-
Hugo Chvez
For other uses, see Hugo Chvez (disambiguation).
This name uses Spanish naming customs: the rstor paternal family
name is Chvez and the second ormaternal family name is Fras.
Hugo Rafael Chvez Fras (Spanish pronunciation: [uorafael taes
fi.as]; 28 July 1954 5 March 2013) wasa Venezuelan politician and
the President of Venezuelafrom 1999 until his death in 2013. He was
the leader ofthe Fifth RepublicMovement from its foundation in
1997until 2007, when it merged with several other parties toform
the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV),which he led until
2012.Born into a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas,Chvez
became a career military ocer, and after be-coming dissatised with
the Venezuelan political systembased on the Punto Fijo Pact,[1] he
founded the clan-destine Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200
(MBR-200) in the early 1980s. Chvez led the MBR-200 in
anunsuccessful coup d'tat against the Democratic Actiongovernment
of President Carlos Andrs Prez in 1992,for which he was imprisoned.
Released from prison af-ter two years, he founded a political party
known as theFifth Republic Movement and was elected president
ofVenezuela in 1998. He was re-elected in 2000 and againin 2006
with over 60% of the vote. After winning hisfourth term as
president in the October 2012 presidentialelection,[2] he was to be
sworn in on 10 January 2013, butVenezuelas National Assembly
postponed the inaugura-tion to allow him time to recover from
medical treatmentin Cuba.[3] Suering a return of the cancer
originally di-agnosed in June 2011, Chvez died in Caracas on
5March2013 at the age of 58.[4][5]
Following the adoption of a new constitution in 1999,Chvez
focused on enacting social reforms as partof the Bolivarian
Revolution. Using record-high oilrevenues of the 2000s, his
government nationalized keyindustries, created participatory
democratic CommunalCouncils, and implemented social programs known
asthe Bolivarian Missions to expand access to food, hous-ing,
healthcare, and education.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]This led
to improvements in areas such as poverty,literacy, income equality,
and quality of life.[7][15]Going into the 2010s, economic actions
performedby Chvezs government over the previous decadesuch as
overspending[16][17][18][19][20] and
pricecontrols[21][22][23][24][25] proved to be unsustainable
and
caused the economy to falter, with ination,[26] poverty[7]and
shortages in Venezuela increasing. Chvezs pres-idency also saw
signicant increases in the countrysmurder rate[27][28][29][30] and
corruption within thepolice force and government.[31][32] His use
of enablingacts[33][34] and his governments use of
Bolivarianpropaganda was also controversial.[35][36][37][38]
Internationally, Chvez aligned himself with the Marxist-Leninist
governments of Fidel and then Ral Castro inCuba, and the socialist
governments of Evo Morales(Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and
Daniel Ortega(Nicaragua). His presidency was seen as a part of
thesocialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. Chvezdescribed his
policies as anti-imperialist, being a promi-nent adversary of the
United Statess foreign policy aswell as a vocal critic of
US-supported neoliberalismand laissez-faire capitalism.[39] He
described himself asa Marxist.[40][41][42][43][44] He supported
Latin Ameri-can and Caribbean cooperation and was instrumental
insetting up the pan-regional Union of South AmericanNations, the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, theBank of the South, and the
regional television networkTeleSUR. Chavezs ideas, programs, and
style form thebasis of "Chavismo", a political ideology closely
associ-ated with Bolivarianism and Socialism of the 21st
Cen-tury.
1 Early life
1.1 ChildhoodFurther information: Early life of Hugo ChvezHugo
Chvez was born on 28 July 1954 in his paternalgrandmother Rosa Inz
Chvezs home, a modest three-room house located in the rural village
Sabaneta, BarinasState. The Chvez family were of Amerindian,
Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish descent.[45] His parents, Hugode los
Reyes Chvez and Elena Fras de Chvez, wereschoolteachers who lived
in the small village of Los Ras-trojos.Hugo was born the second of
seven children.[46][47] Thecouple lived in poverty and sent Hugo
and his olderbrother Adn to live with their grandmother
Rosa,[48]whom Hugo later described as being a pure human be-ing...
pure love, pure kindness.[49] She was a devoutRoman Catholic, and
Hugo was an altar boy at a localchurch.[50] Hugo described his
childhood as poor... [but]very happy.[51]
1
-
2 1 EARLY LIFE
Sabaneta, Barinas, where Chvez was born and raised.
Attending the Julin Pino Elementary School, Chvezwas
particularly interested in the 19th-century federalistgeneral
Ezequiel Zamora, in whose army his own great-great-grandfather had
served.[52][53] In the mid-1960s,Hugo, his brother and their
grandmother moved to thecity of Barinas so that the boys could
attend DanielO'Leary High School.[54]
1.2 Military Academy: 19711975
Aged seventeen, Chvez studied at the VenezuelanAcademy of
Military Sciences in Caracas, following acurriculum known as the
Andrs Bello Plan, institutedby a group of progressive,
nationalistic military ocers.This new curriculum encouraged
students to learn notonly military routines and tactics but also a
wide vari-ety of other topics, and to do so civilian professors
werebrought in from other universities to give lectures to
themilitary cadets.[55][56][57]
Supporters ofHugo Chvez at his funeral at theMilitary academyof
Venezuela.
Living in Caracas, he saw more of the endemic povertyfaced by
working class Venezuelans, and said that thisexperience only made
him further committed to achiev-ing social justice.[58][59] He also
began to get involvedin activities outside of the military school,
playing base-ball and softball with the Criollitos de Venezuela
team,
progressing with them to the Venezuelan National Base-ball
Championships. He also wrote poetry, ction, anddrama, and
painted,[60] and he researched the life andpolitical thought of
19th-century South American revo-lutionary Simn Bolvar.[61] He also
became interestedin the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (192867)
af-ter reading his memoir The Diary of Che Guevara.[62]In 1974, he
was selected to be a representative in thecommemorations for the
150th anniversary of the Battleof Ayacucho in Peru, the conict in
which Simon Bol-vars lieutenant, Antonio Jos de Sucre, defeated
royal-ist forces during the Peruvian War of Independence. InPeru,
Chvez heard the leftist president, General JuanVelasco Alvarado
(19101977), speak, and inspired byVelascos ideas that the military
should act in the inter-ests of the working classes when the ruling
classes wereperceived as corrupt,[63] he drank up the books
[Ve-lasco had written], even memorising some speeches al-most
completely.[64]
Befriending the son of Panamanian President OmarTorrijos
(19291981), another leftist military general,Chvez visited Panama,
where he met with Torrijos, andwas impressed with his land reform
program that wasdesigned to benet the peasants. Inuenced by
Torrijosand Velasco he saw the potential for military generals
toseize control of a government when the civilian author-ities were
perceived as serving the interests of only thewealthy
elites.[63][65] In contrast to Torrijos and Velasco,Chvez became
highly critical of Augusto Pinochet, theright-wing general who had
recently seized control inChile with the aid of the American
CIA.[66] Chvez latersaid, With Torrijos, I became a Torrijist. With
VelascoI became a Velasquist. And with Pinochet, I becamean
anti-Pinochetist.[67] In 1975, Chvez graduated fromthe military
academy as one of the top graduates of theyear.[68][69][70]
1.3 Early military career: 19761981Further information: Military
career of Hugo Chvez
I think that from the time I left the academy I was
orientedtoward a revolutionary movement... The Hugo Chvezwho
entered there was a kid from the hills, a Ilanero{sic}with
aspirations of playing professional baseball. Fouryears later, a
second-lieutenant came out who had takenthe revolutionary path.
