and national sovereignty. In many ways this is not a
particularly different set of principles and ideas to those of any other
Enlightenment or national liberation thinker."[239]
Although he was a leftist ever since his days at the military
academy, after becoming president Chávez's political position progressed
further left, rejecting democratic leftist ideologies like social
democracy or the Third Way and instead embracing socialism. He
propagated what he called "socialism for the 21st century", but
according to Gregory Wilpert, "Chávez has not clearly defined
twenty-first century socialism, other than to say that it is about
establishing
liberty,
equality,
social justice, and
solidarity. He has also indicated that it is distinctly different
from
state socialism", as implemented by the governments of the
Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.[240]
As a part of his socialist ideas, he emphasised the role of so-called "participatory
democracy", which he claimed increased democratic participation, and
was implemented through the foundation of the
Venezuelan Communal Councils and
Bolivarian Circles which he cited as examples of grassroots and
participatory democracy.[241]
Democracy is impossible in a capitalist system. Capitalism
is the realm of injustice and a tyranny of the richest
against the poorest.
Rousseau said, 'Between the powerful and the weak all
freedom is oppressed. Only the rule of law sets you free.'
That's why the only way to save the world is through
socialism, a democratic socialism... [Democracy is not just
turning up to vote every five or four years], it's much more
than that, it's a way of life, it's giving power to the
people... it is not the government of the rich over the
people, which is what's happening in almost all the
so-called democratic Western capitalist countries.
Hugo Chávez, June 2010 [141]
Chávez was well acquainted with the various traditions of Latin
American socialism, espoused by such figures as Colombian politician
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán,[242]
former Chilean president
Salvador Allende,[242]
former Peruvian president
Juan Velasco Alvarado,[32]
former Panamanian president
Omar Torrijos[36]
and the
Cuban revolutionaries
Che Guevara and
Fidel Castro.[242]
Other indirect influences on Chávez's political philosophy are the
writings of American linguist
Noam Chomsky[243]
and the Gospel teachings of
Jesus Christ.[244][245]
Chávez's connection to
Marxism
was a complex one. In May 1996, he gave an interview with Agustín Blanco
Muñoz in which he remarked that "I am not a Marxist, but I am not
anti-Marxist. I am not communist, but I am not anti-communist."[246]
He was, however, well versed in many Marxist texts, having read the
works of many Marxist theoreticians, and often publicly quoted them.
Various international Marxists supported his government, believing it to
be a sign of proletariat revolution as predicted in
Marxist theory.[247]
In 2010, Hugo Chávez proclaimed support for the
ideas of Marxist
Leon Trotsky, saying "When I called him (former Minister of Labour,
José Ramón Rivero)" Chávez explained, "he said to me: 'president I
want to tell you something before someone else tells you ... I am a
Trotskyist', and I said, 'well, what is the problem? I am also a
Trotskyist! I follow Trotsky's line, that of permanent revolution," and
then cited Marx and Lenin.[248][249]
Policy overview
Economic
and social policy
Oil products were the keystone of the Venezuelan economy during
Chávez's presidential period. Chávez gained a reputation as a price hawk
in OPEC,
pushing for stringent enforcement of production quotas and higher target
oil prices. According to Cannon, the state income from oil revenue
"increas[ed] from 51% of total income in 2000 to 56% 2006";[250]
oil exports "have grown from 77% in 1997 [...] to 89% in 2006";[250]
and "this dependence on oil is one of the chief problems facing the
Chávez government".[250]
The economist
Mark Weisbrot, in an analysis of the Chávez administration, said:
"The current economic expansion began when the government got control
over the national oil company in the first quarter of 2003. Since then,
real (inflation-adjusted) GDP has nearly doubled, growing by 94.7
percent in 5.25 years, or 13.5 percent annually."[251]
For the year 2009, the Venezuelan economy shrank by an average of 2.9%
due to the global recession.[252]
According to Ian James, citing estimates from the Venezuelan Central
