Hugo Chávez
 Hugo Chávez      | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías 28 July 1954 Sabaneta, Venezuela |
| Died | 5 March 2013 (Age 58) Caracas, Venezuela |
| Nationality | Venezuela |
| Alma mater | Military Academy of Venezuela |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
| Children | • Rosa Virginia María Gabriela • Hugo Rafael |
| Spouse | Nancy Colmenares |
| Founder of | United Socialist Party of Venezuela |
| Party | Fifth Republic Movement, United Socialist Party |
Hugo Chávez (28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who served as the 64th President of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013. He was also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement 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 2012.
Bolivarianismo
In 1992 Hugo Chávez, a career army officer, had helped lead a military revolt. The revolt failed and landed him in jail even as it catapulted him to hero status. He was seen by many, especially among the growing number of impoverished Venezuelans, as an outsider who could put an end to the political classes’ bacchanal of corruption, scandal and debt. Released from prison in 1994, Chávez won the presidency in a landslide vote in 1998. He hadn’t yet publicly declared himself a socialist. But Venezuela’s traditional rulers, of both main parties, saw his embrace of Bolivarianismo – after Simón Bolívar, to signal a vague programme of domestic reform and anti-imperialism – as a threat. The country’s old elite may have lost control of the executive with Chávez’s election, but the civil service, judiciary, bureaucracy and state oil industry, along with some sectors of the military, remained intact and autonomous, serving as vectors of reaction. For the first five years of his tenure, Chávez was forced into rearguard action. In April 2002, he survived a Washington-blessed coup; he was returned to office after two days, largely thanks to the protests of thousands of his supporters. A few months later, the country’s business elite, in an effort to pre-empt Chavista efforts to use profits from oil exports to fund social programmes, called an owners’ strike, and petroleum production was shut down. GDP fell by an estimated 27 per cent and Chávez’s popularity plummeted. But by early 2003 the strike had unravelled and Chávez was able to put oil money into his ambitious health, education and housing initiatives. The opposition’s last real bid to oust Chávez was a recall vote in August 2004. Having regained his standing, Chávez won that election with 58 per cent of the vote. In the regional elections that followed, his hodgepodge coalition of leftist parties took 20 out of 22 state governorships and 270 out of 337 municipalities. Two years later, in 2006, Chávez was re-elected again, carrying every state with more than 62 per cent of the national vote.[1]
Death
He reportedly died of a heart attack whilst recovering from extended respiratory and other complications following several bouts of surgery and chemo-therapy to treat cancerous tumours in Cuba. The circumstances surrounding both his cancer and subsequent treatment provide reasonable grounds for suspecting that he was murdered.[2]
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:In Venezuela, White Supremacy Is a Key Driver of the Coup | Article | 7 February 2019 | Greg Palast William Camacaro | Four centuries of White Supremacy in Venezuela by those who identify their ancestors as European came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez, who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo majority. This turn away from White Supremacy continues under Nicolás Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor, who was re-elected in 2018 for a second six-year term. |
| Document:Ken Livingstone: Venezuela should have followed my economic advice | Interview | 3 August 2017 | Julia Hartley-Brewer Luke Dolan | "America played a major part in Venezuela's current crisis but we won't know until 30 years from now, when all the papers get published." |
| Document:Sanctions of Mass Destruction: America’s War on Venezuela | Article | 1 February 2019 | Garikai Chengu | America’s largest export used to be manufactured goods made proudly in the United States. Today, America’s largest export is the US dollar. Any nation like Venezuela that threatens that export is met with America’s second largest export: weapons, chief amongst which are Sanctions of Mass Destruction. |
| Document:The Death of Hugo Chavez | article | 14 March 2016 | Nil Nikandrov | Evidence that the death of Venezuelan 'Bolivarian' President Hugo Chavez was murder. |
| Document:The Strange Death of Hugo Chavez | Interview | 22 April 2016 | Mike Whitney Eva Golinger | Mike Whitney interviews Eva Golinger and discusses persuasive evidence that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez did not die from a naturally occuring cancer in 2013 |
| Document:Venezuela critics are just Blairites having a kick at Jeremy Corbyn | Interview | 7 August 2017 | George Galloway Luke Dolan | For nineteen years the United States government and its secret agents have been trying to overthrow the Venezuela political process. Why might that be? Well, there are many reasons but the biggest among them has the smallest name: OIL. |