Someone who didn't have obli-gations to anyone, who didn't belong
to any movement,who was not enrolled in any party, but who knew
verywell where I was headed.Hugo Chvez[71]
Following his graduation, Chvez was stationed as acommunications
ocer at a counterinsurgency unit inBarinas,[72] although the
Marxist-Leninist insurgencywhich the armywas sent to combat had
already been erad-
-
3icated from that state.[73] At one point he found a stashof
Marxist literature that apparently had belonged to in-surgents many
years before. He went on to read thesebooks, which included titles
by Karl Marx, VladimirLenin and Mao Zedong, but his favourite was a
workentitled The Times of Ezequiel Zamora, written aboutthe
19th-century federalist general whom Chvez hadadmired as a
child.[74] These books further convincedChvez of the need for a
leftist government in Venezuela:By the time I was 21 or 22, I made
myself a man of theleft.[75]
In 1977, Chvezs unit was transferred to Anzotegui,where they
were involved in battling the Red Flag Party,a Marxist-Hoxhaist
insurgency group.[76] After interven-ing to prevent the beating of
an alleged insurgent by othersoldiers,[77] Chvez began to have his
doubts about thearmy and their methods in using torture.[75] At the
sametime, he was becoming increasingly critical of the corrup-tion
in the army and in the civilian government, comingto believe
Venezuelas poor were not beneting from theoil wealth, and began to
sympathize with the Red FlagParty and their cause and their violent
methods.[78]
In 1977, he founded a revolutionary movement togetherwith Luis
R. Gonzalez an William Jimenez, within thearmed forces, in the hope
that he could one day introducea leftist government to Venezuela:
the Venezuelan Peo-ples Liberation Army (Ejrcito de Liberacin del
Pueblode Venezuela, or ELPV), consisted of him and a handfulof his
fellow soldiers who had no immediate plans for di-rect action,
though they knew they wanted a middle waybetween the right wing
policies of the government and thefar left position of the Red
Flag.[77][79][80] Nevertheless,hoping to gain an alliance with
civilian leftist groups inVenezuela, Chvez set up clandestine
meetings with vari-ous prominent Marxists, including Alfredo
Maneiro (thefounder of the Radical Cause) and Douglas
Bravo.[81][82]At this time, Chvez married a working-class
womannamed Nancy Colmenares, with whom he had threechildren: Rosa
Virginia (born September 1978), MariaGabriela (born March 1980) and
Hugo Rafael (born Oc-tober 1983).[83]
2 Later military career and theBolivarian Revolutionary
Army-200: 19821991
Logo of MBR-200.
Five years after his creation of the ELPV, Chvez wenton to form
a new secretive cell within the military, theBolivarian
Revolutionary Army-200 (EBR-200), laterredesignated the
Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200).[55][84][85] He was
inspired by EzequielZamora (18171860), Simn Bolvar (17831830)
andSimn Rodrguez (17691854), who became known asthe three roots of
the tree of the MBR-200.[86][87]Later, Chvez said that the
Bolivarian movement thatwas being born did not propose political
objectives...Its goals were imminently internal. Its eorts were
di-rected in the rst place to studying the military historyof
Venezuela as a source of a military doctrine of ourown, which up to
then didn't exist.[88] However, he al-ways hoped for the Bolivarian
Movement to become apolitically dominant party that would accept
all kinds ofideas, from the right, from the left, from the
ideologicalruins of those old capitalist and communist
systems.[89]Indeed, Irish political analyst Barry Cannon noted
thatthe MBRs early ideology was a doctrine in construc-tion, a
heterogeneous amalgam of thoughts and ideolo-gies, from universal
thought, capitalism, Marxism, butrejecting the neoliberal models
currently being imposedin Latin America and the discredited models
of the oldSoviet Bloc.[90]
In 1981, Chvez, by now a captain, was assigned to teachat the
military academy where he had formerly trained.Here he introduced
new students to his so-called Bo-livarian ideals and recruited some
of them. By thetime they had graduated, at least thirty out of 133
cadetshad joined his cause.[91] In 1984 he met Herma Marks-man, a
recently divorced history teacher with whom hehad an aair that
lasted several years.[92][93] During thistime Francisco Arias
Crdenas , a soldier interested inliberation theology, also joined
MBR-200.[94] Crdenasrose to a signicant position within the group,
although hecame into ideological conict with Chvez, with
Chvezbelieving that they should begin direct military action
inorder to overthrow the government, something Crdenasthought was
reckless.[95]
After some time, some senior military ocers becamesuspicious of
Chvez and reassigned him so that he wouldnot be able to gain any
more fresh new recruits fromthe academy. He was sent to take
command of the re-mote barracks at Elorza in Apure State,[96] where
he or-ganized social events for the community and contactedthe
local indigenous tribal peoples, the Cuiva and Yaruro.Distrustful
as they were because of the mistreatment atthe hands of the
Venezuelan army in previous decades,Chvez gained their trust by
joining the expeditions ofan anthropologist to meet with them.
Chvez said hisexperiences with them later led him to introduce
lawsprotecting the rights of indigenous tribal peoples.[97] In1988,
after being promoted to the rank of major, thehigh-ranking General
Rodrguez Ochoa took a liking toChvez and employed him to be his
assistant at his ocein Caracas.[98]
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4 3 POLITICAL RISE: 19921998
2.1 Operation Zamora coup attempt: 1992
Main article: 1992 Venezuelan coup d'tat attempts
In 1989, centrist Carlos Andrs Prez (19222010) waselected
President, and though he had promised to opposethe United States
governments Washington Consensusand the International Monetary
Fund's policies, he op-posed neither once he got into oce,
following insteadthe neoliberal economic policies supported by the
UnitedStates and the IMF, angering the public.[99][100][101] In
anattempt to stop the widespread protests and looting thatfollowed
his social spending cuts, Prez initiated Planvila and a violent
repression of protesters, known asEl Caracazo
unfolded.[102][103][104] Though members ofChvezs MBR-200 movement
had allegedly participatedin the crackdown,[105] Chvez did not
participate sincehe was then hospitalized with chicken pox and
later con-demned the event as "genocide".[106][107]
Chvez began preparing for a military coup d'tat[104][108]known
as Operation Zamora.[109] The plan involved in-side members of the
military, the overwhelming of mili-tary locations along with
communication installations andthe establishment of Rafael Caldera
in power followingthe capture and assassination of President
Perez.[110] Ini-tially prepared for December, Chvez delayed the
MBR-200 coup until the early twilight hours of 4
February1992.[110]
On that date, ve army units under Chvezs commandmoved into urban
Caracas. Despite years of planning,the coup quickly encountered
trouble since Chvez couldcommand the loyalty of less than 10% of
Venezuelasmilitary forces.[111] After numerous betrayals,
defec-tions, errors, and other unforeseen circumstances, Chvezand a
small group of rebels found themselves hidingin the Military
Museum, unable to communicate withother members with Prez managing
to escapeMiraoresPalace.[112] Fourteen soldiers were killed, and
fty sol-diers and some eighty civilians injured during the
ensuingviolence.[113][114][115] Another unsuccessful coup
againstthe government occurred in November,[108][116] with
theghting during the coups resulting in the deaths of at least143
people and perhaps as many as several hundred.[117]
Chvez gave himself up to the government and appearedon
television, in uniform, to call on remaining coup mem-bers to lay
down their arms.[118] Many viewers noted thatChvez in his speech
had remarked that he had failedonly "por ahora" (for
now),[55][119][120][121][122] and manyVenezuelans, particularly
poor ones, began seeing himas someone who stood up against
government corruptionand kleptocracy.[123][124][125]
Chvez was arrested and imprisoned at the San Carlosmilitary
stockade, where he remained wracked with guilt,feeling responsible
for the coups failure.[126][127] Pro-Chvez demonstrations that took
place outside of SanCarlos led to his being transferred to Yare
prison soon
The San Carlos military stockade, where Hugo Chvez was heldafter
attempting to overthrow President Prez in 1992.