Bank, the Venezuelan government "controlled" the same percentage of the
economy as when Chávez was elected in 1998, with "the private sector
still control[ling] two-thirds of Venezuela's economy".[253]
After his election in 1998, more than 100,000 state-owned
cooperatives – which claimed to represent some 1.5 million people – were
formed with the assistance of government start-up credit and technical
training;[254]
and the creation and maintenance, as of September 2010, of over 30,000
communal councils, examples of localised participatory democracy; which
he intended to be integrated into regional umbrella organizations known
as "Communes in Construction".[255]
In 2010, Chávez supported the construction of 184
communes, housing thousands of families, with $23 million in
government funding. The communes produced some of their own food, and
were able to make decisions by popular assembly of what to do with
government funds.[256]
In September 2010, Chávez announced the location of 876 million bolivars
($203 million) for community projects around the country, specifically
communal councils and the newly formed communes. Chávez also criticised
the bureaucracy still common in Venezuela saying, when in discussion
with his Communes Minister Isis Ochoa, that "All of the projects must be
carried out by the commune, not the bureaucracy." The Ministry for
Communes, which oversees and funds all communal projects, was initiated
in 2009.[255]
Every factory must be a school to educate, like
Che Guevara said, to produce not only briquettes, steel,
and aluminum, but also, above all, the new man and woman,
the new society, the socialist society.
Hugo Chávez, May 2009 [257]
Chávez supported the creation of a series of
Bolivarian Missions which claimed to be aimed at providing public
services to improve economic, cultural, and social conditions. A 2010
OAS report[258]
indicated achievements in addressing illiteracy, healthcare and poverty,[259]
and economic and social advances.[260]
Barry Cannon wrote that "most areas of spending have increased".[261]
"[S]pending on education as a percentage of GDP stood at 5.1% in 2006,
as opposed to 3.4% in the last year of the Caldera government."[261]
Spending on health "has increased from 1.6% of GDP in 2000 to 7.7% in
2006".[261]
Spending on housing "receives low public support", increasing only "from
1% in GDP to 1.6% in 2006".[261]
Teresa A. Meade, wrote that Chávez's popularity "rests squarely on the
lower classes who have benefited from these health initiatives and
similar policies [...] poverty rates fell from 42 to 34 percent from
2000 to 2006, still leaving over 30 percent in this oil-rich nation
below the poverty line".[262]
The
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) reported that the
Venezuelan economy grew on average by 11.85% in the period 2004–2007.[263]
According to The Washington Post, citing statistics from the
United Nations, poverty in Venezuela stood at 28% in 2008,[264]
down from 55.44% in 1998 before Chávez got into office.[265]
Economist
Mark Weisbrot found that, "During the ... economic expansion, the
poverty rate [was] cut by more than half, from 54 percent of households
in the first half of 2003 to 26 percent at the end of 2008. Extreme
poverty fell by 72 percent. These poverty rates measured only cash
income, and did take into account increased access to health care or
education."[251][266]
Under his presidency, the
Gini coefficient, a measure of
income inequality, dropped from nearly .5 in 1998 to .39 in 2011,
putting Venezuela behind only Canada in the Western Hemisphere.[267]
Nicholas Kozloff, Chávez's biographer, stated of Chávez's economic
policies: "Chávez has not overturned capitalism, he has done much to
challenge the more extreme, neo-liberal model of development."[220]
Food
In the 1980s and 1990s health and nutrition indexes in Venezuela were
generally low, and social inequality in access to nutrition was high.[268]
Chávez made it his stated goal to lower inequality in the access to
basic nutrition, and to achieve
food sovereignty for Venezuela.[269]
The main strategy for making food available to all economic classes was
a controversial policy of fixing price ceilings for basic staple foods
implemented in 2003.[270]
In 2012, total food consumption was over 26 million metric tonnes, a
94.8% increase from 2003.[271]
According to official statistics from the Ministry of Land and
Agriculture, soybean production in Venezuela has grown by 858% to 54,420