after.[128] The government meanwhile began a tempo-rary
crackdown on media supportive of Chvez and thecoup.[129] Prez
himself was then impeached a year laterfor malfeasance and
misappropriation of funds for illegalactivities.[130][131]
3 Political rise: 19921998
A painted mural in support of the Fifth Republic Movement(MVR)
found in Barcelona, Venezuela
While Chvez and the other senior members of theMBR-200 were in
prison, his relationship with Herma Marks-man broke up in July
1993.[132] In 1994, Rafael Caldera(19162009) of the centrist
National Convergence Partyand who had knowledge of the coup was
elected presi-dent, and soon after freed Chvez and the other
impris-oned MBR-200 members, though Caldera banned themfrom
returning to the military.[133][134] Chvez went ona 100-day tour of
the country, promoting his Bolivar-ian cause of social
revolution.[135] On his tours aroundthe country he met Marisabel
Rodrguez, who would givebirth to their daughter shortly before
becoming his secondwife in 1997.[136][137]
Travelling around Latin America in search of foreign sup-port
for his Bolivarian movement, he visited Argentina,
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4.1 First presidential term: 2 February 1999 10 January 2001
5
Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and nally Cuba, where hemet Castro and
became friends with him.[138] After hisreturn to Venezuela, Chvez
was critical of PresidentCaldera and his neoliberal economic
policies.[139] A dropin per capita income, coupled with increases
in povertyand crime, led to gaps emerging between rulers and
ruledwhich favoured the emergence of a populist leader.[140]
By now Chvez was a supporter of taking military action,believing
that the oligarchy would never allow him and hissupporters to win
an election,[141] while Francisco AriasCrdenas insisted that they
take part in the representa-tive democratic process. Indeed,
Crdenas soon joinedthe Radical Cause socialist party and won the
December1995 election to become governor of the oil-rich
ZuliaState.[142] As a result, Chvez and his supporters foundeda
political party, the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR Movimiento Quinta
Repblica) in July 1997 in order tosupport Chvezs candidature in the
Venezuelan presiden-tial election, 1998.[113][143][144][145]
3.1 1998 election
At the start of the election run-up, front runner IreneSez was
backed by one of Venezuelas two primary po-litical parties,
Copei.[146] Chvezs revolutionary rhetoricgained him support from
Patria Para Todos (Fatherlandfor All), the Partido Comunist
Venezolano (Venezeue-lan Communist Party) and the Movimiento al
Socialismo(Movement for Socialism).[145][147] Chvezs promises
ofwidespread social and economic reforms won the trustand favor of
a primarily poor and working class. ByMay 1998, Chvezs support had
risen to 30% in polls,and by August he was registering 39%.[148]
With his sup-port increasing, and Sezs decreasing, both the maintwo
political parties, Copei and Democratic Action, puttheir support
behind Henrique Salas Rmer, a Yale Uni-versity-educated economist
who represented the ProjectVenezuela party.[149]
Voter turnout in the election is the subject of dispute.Voter
turnout was at 63.45%, with Chvez winning theelection with 56.20%
of the vote.[150][151] Academic anal-ysis of the election showed
that Chvezs support hadcome primarily from the countrys poor and
the disen-chanted middle class, whose standard of living had
de-creased rapidly in the previous decade,[152] and much ofthe
middle and upper class vote went Rmer.[153]
4 Presidency: 19992013
Further information: History of Venezuela (1999present)
4.1 First presidential term: 2 February1999 10 January 2001
Chvezs presidential inauguration took place on 2 Febru-ary 1999,
and during the usual presidential oath he devi-ated from the
prescribed words to proclaim that I swearbefore God and my people
that upon this moribund con-stitution I will drive forth the
necessary democratic trans-formations so that the new republic will
have a MagnaCarta betting these new times.[154][155] He
appointednew gures to a number of government posts,
includingpromoting various leftist allies to key positions; he for
in-stance gave one of the founders of MBR, Jess Urdaneta,the
position in charge of the Bolivarian IntelligenceAgency; and made
one of the 1992 coup leaders, HernnGrber dreman, governor of the
Federal District ofCaracas.[156] Chvez also appointed some
conservative,centrist and centre-right gures to government
positionsas well, reappointing Calderas economy minister Mar-itza
Izaquirre to that same position and also appointingthe businessman
Roberto Mandini to be president of thestate-run oil company
Petroleos de Venezuela.[157] Hiscritics referred to this group of
government ocials asthe "Boliburguesa" or Bolivarian
bourgeoisie,[158][159]and highlighted the fact that it included few
people withexperience in public administration.[154] The
involve-ment of a number of his immediate family members
inVenezuelan politics led to accusations of nepotism.[160]In June
2000 he separated from his wife Marisabel, andtheir divorce was
nalised in January 2004.[161]
The Chvez governments initial policies were moder-ate,
capitalist and centre-left, having much in commonwith those of
contemporary Latin American leftists likeBrazils president Lula da
Silva.[162][163] Chvez initiallybelieved that capitalism was still
a valid economic modelfor Venezuela, but only Rhenish capitalism,
not the US-supported neoliberalism of former governments.[164]
Hefollowed the economic guidelines recommended by theInternational
Monetary Fund and continued to encour-age foreign corporations to
invest in Venezuela,[165] evenvisiting the New York Stock Exchange
in the UnitedStates in an attempt to convince wealthy investors to
doso.[166][167]
Chvez set into motion a social welfare program calledPlan Bolvar
2000, which he organised to begin on 27February 1999, the tenth
anniversary of the Caracazomassacre. Chvez said he would set aside
$20.8 millionfor the plan, though some state that the program
costed$113 million. Plan Bolvar 2000 involved 70,000 sol-diers,
sailors and members of the air force going outinto the streets of
Venezuela where they would repairroads and hospitals, remove
stagnant water that oeredbreeding areas for disease-carrying
mosquitoes, oerfree medical care and vaccinations, and sell food at
lowprices.[168][169][170][171]
In May 2000 he launched his own Sunday morning radioshow, Al
Presidente (Hello, President), on the state radio
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6 4 PRESIDENCY: 19992013
network, as well as a Thursday night television show, DeFrente
con el Presidente (Face to Face with the President).He followed
this with his own newspaper, El Correo delPresidente (The
Presidents Post), founded in July, forwhich he acted as
editor-in-chief, but which was later shutamidst accusations of
corruption in its management.[172]In his television and radio
shows, he answered calls fromcitizens, discussed his latest
policies, sang songs and toldjokes, making it unique not only in
Latin America but theentire world.[173]
4.1.1 Constitutional reform
Chvez then called for a public referendum whichhe hoped would
support his plans to form aconstitutional assembly, composed of
representa-tives from across Venezuela, as well as from
indigenoustribal groups, which would be able to rewrite thenations
constitution.[174][175] The referendum wentahead on 25 April 1999,
and was an overwhelmingsuccess for Chvez, with 88% of voters
supporting theproposal.[174][175]
Chvez holds a miniature copy of the 1999 Venezuelan
Consti-tution at the 2003 World Social Forum held in Brazil.
Then Chvez called for an election to take place on 25July, in
which the members of the constitutional assem-bly would be voted
into power.[176] Of the 1,171 candi-dates standing for election to
the assembly, over 900 ofthem were opponents of Chvez. Despite the
large num-ber of opposition candidates, Chavezs supporters
wonanother overwhelming electoral victory creating a verypro-Chvez
Constitutional Assembly, with his support-ers taking 125 seats (95%
of the total), including all ofthose belonging to indigenous tribal
groups, whereas theopposition were voted into only 6
seats.[174][177][178]
On 12 August 1999, the new constitutional assemblyvoted to give
themselves the power to abolish govern-ment institutions and to
dismiss ocials who were per-ceived as being corrupt or operating
only in their owninterests. Opponents of the Chvez regime argued
thatit was therefore dictatorial.[179][180] Most jurists
believedthat the new constitutional assembly became the
countryssupreme authority and that all other institutions were
subordinate to it.[181] The assembly also declared a ju-dicial
emergency, granting itself the power to overhaulthe judicial
system. The Supreme Court, which ruled thatthe assembly did indeed
have such authority, was eventu-ally replaced by the 1999
Constitution, which created theSupreme Tribunal of Justice in its
place.[182][183]
The elected members of the constituent assembly put to-gether a
new constitution, and a referendum on the issueof whether to adopt
it was held in December 1999; thereferendum saw an abstention vote
of over 50%, althoughamong those voting, 72% approved the new
constitutionsadoption.[178][184][185] The constitution gave greater
pow-ers to the president, not only by extending their term butalso
by giving them the power to legislate on citizen rightsas well as
the economic and nancial matters that theywere formerly unable to
do.[186] It also gave the militarya role in the government by
providing it with the man-dated role of ensuring public order and
aiding nationaldevelopment, something it had been expressely
forbid-den from doing under the former constitution.[186] As apart
of the new constitution, the country, which was thenocially known
as the Republic of Venezuela, was re-named the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela (RepblicaBolivariana de Venezuela) at Chvezs
request.[177][178]
4.2 Second presidential term: 10 January2001 10 January 2007
Chvez visiting Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2003
Under the new constitution, it was legally required thatnew
elections be held in order to re-legitimize the gov-ernment and
president. This presidential election in July2000 would be a part
of a greater megaelection, the rsttime in the countrys history that
the president, governors,national and regional congressmen, mayors
and council-men would be voted for on the same day.[187][188][189]
Go-ing into the elections, Chvez had control of all threebranches
of government.[182] For the position of presi-dent, Chvezs closest
challenger proved to be his formerfriend and co-conspirator in the
1992 coup, FranciscoArias Crdenas, who since becoming governor of
Zuliastate had turned towards the political centre and begun
todenounce Chvez as autocratic.[190] Although some of his
-
4.2 Second presidential term: 10 January 2001 10 January 2007
7
supporters feared that he had alienated those in the mid-dle
class and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy whohad formerly
supported him, Chvez was re-elected with59.76% of the vote (the
equivalent of 3,757,000 people),a larger majority than his 1998
electoral victory,[191][192]again primarily receiving his support
from the poorer sec-tors of Venezuelan society.[193]
That year, Chvez helped to further cement his geopo-litical and
ideological ties with the Cuban governmentof Fidel Castro by
signing an agreement under whichVenezuela would supply Cuba with
53,000 barrels of oilper day at preferential rates, in return
receiving 20,000trained Cuban medics and educators. In the
ensuingdecade, this would be increased to 90,000 barrels aday (in
exchange for 40,000 Cuban medics and teach-ers), dramatically
aiding the Caribbean islands economyand standard of living after
its "Special Period" of the1990s.[194] However, Venezuelas growing
alliance withCuba came at the same time as a deteriorating
relation-ship with the United States: in late 2001, just after
theAmerican-led invasion of Afghanistan in retaliation for11
September attacks against the U.S. by Islamist mili-tants, Chvez
showed pictures of Afghan children killedin a bomb attack on his
television show. He commentedthat They are not to blame for the
terrorism of OsamaBin Laden or anyone else, and called on the
Americangovernment to end the massacre of the innocents. Ter-rorism
cannot be fought with terrorism. The U.S. gov-ernment responded
negatively to the comments, whichwere picked up by the media
worldwide.[195]
Chvezs second term in oce saw the implementation of
socialmissions, such as this one to eliminate illiteracy in
Venezuela.
Meanwhile, the 2000 elections had led to Chvezs sup-porters
gaining 101 out of 165 seats in the Venezue-lan National Assembly,
and so in November 2001 theyvoted to allow him to pass 49 social
and economicdecrees.[196][197] This move antagonized the
oppositionmovement particularly strongly.[189]
At the start of the 21st century, Venezuela was the worldsfth
largest exporter of crude oil, with oil accountingfor 85.3% of the
countrys exports, therefore dominat-ing the countrys
economy.[198][199] Previous administra-tions had sought to
privatise this industry, with U.S. cor-
porations having a signicant level of control, but theChvez
administration wished to curb this foreign con-trol over the
countrys natural resources by nationalisingmuch of it under the
state-run oil company, Petrleos deVenezuela S.A. (PdVSA). In 2001,
the government in-troduced a new Hydrocarbons Law through which
theysought to gain greater state control over the oil indus-try:
they did this by raising royalty taxes on the oil com-panies and
also by introducing the formation of mixedcompanies, whereby the
PdVSA could have joint controlwith private companies over industry.
By 2006, all of the32 operating agreements signed with private
corporationsduring the 1990s had been converted from being
primar-ily or solely corporate-run to being at least 51%
controlledby PdVSA.[198]
4.2.1 Opposition and the CD
During Chvezs rst term in oce, the opposition move-ment had been
strong but reasonably contained, [with]complaints centering mainly
on procedural aspects of theimplementation of the
constitution.[189]
The rst organized protest against the Bolivarian govern-ment
occurred in January 2001, when the Chvez admin-istration tried to
implement educational reforms throughthe proposed Resolution 259
and Decree 1.011, whichwould have seen the publication of textbooks
with a heavyBolivarian bias. The protest movement, which was
pri-marily bymiddle class parents whose children went to pri-vately
run schools, marched to central Caracas shoutingout the slogan
Don't mess with my children. Althoughthe protesters were denounced
by Chvez, who calledthem selsh and individualistic, the protest was
suc-cessful enough for the government to retract the
proposededucation reforms and instead enter into a consensus-based
educational program with the opposition.[200]
Later into 2001, an organization known as the Coordina-dora
Democrtica de Accin Cvica (CD) was founded,under which the
Venezuelan opposition political par-ties, corporate powers, most of
the countrys media,the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of
Commerce,the Frente Institucional Militar and the Central Work-ers
Union all united to oppose Chvezs regime.[196][201]The prominent
businessman Pedro Carmona (1941) waschosen as the CDs leader.[196]
They received supportfrom various foreign sources.The CD and other
opponents of Chvezs Bolivarian gov-ernment accused it of trying to
turn Venezuela froma democracy into a dictatorship by centralising
poweramongst its supporters in the Constituent Assembly andgranting
Chvez increasingly autocratic powers. Many ofthem pointed to Chvezs
personal friendship with CubasFidel Castro and the one-party
socialist government inCuba as a sign of where the Bolivarian
government wastaking Venezuela.[196] Others did not hold such a
strongview but still argued that Chvez was a free-spending,
-
8 4 PRESIDENCY: 19992013
Chvez visiting the USS Yorktown, a US Navy ship docked atCuraao
in the Netherlands Antilles, in 2002
authoritarian populist" whose policies were detrimentalto the
country.[202]
4.2.2 Coup, strikes and the recall referendum
Main articles: 2002 Venezuelan coup d'tat attempt,Venezuelan
general strike of 20022003 and Venezuelanrecall referendum, 2004On
11 April 2002, during mass protests in Caracas
A 2004 rally against Chvez in Caracas, demanding his removalfrom
the presidency.
against the Bolivarian government,[203] twenty peoplewere
killed, and over 110 were wounded.[204] A group ofhigh-ranking
anti-Chvez military ocers had been plan-ning to launch a coup
against Chvez and used the civilunrest as an opportunity.[205]
After the plotters gained sig-nicant power, Chvez agreed to be
detained and wastransferred by army escort to La Orchila; business
leaderPedro Carmona declared himself president of an
interimgovernment.[206] Carmona abolished the 1999 constitu-tion
and appointed a small governing committee to runthe country.[189]
Protests in support of Chvez along withinsucient support for
Carmonas regime, which manyfelt was implementing totalitarian
measures, quickly ledto Carmonas resignation, and Chvez was
returned topower on 15 April.[207]
Chvezs response was to moderate his approach, imple-menting a
new economic team that appeared to be morecentrist and reinstated
the old board of directors andman-agers of the state oil company
Petrleos de VenezuelaS.A. (PDVSA), whose replacement had been one
of thereasons for the coup.[208][209] At the same time, the
Bo-livarian government began increased the countrys mil-itary
capacity, purchasing 100,000 AK-47 assault riesand several
helicopters from Russia, as well as a num-ber of Super Tucano light
attack and training planes fromBrazil. Troop numbers were also
increased.[210]
In 2002, after appointing political allies to head thePDVSA and
replacing the companys board of directorswith loyalists who had
little or no experience in the oilindustry,[211] Chvez faced a
two-month managementstrike at the PDVSA.[212] The Chvez governments
re-sponse was to re about 19,000 striking employees for il-legally
abandoning their posts and then employing retiredworkers, foreign
contractors, and the military to do theirjobs instead.[213]
According to one observer, this movefurther damaged the strength of
Chvezs opposition byremoving the many managers in the oil industry
who hadbeen supportive of their cause to overthrow Chvez.[213]
The 1999 constitution had introduced the concept of arecall
referendum into Venezuelan politics, so the op-position called for
such a referendum to take place. A2004 referendum to recall Chvez
was defeated. 70%of the eligible Venezuelan population turned out
to vote,with 59% of voters deciding to keep the president
inpower.[192][214] Unlike his original 1998 election victory,this
time Chvezs electoral support came almost entirelyfrom the poorer
working classes rather than the middleclasses, who had practically
abandoned Chvez after hehad consistently moved towards the left in
those ve anda half years.[215]
4.2.3 Socialism of the 21st century
The various attempts at overthrowing the Bolivarian gov-ernment
from power had only served to further radi-calize Chvez. In January
2005, he began openly pro-claiming the ideology of "Socialism of
the 21st Cen-tury", something that was distinct from his earlier
formsof Bolivarianism, which had been social democratic in na-ture,
merging elements of capitalism and socialism. Heused this new term
to contrast the democratic socialism,which he wanted to promote in
Latin America from theMarxist-Leninist socialism that had been
spread by so-cialist states like the Soviet Union and the Peoples
Re-public of China during the 20th century, arguing that thelatter
had not been truly democratic, suering from a lackof participatory
democracy and an excessively authoritar-ian governmental
structure.[90]
InMay 2006, Chvez visited Europe in a private capacity,where he
announced plans to supply cheap Venezuelanoil to poor working class
communities in the continent.