tons over the past decade, and production of rice has risen by 84%,
reaching close to 1.3 million tons yearly.[272]
Chávez's presidency has also seen significant increases in milk
production, as much as 50% over ten years reported by some sources.[273]
Between 1998 and 2006 malnutrition related deaths fell by 50%.[251][274]
In October 2009, the Executive Director of the National Institute of
Nutrition (INN) Marilyn Di Luca reported that the average daily caloric
intake of the Venezuelan people had reached 2790 calories, and that
malnutrition had fallen from 21% in 1998 to 6%.[275]
In 2011, Datanálisis, an independent polling firm found that powdered
milk could be found in less than half of grocery stores in Venezuela and
that liquid milk was even more scarce in the country.[276]
Chávez blamed "speculators and hoarders" for these scarcities.[277]
Chávez's strategy in response to food shortages consisted mainly of
increasing domestic production through nationalizing large parts of the
food industry. The price ceilings increased the demand for basic foods
while making it difficult for Venezuela to import goods causing
increased reliance on domestic production. According to some
commentators this policy may have increased shortages.[276][277]
Chávez was strictly enforcing a price control policy, denouncing
anyone who sold food products for higher prices as "speculators".[270]
In January 2008, Chávez ordered the military to seize 750 tons of food
that sellers were illegally trying to smuggle across the border to sell
for higher prices than what was legal in Venezuela.[278]
In February 2009, Chávez ordered the military to temporarily seize
control of all the rice processing plants in the country and force them
to produce at full capacity, which he claimed they had been avoiding in
response to the price caps.[279]
In May 2010, Chávez ordered the military to seize 120 tons of food from
Empresas Polar after inconsistencies in reports from the Empresas
Polar conglomerate were said to have been detected by authorities.[280]
In March 2009, the Venezuelan government set minimum production
quotas for 12 basic foods that were subject to price controls, including
white rice, cooking oil, coffee, sugar, powdered milk, cheese, and
tomato sauce, which is intended to stop food companies from evading the
law. Business leaders and food producers claimed that the government was
forcing them to produce this food at a loss.[281]
Chávez
expropriated and
redistributed 5 million acres of farmland from large landowners,
saying: "The land is not private. It is the property of the state... The
land is for those who work it." But, the lack of basic resources made it
difficult or impossible to make full use of the expropriated lands by
its new tenants – leading to a lower overall degree of productivity in
spite of a larger overall area of land under cultivation.[282]
As part of his strategy of food security Chávez started a national
chain of supermarkets, the
Mercal network, which had 16,600 outlets and 85,000 employees that
distributed food at highly discounted prices, and ran 6000 soup kitchens
throughout the country.[283]
In 2008 the amount of discounted food sold through the network was 1.25
million metric tonnes,[251]
often sold at as much as 40% below the price ceiling set for privately
own stores. Simultaneously Chávez expropriated many private
supermarkets.[283]
According to Commerce Minister Richard Canan, “The average [savings] for
the basic food bundle (at the Mercal Bicentennial markets) is around
30%. There are some products, for example cheese and meat, which reach a
savings of 50 to 60% compared with capitalist markets.”[284]
The Mercal network was criticized by some commentators as being a part
of Chávez's strategy to brand himself as a provider of cheap food, and
the shops feature his picture prominently. The Mercal network was
subject to frequent scarcities of basic staples such as meat, milk and
sugar – and when scarce products arrive, shoppers had to wait in line.[283]
In 2010, after the government nationalized the port at Puerto
Cabello, more than 120,000 tons of food sat rotting at the port.[285]
In May 2010, during a shortage of beef, at least 40 butchers were
detained on charges of speculation for allegedly selling meat above the
regulated price; some of them were held at a military base and later
strip-searched by police.[286]
Human rights
In the 1999
Venezuelan constitution, 116 of 300 articles were concerned with
human rights; these included increased protections for indigenous
peoples and women, and established the rights of the public to
education, housing, healthcare, and food. It called for dramatic
democratic reforms such as ability to recall politicians from office by
popular referendum, increased requirements for government transparency,
and numerous other requirements to increase localized, participatory
democracy, in favor of centralized administration. It gave citizens the
right to timely and impartial information, community access to media,
and a right to participate in acts of civil disobedience.[162][163]
In 2008,
Human Rights Watch released a report reviewing Chávez's human rights
record over his first decade in power.[287]
The report praises Chávez's 1999 amendments to the constitution which
significantly expanded human rights guarantees, as well as mentioning
improvements in
women's rights and
indigenous rights, but noted a "wide range of government policies
that have undercut the human rights protections established" by the
revised constitution.[287]
In particular, the report accused Chávez and his administration of
engaging in discrimination on political grounds, eroding the
independence of the judiciary, and of engaging in "policies that have
undercut journalists' freedom of expression, workers' freedom of
association, and civil society's ability to promote human rights in
Venezuela."[288]
The Venezuelan government retaliated for the report by expelling members
of Human Rights Watch from the country.[289]
Subsequently, over a hundred Latin American scholars signed a joint
letter with the
Council on Hemispheric Affairs criticizing the Human Rights Watch
report for its alleged factual inaccuracy, exaggeration, lack of
context, illogical arguments, and heavy reliance on opposition
newspapers as sources, amongst other things.[290][291][292]
The International Labor Organization of the United Nations expressed
concern over voters being pressured to join the party.[213]
In 2010,
Amnesty International criticized the Chávez administration for
targeting critics following several politically motivated arrests.[293]
Freedom House listed Venezuela as being "partly free" in its 2011
Freedom in the World annual report, noting a recent decline in civil
liberties.[294]
A 2010
Organization of American States report found concerns with freedom
of expression, human rights abuses, authoritarianism, press freedom,
threats to democracy,[295][296]
as well as erosion of separation of powers, the economic infrastructure
and ability of the president to appoint judges to federal courts.[295][296][297]
OAS observers were denied access to Venezuela;[297]
Chávez rejected the OAS report, pointing out that its authors did not
even come to Venezuela. He said Venezuela should boycott the OAS, which
he felt is dominated by the United States; a spokesperson said, "We
don't recognize the commission as an impartial institution". He
disclaimed any power to influence the judiciary.[298]
A Venezuelan official said the report distorted and took statistics out
of context, and said that "human rights violations in Venezuela have
decreased".[299]
Venezuela said it will not accept an IACHR/OAS visit as long as Santiago
Cantón remains its Executive Secretary, unless the IACHR apologizes for
what he[clarification
needed] described as its support of the 2002 coup.[258][300]
Venezuelan Judge Maria Afiuni
was arrested in 2009 on charges of corruption, after she ordered the
conditional release on bail of banker
Eligio Cedeño, who had been held on charges of fraud and other
crimes due to alleged illegal currency trading activities. Some human
rights officials alleged the arrest was politically motivated; Cedeño
"had been in pretrial detention for nearly three years, despite a
two-year limit prescribed by Venezuelan law".[301]
Cedeño later fled to the U.S. to avoid prosecution. Following Afiuni's
arrest, several groups, including the United Nations, the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Episcopal Conference
of Venezuela,
Human Rights Watch, the
Law Society of England and Wales, the U.S. Department of State, and
the European Union Parliament accused Chávez of "creating a climate of
fear" among Venezuela's legal profession.[301][302][303][304][305][306][307][308]
The European Parliament called it "an attack on the independence of the
judiciary by the President of a nation, who should be its first
guarantor".[309]
A director of