-
4.4 Fourth presidential term: 10 January 2013 5 March 2013 9
The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone welcomed him,describing him
as the best news out of Latin America inmany years.[216]
4.3 Third presidential term: 10 January2007 10 January 2013
In the presidential election of December 2006, whichsaw a 74%
voter turnout, Chvez was once more elected,this time with 63% of
the vote, beating his closest chal-lenger Manuel Rosales, who
conceded his loss.[214] Theelection was certied as being free and
legitimate by theOrganization of American States (OAS) and the
CarterCenter.[217][218][219] After this victory, Chvez promisedan
expansion of the revolution.[220]
4.3.1 United Socialist Party of Venezuela and do-mestic
policy
On 15 December 2006, Chvez publicly announced thatthose leftist
political parties who had continually sup-ported him in the
Patriotic Pole would unite into onesingle, much larger party, the
United Socialist Partyof Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de
Venezuela,PSUV).[145] In the speech which he gave announcing
thePSUVs creation, Chvez declared that the old partiesmust forget
their own structures, party colours and slo-gans, because they are
not the most important thing forthe fatherland.[145] According to
political analyst BarryCannon, the purpose of creating the PSUV was
to forgeunity amongst the disparate elements [of the
Bolivarianmovement], providing grassroots input into policy
andleadership formation, [and] uniting the grassroots andleadership
into one single body.[221] It was hoped that bydoing so, it would
decrease the problems of clientelismand corruption and also leave
the movement less depen-dent on its leadership:[221] as Chvez
himself declared,In this new party, the bases will elect the
leaders. Thiswill allow real leaders to emerge.[221]
The logo for the PSUV, Chvezs socialist political party
foundedin 2007
Chvez had initially proclaimed that those leftist partieswhich
chose to not dissolve into the PSUV would haveto leave the
government, however, after several of thoseparties supporting him
refused to do so, he ceased to issuesuch threats.[222] There was
initially much grassroots en-thusiasm for the creation of the PSUV,
with membershiphaving risen to 5.7 million people by
2007,[221][223] mak-ing it the largest political group in
Venezuela.[224] The
United Nations International Labour Organization how-ever
expressed concern over some voters being pressuredto join the
party.[225]
In 2007, the Bolivarian government set up a
constitutionalcommission in order to review the 1999 constitution
andsuggest potential amendments to be made to it. Led bythe
prominent pro-Chvez intellectual Luis Britto Garca,the commission
came to the conclusion that the constitu-tion could include more
socially progressive clauses, suchas the shortening of the working
week, a constitutionalrecognition of Afro Venezuelans and the
elimination ofdiscrimination on the grounds of sexual
orientation.[214] Italso suggested measures that would have
increased manyof the presidents powers, for instance increasing the
pres-idential term limit to seven years, allowing the presidentto
run for election indenitely and centralizing powersin the
executive.[214] The government put the suggestedchanges to a public
referendum in December 2007.[226]Abstention rate was high however,
with 43.95% of reg-istered voters not turning out, and in the end
the pro-posed changes were rejected by 50.65% of
votes.[214][227]This would prove to the rst electoral loss that
Chvezhad faced in the thirteen electoral contests held since hetook
power,[214] something analysts argued was due to thetop-down nature
of the changes, as well as general pub-lic dissatisfaction with the
absence of internal debate onits content, as well as
dissatisfaction with the running ofthe social programmes,
increasing street crime, and withcorruption within the
government.[228]
In order to ensure that his Bolivarian Revolution be-came
socially engrained in Venezuela, Chvez discussedhis wish to stand
for re-election when his term ran outin 2013, and spoke of ruling
beyond 2030.[229] Underthe 1999 constitution, he could not legally
stand for re-election again, and so brought about a referendum on
15February 2009 to abolish the two-term limit for all pub-lic oces,
including the presidency.[230] Approximately70% of the Venezuelan
electorate voted, and they ap-proved this alteration to the
constitution with over 54%in favor, allowing any elected ocial the
chance to try torun indenitely.[229][230][231]
4.4 Fourth presidential term: 10 January2013 5 March 2013
On 7 October 2012, Chvez won election as presidentfor a fourth
time, his third six-year term. He defeatedHenrique Capriles with
54% of the votes versus 45%for Capriles, which was a lower victory
margin than inhis previous presidential wins, in the 2012
Venezuelanpresidential election[2][232] Turnout in the election
was80%, with a hotly contested election between the
twocandidates.[233] There was signicant support for Chvezamongst
the Venezuelan lower class. Chvezs opposi-tion blamed him for
unfairly using state funds to spreadlargesse before the election to
bolster Chavezs support
-
10 5 POLITICAL IDEOLOGY
Chvez (far right) with fellow Latin American leftist
presidentsin 2009. From left to right: Paraguays Fernando Lugo,
BoliviasEvoMorales, Brazils Lula da Silva and Ecuadors Rafael
Correa
among his primary electoral base, the lower class.[232]
Chvez in June 2012.
The inauguration of Chvezs new term was scheduled for10 January
2013, but as he was undergoing medical treat-ment at the time in
Cuba, he was not able to return toVenezuela for that date. The
National Assembly presi-dent Diosdado Cabello proposed to postpone
the inau-guration and the Supreme Court decided that, being
justanother term of the sitting president and not the inau-guration
of a new one, the formality could be bypassed.The Venezuelan
Bishops Conference opposed the verdict,stating that the
constitution must be respected and theVenezuelan government had not
been transparent regard-ing details about Chvezs health.[234]
Acting executive ocials produced orders of govern-ment signed by
Chvez, which were suspected offorgery by some opposition
politicians, who claimed thatChvez was too sick to be in control of
his faculties.Guillermo Cochez, recently dismissed from the oce
ofPanamanian ambassador to the Organization of Ameri-can States,
even claimed that Chvez had been brain-deadsince 31December
2012.[235][236] Near to Chavezs death,two American attachs were
expelled from the countryfor allegedly undermining Venezuelan
democracy.Due to the death of Chvez, Vice President NicolasMaduro
took over the presidential powers and duties forthe remainder of
Chvezs abbreviated term until pres-idential elections were held.
Venezuelas constitutionspecies that the speaker of the National
Assembly, Dios-dado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency
if apresident cannot be sworn in.[237]
5 Political ideologyDemocracy is impossible in a capitalist
system. Capital-ism is the realm of injustice and a tyranny of the
richestagainst the poorest. Rousseau said, 'Between the power-ful
and the weak all freedom is oppressed. Only the ruleof law sets you
free.' Thats why the only way to savethe world is through
socialism, a democratic socialism...[Democracy is not just turning
up to vote every ve orfour years], its much more than that, its a
way of life,its giving power to the people... it is not the
governmentof the rich over the people, which is whats happeningin
almost all the so-called democratic Western
capitalistcountries.Hugo Chvez, June 2010[164]
Chvez propagated what he called socialism for the21st century,
but according to the pro-Chavez aca-demic Gregory Wilpert, Chvez
has not clearly denedtwenty-rst century socialism, other than to
say that itis about establishing liberty, equality, social justice,
andsolidarity. He has also indicated that it is distinctly
dif-ferent from state socialism", as implemented by the
gov-ernments of the Soviet Union and the Peoples Repub-lic of
China.[238] As a part of his socialist ideas, heemphasised the role
of so-called "participatory democ-racy", which he claimed increased
democratic participa-tion, and was implemented through the
foundation of theVenezuelan Communal Councils and Bolivarian
Circleswhich he cited as examples of grassroots and participa-tory
democracy.[239]
5.1 Bolivarianism
Main articles: Bolivarianism and Bolivarian Circles
-
5.2 Marxism 11
19th century general and politician Simn Bolvar provided abasis
for Chvezs political ideas.
Hugo Chvez dened his political position asBolivarianism, an
ideology he developed from thatof Simn Bolvar (17831830) and
others. Bolvarwas a 19th-century general who led the ght againstthe
colonialist Spanish authorities and who is widelyrevered across
Latin America today. Along with Bolvar,the other two primary
inuences upon Bolivarianismare Simn Rodrguez (17691854), a
philosopher whowas Bolvars tutor and mentor, and Ezequiel
Zamora,(18171860), the Venezuelan Federalist general.[240]Political
analyst and Chvez supporter Gregory Wilpert,in his study of Chvezs
politics, noted that The keyingredients for Chvezs revolutionary
Bolivarianismcan be summarized as: an emphasis on the importanceof
education, the creation of civilian-military unity,Latin American
integration, social justice, and nationalsovereignty. In many ways
this is not a particularlydierent set of principles and ideas to
those of any
other Enlightenment or national liberation thinker.[241]Chvezs
ideology originating from Bolvar has also re-ceived some criticism
because Chvez had occasionallydescribed himself as being inuenced
by Karl Marx, acritic of Bolvar.[242][243] Beddow and Thibodeaux
notedthe complications between Bolvar and Marx, statingthat
"[d]escribing Bolivar as a socialist warrior in theclass struggle,
when he was actually member of thearistocratic 'criollos,' is
peculiar when considering KarlMarxs own writings on Bolivar, whom
he dismissed as afalse liberator who merely sought to preserve the
powerof the old Creole nobility which he belonged.[243]
5.2 Marxism
Chvezs connection to Marxism was a complex one,though he had
described himself as a Marxist on
someoccasions.[40][41][42][43][44] In May 1996, he gave an
inter-view with Agustn Blanco Muoz in which he remarkedthat I am
not a Marxist, but I am not anti-Marxist. Iam not communist, but I
am not anti-communist.[244]In a 2009 speech to the national
assembly, he said: Iam a Marxist to the same degree as the
followers of theideas of Jesus Christ and the liberator of America,
Si-mon Bolivar.[40][245] He was well versed in many Marx-ist texts,
having read the works of many Marxist theoreti-cians, and often
publicly quoted them. Various interna-tional Marxists supported his
government, believing it tobe a sign of proletariat revolution as
predicted in Marxisttheory.[246] In 2010, Hugo Chvez proclaimed
support forthe ideas of Marxist Leon Trotsky, saying When I
calledhim (former Minister of Labour, Jos Ramn Rivero)"Chvez
explained, he said to me: 'President I want totell you something
before someone else tells you ... I ama Trotskyist', and I said,
'well, what is the problem? I amalso a Trotskyist! I follow
Trotskys line, that of perma-nent revolution, and then cited Marx
and Lenin.[247][248]
5.3 Other inuences
Chvezs early heroes were nationalist military dicta-tors that
included former Peruvian president Juan Ve-lasco Alvarado[61] and
former Panamanian MaximumLeader Omar Torrijos.[65][249] Chvez was
also well ac-quainted with the various traditions of Latin
Ameri-can socialism, espoused by such gures as Colombianpolitician
Jorge Elicer Gaitn[250] and former Chileanpresident Salvador
Allende.[250] Early in his presidency,Chvez was advised and
inuenced by the Argentine fas-cist Norberto Ceresole.[249] Cuban
Communist revolu-tionaries Che Guevara and Fidel Castro also
inuencedChvez, especially with Castros government assistancewith
the Bolivarian Missions.[249][250] Other indirect in-uences on
Chvezs political philosophy are the writingsof American linguist
Noam Chomsky[251] and the Gospelteachings of Jesus
Christ.[252][253] Other inspirations
-
12 6 POLICY OVERVIEW
of Chvezs political view are Giuseppe Garibaldi,[254]Antonio
Gramsci and Antonio Negri.[255][256][257][258]
6 Policy overview
6.1 Economic and social policy
See also: Economic policy of the Hugo Chvez govern-ment and
Economy of VenezuelaFrom his election in 1998 until his death in
March
The blue line represents annual rates. The red line
representstrends of annual rates given throughout the period shown.
GDPis in billions of Local Currency Unit that has been adjusted
forination.Sources: International Monetary Fund, World Bank
2013, Chvezs administration proposed and enacteddemocratic
socialist economic policies. Domestic poli-cies included
redistribution of wealth, land reform,and democratization of
economic activity via work-place self-management and creation of
worker-ownedcooperatives.[259] With increasing oil prices in the
early2000s and funds not seen in Venezuela since the 1980s,Chvez
created the Bolivarian Missions, aimed at pro-viding public
services to improve economic, cultural,and social
conditions.[10][14][21][260] TheMissions entailedthe construction
of thousands of free medical clinics forthe poor,[10] and the
enactment of food[21] and housingsubsidies.[14] A 2010 OAS
report[261] indicated achieve-
ments in addressing illiteracy, healthcare and poverty,[15]and
economic and social advances.[262] with Venezue-lans quality of
life improving according to a UN Index.[7]The Gini coecient, a
measure of income inequality,also dropped from nearly .50 in 1998
to .39 in 2011,putting Venezuela behind only Canada in the
WesternHemisphere.[263] The poverty rate fell from 48.6 per-cent in
2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011, according to theU.N. Economic
Commission for Latin America.[7] Thedrop of Venezuelas poverty rate
compared to povertyin other South American countries was slightly
behindthat of Peru, Brazil and Panama.[264] Venezuelans aged15 and
older, 95.2% could also read and write, withVenezuela having one of
the highest literacy rates in theregion,[265] though some scholars
have refuted that lit-eracy improvements during Chavezs presidency
resultedfrom his administrations policies.[12] Teresa A. Meadewrote
that Chvezs popularity strongly depended on thelower classes who
have beneted from these health initia-tives and similar
policies.[266]
The social works initiated by Chvezs government reliedon oil
products, the keystone of the Venezuelan econ-omy, with Chvezs
administration suering from Dutchdisease as a result.[18][267]
Economist Mark Weisbrot, ina 2009 analysis of the Chvez
administration stated thateconomic expansion during Chvezs tenure
began whenthe government got control over the national oil
companyin the rst quarter of 2003.[268] Chvez gained a rep-utation
as a price hawk in OPEC, pushing for stringentenforcement of
production quotas and higher target oilprices.[269] According to
Cannon, the state income fromoil revenue grew from 51% of total
income in 2000to 56% 2006";[269] oil exports increased from 77%
in1997 [...] to 89% in 2006";[269] and his
administrationsdependence on petroleum sales was one of the
chiefproblems facing the Chvez government.[269] In 2012,the World
Bank also explained that Venezuelas econ-omy is extremely
vulnerable to changes in oil pricessince in 2012 96% of the
countrys exports and nearlyhalf of its scal revenue relied on oil
production, whileby 2008, according to Foreign Policy, exports of
every-thing but oil collapsed.[18][270] The Chvez administra-tion
then used such oil prices on his populist policies andfor
voters.[18][260]
Economists say that the Venezuelan governments over-spending on
social programs and strict business poli-cies contributed to
imbalances in the countrys economy,contributing to rising ination
and widening shortagesnear the end of Chavezs
presidency.[16][17][18][260][263]Into the 2010s, poverty began to
rise in Venezuelaincrease and funding for healthcare in Venezuela
be-gan to decrease.[7][271] According to analysts, the eco-nomic
woes Venezuela suered under President NicolsMaduro would have still
occurred with or withoutChvez.[272]
The balance between the public and private sectors ofthe
Venezuelan economy remained relatively unchanged
-
6.1 Economic and social policy 13
during Chavezs presidency, according to estimates fromthe
Central Bank of Venezuela in 2009, with the privatesector
accounting for a slightly larger share than beforeChavez took oce,
having grown faster than the gov-ernment between 2003 and 2006 when
the economy washealthy. According to the Venezuelan government,
de-spite several nationalizations the government still con-trolled
the same percent of the economy as when Chavezwas elected in
1998.[273] In January 2013 near the endof Chvezs presidency, the
Heritage Foundation and theWall Street Journal gave Venezuelas
economic freedom alow score of 36.1, twenty points lower than 56.1
in 1999,ranking its freedom very low at 174 of 177 countries,with
freedom on a downward trend.[274] Nicholas Kozlo,Chvezs biographer,
stated of Chvezs economic poli-cies: Chvez has not overturned
capitalism, he has donemuch to challenge the more extreme,
neo-liberal modelof development.[275]
6.1.1 Food and products
Empty shelves in a Venezuelan market due to shortages
inVenezuela.