Human Rights Watch said, "Once again the Chávez government has
demonstrated its fundamental disregard for the principle of judicial
independence."[301]
Media and the
press
Although the freedom of the press was mentioned by two key clauses in
the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela, in 2008,
Human Rights Watch criticized Chávez for engaging in "often
discriminatory policies that have undercut journalists' freedom of
expression."[288]
Freedom House listed Venezuela's press as being "Not Free" in its
2011 Map of Press Freedom, noting that "[t]he gradual erosion of press
freedom in Venezuela continued in 2010."[310]
Reporters Without Borders criticized the Chávez administration for
"steadily silencing its critics".[311]
In the group's 2009 Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders noted
that "Venezuela is now among the region’s worst press freedom
offenders."[311]
The large majority of mass media in Venezuela remained privately
owned, but subject to significant state control. The Venezuelan
government required that all private television stations dedicate at
least 25%[clarification
needed] of their airtime to programs created by
community groups, non-profits, and other independent producers. In 2007,[dated
info] private corporations controlled 80% of the
cable television channels, 100% of the newspaper companies, and 706 out
of 709 radio stations.[312][313]
In July 2005 Chávez inaugurated
TeleSUR,
a
Pan-American equivalent of
Al
Jazeera that sought to challenge the present domination of Latin
American television news by
Univision and the United States-based
CNN en Español.[314]
In 2006 Chávez inaugurated a state-funded movie studio called
Villa del Cine (English: Cinema City).[315]
According to Chávez, the goal of this indigenous film industry was to
counter what he described as "the dictatorship of Hollywood", the lack
of alternative media.[316]
Chávez with fellow South American presidents of Argentina
and Brazil.
Chávez had a
Twitter
account with more than 3,200,000 followers as of August 2012.[317][318][319]
Chávez's Twitter account has been described as a way for people to
bypass
bureaucracy and contact the president directly. There was a team of
200 people to sort through suggestions and comments sent via Twitter.
Chávez said Twitter was "another mechanism for contact with the public,
to evaluate many things and to help many people",[320]
and that he saw Twitter as "a weapon that also needs to be used by the
revolution".
In a Twitter report released in June 2010 Venezuela was third globally
for the prevalence of Twitter with 19% of the population using it.[322]
In 2010 availability of Internet service in Venezuela rose by 43%.[citation
needed] The Venezuelan state instituted
Infocenters, community spaces equipped with computers with internet
connections which are free to use.[322]
By January 2011 there were 737 infocenters, and the programme was
awarded a prize by
UNESCO.[323]
In the days before the 11 April 2002 coup, the five main private
Venezuelan TV stations gave advertising space to those calling for
anti-Chávez demonstrations.[324][325]
In 2006, Chávez announced that the terrestrial
broadcast license for
RCTV would
not be renewed, due to its refusal to pay taxes and fines, and its
alleged open support of the 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, and role
in helping to instigate the oil strike in 2002–2003.[326]
RCTV was transmitted via cable and satellite and was widely viewable in
Venezuela until January 2010, when it was excluded by cable companies in
response to an order of National Commission of Telecommunications.[327][328][329]
The refusal to renew its terrestrial broadcast license was condemned by
a multitude of international organizations, many of whom have claimed
that the closure was politically motivated, and was intended to silence
government critics.[330][331][332][333]
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) questioned whether, in the
event a television station openly supported and collaborated with coup
leaders, the station in question would not be subject to even more
serious consequences in the United States or any other Western nation.[334]
In a poll conducted by Datanalisis, almost 70 percent of Venezuelans
polled opposed the shut-down, but most quoted loss of their favourite
soap operas rather than concerns about limits on freedom of expression.[335]
Crime and
punishment
Bolivarian memorabilia for sale in
Venezuela, 2006.
During the 1980s and 1990s there was a steady increase in crime in
Latin America, and Colombia, El Salvador, Venezuela and Brazil all had
homicide rates above the regional average.[336]
During Chávez's administration, homicide rates more than tripled,
with one NGO finding the rate to have nearly quadrupled. The majority of
the deaths occur in crowded slums.[337][338]
The NGO found that the number of homicides increased from 6,000 in 1999
to 19,000 in 2011[339][340]
and 21,692 in 2012.[341][better source needed]
In 2010 Caracas had the highest murder rate in the world.[342]
For 2012 there were 13,080 murders in Venezuela and 14,670 murders in
neighboring
Colombia.[343]
Chávez maintained that the nation is no more violent now than it was
when he took office.[344]
Although critical of Chávez, a International Crisis Group report claimed
that when Chávez took office, there were factors beyond his control that
led to the crime phenomenon. The study went on to say that cross border
activity, mainly with Colombia, was also an important factor. It claimed
that international organised crime filters between the two countries and
lead to higher rates of kidnapping, drug trafficking and homicides.
Furthermore, supporters claimed that the states with the highest murder
rates were controlled by the opposition.[345]
Between 2000 and 2007, 6,300 police were investigated for violations
of human rights. Because decentralization of police was blamed for their
ineffectiveness, the 1999 constitution required the National Assembly to
form a national police force; however, legislation on this became bogged
down in legislative discussions. In 2006, the government established the
National Commission for Police Reform (Conarepol), in which a range
of civil society representatives, politicians and academics investigated
law enforcement in Venezuela and made recommendations. This included
setting up a national police force designed to operate with high
standards of professionalism and specific training in human rights. It
also included initiatives whereby communal councils could participate in
police supervision, by being able to request investigations into police
behaviour and file recommendations and complaints.[339]
In 2008, Chávez passed a decree designed to implement Conarepol's
recommendation on the national police force, and the
National Bolivarian Police (PNB),[346][347]
and
Experimental Security University began operations in 2009. According
to the PNB, murder was reduced by 60%, robberies by nearly 59%, and
gender-based violence has diminished by 66% in the pilot areas where the
PNB was active in and around Caracas.[347]
However, not all homicides due to encounters with police are reported.[348]
According to the publications
El Espectador and
Le Monde diplomatique, rising crime in rural and urban areas was
partly due to increased cross-border activity by Colombian right-wing
paramilitary groups like
Águilas Negras.[349]
The decree was criticized because it was negotiated behind closed
doors, and did not follow Conarepol's recommendations to deal with human
rights, and because "politicization of the force could undercut the goal
of professionalization".[348][350]
Foreign policy
Chávez and then-President of Argentina
Néstor Kirchner discuss energy and trade integration
projects for South America. They met on 21 November 2005 in
Venezuela.
Chávez refocused Venezuelan foreign policy on Latin American economic
and social integration by enacting bilateral trade and reciprocal aid
agreements, including his so-called "oil diplomacy".[351][352]
Chávez stated that Venezuela has "a strong oil card to play on the
geopolitical stage ... It is a card that we are going to play with
toughness against the toughest country in the world, the United States."[353]
Chávez focused on a variety of multinational institutions to promote his
vision of Latin American integration, including
Petrocaribe, Petrosur, and
TeleSUR.