In the 1980s and 1990s health and nutrition indexes inVenezuela
were generally low, and social inequality in ac-cess to nutrition
was high.[276] Chvez made it his statedgoal to lower inequality in
the access to basic nutrition,and to achieve food sovereignty for
Venezuela.[277] Themain strategy for making food available to all
economicclasses was a controversial policy of xing price ceil-ings
for basic staple foods implemented in 2003.[278] Be-tween 1998 and
2006 malnutrition related deaths fellby 50%.[279] In October 2009,
the Executive Direc-tor of the National Institute of Nutrition
(INN) Mari-lyn Di Luca reported that the average daily caloric
in-take of the Venezuelan people had reached 2790 calo-ries, and
that malnutrition had fallen from 21% in 1998to 6%.[280] Chvez also
expropriated and redistributed 5million acres of farmland from
large landowners.[281]
Price controls initiated by Chvez created shortages ofgoods
since merchants could no longer aord to im-port necessary
goods.[282][283] Chvez blamed specula-
Shoppers waiting in line at a government-run MERCAL store.
tors and hoarders for these scarcities[284] and strictly
en-forced his price control policy, denouncing anyone whosold food
products for higher prices as speculators.[278]In 2011, food prices
in Caracas were nine times higherthan when the price controls were
put in place and re-sulted in shortages of cooking oil, chicken,
powderedmilk, cheese, sugar and meat.[22] The price controls
in-creased the demand for basic foods while making it dif-cult for
Venezuela to import goods causing increasedreliance on domestic
production. Economists believethis policy increased
shortages.[284][285] Shortages of foodthen occurred throughout the
rest of Chvezs presidencywith food shortage rates between 10% and
20% from2010 to 2013.[24] One possible reason for shortages isthe
relationship between ination and subsidies, whereno protability due
to price regulations aect opera-tions. In turn, the lack of dollars
made it dicult topurchase more food imports.[23] Chvezs strategy in
re-sponse to food shortages consisted of attempting to in-crease
domestic production through nationalizing largeparts of the food
industry, though such nationalizationsallegedly did the opposite
and caused decreased produc-tion instead.[286][287]
As part of his strategy of food security Chvezstarted a national
chain of supermarkets, the Mercalnetwork, which had 16,600 outlets
and 85,000 em-ployees that distributed food at highly
discountedprices, and ran 6000 soup kitchens throughout
thecountry.[288] Simultaneously Chvez expropriated manyprivate
supermarkets.[288] According to Commerce Min-ister Richard Canan,
The average [savings] for the ba-sic food bundle (at the Mercal
Bicentennial markets) isaround 30%. There are some products, for
examplecheese and meat, which reach a savings of 50 to 60%compared
with capitalist markets.[289] The Mercal net-work was criticized by
some commentators as being apart of Chvezs strategy to brand
himself as a providerof cheap food, and the shops feature his
picture promi-nently. The Mercal network was also subject to
frequentscarcities of basic staples such as meat, milk and sugar
and when scarce products arrived, shoppers had to wait
-
14 6 POLICY OVERVIEW
in lines.[288]
6.1.2 Communes
Every factory must be a school to educate, like Che Gue-vara
said, to produce not only briquettes, steel, and alu-minum, but
also, above all, the new man and woman, thenew society, the
socialist society.Hugo Chvez, May 2009[290]
After his election in 1998, more than 100,000 state-owned
cooperatives which claimed to represent some1.5 million people were
formed with the assistance ofgovernment start-up credit and
technical training;[291] andthe creation and maintenance, as of
September 2010, ofover 30,000 communal councils, examples of
localisedparticipatory democracy; which he intended to be
in-tegrated into regional umbrella organizations known asCommunes
in Construction.[292]
In 2010, Chvez supported the construction of 184communes,
housing thousands of families, with $23 mil-lion in government
funding. The communes producedsome of their own food, and were able
to make deci-sions by popular assembly of what to do with
governmentfunds.[293] In September 2010, Chvez announced the
lo-cation of 876 million bolivars ($203 million) for com-munity
projects around the country, specically commu-nal councils and the
newly formed communes. Chvezalso criticised the bureaucracy still
common in Venezuelasaying, when in discussion with his Communes
Minis-ter Isis Ochoa, that All of the projects must be carriedout
by the commune, not the bureaucracy. The Min-istry for Communes,
which oversees and funds all com-munal projects, was initiated in
2009.[292] Despite suchpromises, the Venezuelan government often
failed to con-struct the number of homes they had
proposed.[294][295]According to Venezuelas El Universal, one of the
Chvezadministrations outstanding weaknesses is the failure tomeet
its goals of construction of housing.[294]
6.1.3 Currency controls
For more details on this topic, see Economy of Venezuela
Currency Black Market.In the rst few years of Chavezs oce, his
newly cre-ated social programs required large payments in order
tomake the desired changes. On February 5, 2003, thegovernment
created CADIVI, a currency control boardcharged with handling
foreign exchange procedures. Itscreation was to control capital
ight by placing limits onindividuals and only oering them so much
of a foreigncurrency.[296] This limit to foreign currency led to a
cre-ation of a currency blackmarket economy since Venezue-lan
merchants rely on foreign goods that require paymentswith reliable
foreign currencies. As Venezuela printedmore money for their social
programs, the bolvar con-
Blue line represents implied value of VEF compared to USD.
Thered line represents what the Venezuelan government ociallyrates
the VEF.Sources: Banco Central de Venezuela, Dolar Paralelo,
FederalReserve Bank, International Monetary Fund
tinued to devalue for Venezuelan citizens and merchantssince the
government held the majority of the more reli-able
currencies.[297]
The implied value or black market value is whatVenezuelans
believe the Bolivar Fuerte is worth com-pared to the United States
dollar.[298] The high rates inthe black market make it dicult for
businesses to pur-chase necessary goods since the government often
forcesthese businesses to make price cuts. This leads to
busi-nesses selling their goods and making a low prot.[299]Since
businesses make low prots, this leads to shortagessince they are
unable to import the goods that Venezuelais reliant on.[300]
6.2 Crime and punishmentFor more details on this topic, see
Crime in Venezuela.During the 1980s and 1990s there was a steady
increase
Murder rate (1 murder per 100,000 citizens) from 1998 to
2013.Sources: OVV,[301][302] PROVEA,[303][304] UN[303][304][305]*
UN line between 2007 and 2012 is simulated missing data.
in crime in Latin America. The countries of Colombia,El
Salvador, Venezuela, and Brazil all had homicide rates
-
6.2 Crime and punishment 15
Number of kidnappings in Venezuela 19892011.Source:
CICPC[306][307][308]* Express kidnappings may not be included in
data
above the regional average.[309] During his terms as pres-ident,
hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans were mur-dered due to violent
crimes occurring in the country.[310]Gareth A. Jones and Dennis
Rodgers stated in their bookYouth violence in Latin America: Gangs
and JuvenileJustice in Perspective that, With the change of
politicalregime in 1999 and the initiation of the Bolivarian
Rev-olution, a period of transformation and political conictbegan,
marked by a further increase in the number andrate of violent
deaths showing that in four years, themur-der rate had increased to
44 per 100,000 people.[311] Kid-nappings also rose tremendously
during Chavezs tenure,with the number of kidnappings over 20 times
higher in2011 than when Chavez was elected.[306][307][308]
Direc-tor James Brabazon, stated kidnapping crimes had sky-rocketed
... after late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavezfreed thousands of
violent prisoners as part of controver-sial criminal justice system
reforms while kidnappingsand murders also increased due to
Colombian organizedcrime activity as well.[312][313] He further
explained thatcommon criminals felt that the Venezuelan
governmentdid not care for the problems of the higher and
middleclasses, which in turn gave them a sense of impunity
thatcreated a large business of kidnapping-for-ransom.[312]
Under Chvezs administration, crimes were so prevalentthat by
2007 the government no longer produced crimedata.[314] Homicide
rates in Venezuela more than tripled,with one NGO nding the rate to
have nearly quadru-pled. The majority of the deaths occur in
crowded slumsin Caracas.[27][28] The NGO found that the number
ofhomicides in the country increased from 6,000 in 1999 to24,763 in
2013.[29][30][315] In 2010 Caracas had the high-est murder rate in
the world.[316] According to the UnitedNations Oce on Drugs and
Crime, in 2012 there were13,080 murders in Venezuela.[317]
In leaked government INE data for kidnappings in theyear 2009,
the number of kidnappings were at an esti-mated 16,917, contrasting
the CICPCs number of only673,[307] before the Venezuelan government
blocked thedata.[313][318][319] According to the leaked INE
report,
only 1,332 investigations for kidnappings were opened orabout 7%
of the total kidnapping cases, with 90.4% ofthe kidnappings
happening away from rural areas, 80%of all being express
kidnappings and the most commonvictim being lower-middle or middle
class Venezuelansand middle-aged men.[319] Also in 2009, it was
reportedthat Venezuelan authorities would assign judicial policeto
Caracas area morgues to speak with families.[320] Atthat time, they
would advise families not to report themurder of their family
member to the media in exchangeto have the process of recovering
the victims body in anexpedited manner.[320]
In September 2010, responding to escalating crime ratesin the
country, Chvez stated that Venezuela is no moreviolent than it was
when he rst took oce.[321] AnInternational Crisis Group report that
same year statedthat when Chvez took oce, there were some
factorsbeyond his control that led to the crime epidemic
through-out Venezuela, but that Chvez ignored it as well
ascorruption in the country; especially among fellow stateocials.