Bilateral trade relationships with other Latin American countries also
played a major role in his policy, with Chávez increasing arms purchases
from Brazil,
forming oil-for-expertise trade arrangements with
Cuba, and
creating unique
barter
arrangements that exchange Venezuelan petroleum for cash-strapped
Argentina's meat and dairy products. Additionally, Chávez worked closely
with other Latin American leaders following the 1997
Summit of the Americas in many areas – especially energy integration
– and championed the
OAS decision to adopt the Anti-Corruption Convention. Chávez
participated in the United Nations Friends groups for
Haiti,
and pursued efforts to join and engage the
Mercosur trade bloc to expand the hemisphere's trade integration
prospects.[354]
Iran
Hugo Chávez and Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, respectively, both described themselves on the
world stage as opposed to
American imperialism. Citing this commonality of opinion, they
formed a close alliance embarked on a number of initiatives together. On
6 January 2007, the two announced that they would use some money from a
previously announced $2 billion joint fund to invest in other countries
that were "attempting to liberate themselves from the imperialist yoke",
in Chávez's words.[355]
The two presidents declared an "axis of unity" against "US imperialism".[356]
Chávez developed strong ties with the
government of Iran, in particular in the area of energy production,
economic, and industrial cooperation.[357]
He visited Iran on several occasions, the first time in 2001,[358]
when he declared that he came to Iran to "prepare the road for peace,
justice, stability and progress for the 21st century".[357]
Mohammad Khatami also visited Venezuela on three occasions. During
his 2005 visit, Chávez awarded him the
Orden del Libertador and called him a "tireless fighter for all
the right causes in the world".[359]
In May 2006, Chávez expressed his favorable view of the production of
nuclear energy in Iran announced by
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and denied that they had plans to develop
atomic weapons.[360]
Personal life
Chávez married twice. He first wed Nancy Colmenares, a woman from a
poor family in Chávez's hometown of Sabaneta. Chávez and Colmenares
remained married for 18 years, during which time they had three
children: Rosa Virginia, María Gabriela, and Hugo Rafael, the latter of
whom suffers from behavioural problems.[361]
The couple separated soon after Chávez's 1992 coup attempt. During his
first marriage, Chávez had an affair with historian
Herma Marksman; their relationship lasted nine years.[362]
Chávez's second wife was journalist
Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez, whom he divorced in 2000.[363]
Through that marriage, Chávez had another daughter, Rosinés.[364]
Both María and Rosa provided Chávez with grandchildren.[361][365]
Allegations were made that Chávez was a womanizer, and had been
throughout both his marriages, but these have remained unproven and are
contradicted by statements provided by other figures close to him.[366]
Chávez was a Catholic. He intended at one time to become a priest. He
saw his socialist policies (Liberation Theology) as having roots in the
teachings of Jesus Christ,[367]
and he publicly used the slogan of "Christ is with the Revolution!"[368]
He had some disputes with both the Venezuelan Catholic clergy and
Protestant groups like the
New Tribes Mission.[369][370]
Although he traditionally kept his own faith a private matter, Chávez
over the course of his presidency became increasingly open to discussing
his religious views, stating that both his faith and his version of
Jesus' personal life and ideology had a profound impact on his
Liberation Theology.
Illness
In June 2011, Chávez revealed in a televised address from
Havana,
Cuba, that he was recovering from an operation to remove an abscessed
tumor with cancerous cells.[371]
Vice President
Elías Jaua declared that the President remained in "full exercise"
of power and that there was no need to transfer power due to his absence
from the country.[372]
On 3 July, the Venezuelan government denied, however, that Chávez's
tumour had been completely removed, further stating that he was heading
for "complete recovery".[373]
On 17 July 2011, television news reported that Chávez had returned to
Cuba for further cancer treatments.[374]
Chávez gave a public appearance on his 57th birthday, in which he
stated that his health troubles had led him to radically reorient his
life towards a "more diverse, more reflective and multi-faceted"
outlook, and he went on to call on the middle classes and the
private sector to get more involved in his Bolivarian Revolution,
something he saw as "vital" to its success.[375]
Soon after this speech, in August Chávez announced that his government
would nationalize Venezuela's gold industry, taking it over from
Russian-controlled company
Rusoro, while at the same time also moving the country's gold
stocks, which were largely stored in western banks, to banks in
Venezuela's political allies like Russia, China and Brazil.[376]
On 9 July 2012, Chávez declared himself fully recovered from cancer
just three months before the
2012 Venezuelan presidential election, which he won, securing a
fourth term as president.[377]
In November 2012, Chávez announced plans to travel to Cuba for more
medical treatment for cancer.[378]
On 8 December 2012, Chávez announced he would undergo a new operation
after doctors in
Cuba
detected
malignant cells; the operation took place on 11 December 2012.[379]
Chávez suffered a
respiratory infection after undergoing the surgery but it was
controlled.[380]
It was announced 20 December by the country's vice-president that Chávez
had suffered "new complications" following his surgery.[381]
It was announced on 3 January 2013 that Chávez had a "severe"
lung infection that had caused
respiratory failures following a strict treatment regimen for "respiratory
insufficiency".[382]
However he was reported to have overcome this later that month,[383]
and it was reported that he was then undergoing a "supplementary course
of treatment".[384]
On 18 February 2013, Chávez returned to Venezuela after 2 months of
cancer treatment in Cuba.[385]
On 1 March 2013, Vice President
Nicolás Maduro, letting out for the first time, said Chávez had been
receiving chemotherapy in Venezuela as he "continues his battle for
life" since undergoing his last surgery in Cuba.[386]
On 4 March, it was announced by the Venezuelan government that Chávez's
breathing problems had worsened and he was suffering a new, severe
respiratory infection.[387]
After his first cancer surgery in 2011, Chávez indicated that a
baseball-sized tumor had been removed from his pelvis, but never
revealed what type of cancer he suffered from then or later when further
surgery, chemotherapy and radiation were used.[388]
Death
On 5 March 2013, Vice President Nicolás Maduro announced on state
television that Chávez had died in Caracas at 16:25
VET (20:55
UTC).[389]
The Vice President said Chávez died "after battling a tough illness for
nearly two years."[389]
According to the head of Venezuela's presidential guard, Chávez died
from a massive heart attack, and his cancer was very advanced when he
died.[390]
Gen. Jose Ornella said that near the end of his life Chávez could not
speak aloud, but mouthed, "Yo no quiero morir, por favor no me dejen
morir" (I don't want to die. Please don't let me die).[390]
The funeral was planned to be held in Caracas.[391][392][393][394][395]
Chávez is survived by four children and four grandchildren.[396]
Vice President Maduro and Chávez's supporters had suggested foul play
was behind Chávez's illness and death.[389][397]
Maduro speculated that Chávez had been poisoned or infected by enemies,
and expressed a belief that the claim could someday be tested
scientifically. It was unclear whether Maduro was referring to Chávez'
cancer, or his respiratory infection. During the same address, Maduro
announced the expulsion of an attaché to the U.S. embassy for what he
called "a plot against the government" of Venezuela.[398][399][400][401][402]
Chávez himself had claimed to be "a victim of U.S. assassination
attempts."[403]
The
U.S. Department of State dismissed the allegation as "absurd".[404]
Argentine doctor Eduardo Cazap dismissed to the BBC the Venezuelan
claims of the existence of a cancer-inducing weapon: "Our body is
extremely resistant to all the factors that could affect it. And when
you need to produce cancer in an experimental manner you need to use
huge amounts of drugs or huge amounts of toxins".[405]
His death triggered a constitutional requirement that a
presidential election be called within 30 days. Venezuela's foreign
minister says Vice President Maduro is serving as interim president.[406]
Recognition
The United States-based
Time magazine included Hugo Chávez among their list of the
world's
100 most influential people in 2005 and 2006.[407][408]
In a 2006 list compiled by the British magazine
New Statesman, he was voted eleventh in the list of "Heroes of
our time".[409]
In 2010 the magazine included Chávez in its annual The World's 50
Most Influential Figures.[410]
His biographers Marcano and Tyszka believed that within only a few years
of his presidency, he "had already earned his place in history as the
president most loved and most despised by the Venezuelan people, the
president who inspired the greatest zeal and the deepest revulsion at
the same time."[411]
During his term, Chávez was awarded the following honorary degrees:[412]
See also
|
|
1)
scrivi
le parole inglesi dentro la
striscia gialla 2)
seleziona il testo 3)
clicca "Ascolta il testo"
DA INGLESE A ITALIANO
Inserire
nella casella Traduci la parola
INGLESE e cliccare
Go.
DA ITALIANO A INGLESE
Impostare INGLESE anziché italiano e
ripetere la procedura descritta.
|
|