The report also stated that international or-ganised crime lters
between Colombia and Venezuelawith the assistance among the highest
spheres of gov-ernment in Venezuela, lead to higher rates of
kidnap-ping, drug tracking, and homicides. Chvez support-ers stated
that the Bolivarian National Police has reducedcrime and also said
that the states with the highest mur-der rates were controlled by
the opposition.[322][323] Ac-cording to the publications El
Espectador and Le Mondediplomatique, rising crime in rural and
urban areas ofVenezuela was partly due to increased cross-border
ac-tivity by Colombian right-wing paramilitary groups likeguilas
Negras.[324]
6.2.1 Prisons
During Chvezs presidency, there were reports of pris-oners
having easy access to rearms, drugs, and alcohol.Carlos Nietohead
of Window to Freedomallegesthat heads of gangs acquire military
weapons from thestate, saying: They have the types of weapons that
canonly be obtained by the countrys armed forces. ... Noone else
has these. Use of internet and mobile phonesare also a commonplace
where criminals can take part instreet crime while in prison. One
prisoner explained how,If the guards mess with us, we shoot them
and that hehad seen a man have his head cut o and people
playfootball with it.[325]
Edgardo Lander, a sociologist and professor at the Cen-tral
University of Venezuela with a PhD in sociologyfrom Harvard
University explained that Venezuelan pris-ons were practically a
school for criminals since younginmates come out more sort of
trained and hardenedthan when they went in. He also explained that
pris-ons are controlled by gangs and that very little has beendone
to control them.[326]
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16 6 POLICY OVERVIEW
6.3 Corruption
For more details on this topic, see Corruption inVenezuela.In
December 1998, Hugo Chvez declared three goals
Venezuelas perception of corruption scores between 2004
and2013.( * ) Score was averaged according to Transparency
Interna-tionals method.Source: Transparency International
for the new government; convening a constituent as-sembly to
write a new constitution, eliminating govern-ment corruption, and
ghting against social exclusionand poverty. However, during Hugo
Chvezs time inpower, corruption has become widespread throughout
thegovernment due to impunity towards members of thegovernment,
bribes and the lack of transparency.[327] In2004, Hugo Chvez and
his allies took over the SupremeCourt, lling it with supporters of
Chvez and made newmeasures so the government could dismiss justices
fromthe court.[328] According to the libertarian Cato Institute,the
National Electoral Council of Venezuela was undercontrol of Chvez
where he tried to push a constitu-tional reform that would have
allowed him unlimited op-portunities for reelection.[329] The
Corruption Percep-tions Index, produced annually by the
Berlin-based NGO,Transparency International (TNI) reports ndings of
cor-ruption in countries around the world. In the later yearsof
Chvezs tenure, corruption worsened; it was 158th outof 180
countries in 2008, and 165th out of 176 (tied withBurundi, Chad,
and Haiti)[330]). Most Venezuelans be-lieved the governments eort
against corruption is inef-fective, that corruption has increased,
and that govern-ment institutions such as the judicial system,
parliament,legislature and police are the most corrupt.[331]
In Gallup Poll's 2006 Corruption Index, Venezuelaranked 31st out
of 101 countries according to howwidespread the population perceive
corruption as be-ing in the government and in business. The index
listsVenezuela as the second least corrupt nation in LatinAmerica,
behind Chile.[332] Some criticism came fromChvezs supporters.
Chvezs own political party, FifthRepublic Movement (MVR), had been
criticized as beingriddled with the same cronyism, political
patronage, andcorruption that Chvez alleged were characteristic of
the
old Fourth Republic political parties. Venezuelas tradeunionists
and indigenous communities have participatedin peaceful
demonstrations intended to impel the govern-ment to facilitate
labor and land reforms. These commu-nities, while largely
expressing their sympathy and sup-port for Chvez, criticize what
they see as Chvezs slowprogress in protecting their interests
against managers andmining concerns,
respectively.[333][334][335]
6.3.1 Aiding FARC
According to the International Institute for StrategicStudies
(IISS), Chavezs government funded FARC'soce in Caracas and gave it
access to Venezuelas in-telligence services and said that during
the 2002 coupattempt that, FARC also responded to requests
from(Venezuelas intelligence service) to provide training inurban
terrorism involving targeted killings and the use ofexplosives. The
IISS continued saying that the archiveoers tantalizing but
ultimately unproven suggestions thatFARC may have undertaken
assassinations of Chavezspolitical opponents on behalf of the
Venezuelan state.Venezuelan diplomats denounced the IISS' ndings
say-ing that they had basic inaccuracies.[336]
In 2007, authorities in Colombia claimed that throughlaptops
they had seized on a raid against Raul Reyes, theyfound in
documents that Hugo Chvez oered paymentsof as much as $300 million
to the FARC among othernancial and political ties that date back
years alongwith other documents showing high-level meetings
havebeen held between rebels and Ecuadorean ocials andsome
documents claiming that FARC had bought andsold
uranium".[337][338]
In 2015, Chvezs former bodyguard Leamsy Salazarstated in Bumern
Chvez that Chvez met with thehigh command of FARC in 2007 somewhere
in ruralVenezuela. Chvez created a system in which the FARCwould
provide the Venezuelan government with drugsthat would be
transported in live cattle and the FARCwould receive money and
weaponry from the Venezue-lan government. According to Salazar,
this was done inorder to weaken Colombian President lvaro Uribe,
anenemy of Chvez.[339]
6.4 Human rights
For more details on this topic, see Human rights
inVenezuela.
6.4.1 1999 Venezuelan Constitution
In the 1999 Venezuelan constitution, 116 of the 350 ar-ticles
were concerned with human rights; these includedincreased
protections for indigenous peoples and women,
-
6.4 Human rights 17
Chvez, speaking at the 2003 World Social Forum in Porto Ale-gre,
Brazil
and established the rights of the public to education, hous-ing,
healthcare, and food. It called for dramatic demo-cratic reforms
such as ability to recall politicians from of-ce by popular
referendum, increased requirements forgovernment transparency, and
numerous other require-ments to increase localized, participatory
democracy, infavor of centralized administration. It gave citizens
theright to timely and impartial information, community ac-cess to
media, and a right to participate in acts of
civildisobedience.[340][341]
6.4.2 Criticisms
Freedom ratings in Venezuela from 1998 to 2013. (1 = Free, 7=
not free)Source: Freedom House
Shortly after Hugo Chvezs election, ratings for freedomin
Venezuela dropped according to political and humanrights group
Freedom House and Venezuela was ratedpartly free.[342] In 2004,
Amnesty International criti-cized President Chavezs administration
of not handlingthe 2002 coup in a proper manner, saying that
violent in-cidents have not been investigated eectively and
havegone unpunished and that impunity enjoyed by the per-petrators
encourages further human rights violations ina particularly
volatile political climate.[343] Amnesty In-ternational also
criticized the Venezuelan National Guard
and the Direccion de Inteligencia Seguridad y Prevencin(DISIP)
stating that they allegedly used excessive forceto control the
situation on a number of occasions duringprotests involving the
2004 Venezuela recall.[343] It wasalso noted that many of the
protesters detained seemedto not be brought before a judge within
the legal timelimit.[343]
In 2008, Human Rights Watch released a report review-ing Chvezs
human rights record over his rst decadein power.[344] The report
praises Chvezs 1999 amend-ments to the constitution which
signicantly expandedhuman rights guarantees, as well as mentioning
improve-ments in womens rights and indigenous rights, but noteda
wide range of government policies that have under-cut the human
rights protections established by the re-vised constitution.[344]
In particular, the report accusedChvez and his administration of
engaging in discrimina-tion on political grounds, eroding the
independence of thejudiciary, and of engaging in policies that have
undercutjournalists freedom of expression, workers freedom
ofassociation, and civil societys ability to promote humanrights in
Venezuela.[345] The Venezuelan government re-taliated for the
report by expelling members of HumanRights Watch from the
country.[346] Subsequently, overa hundred Latin American scholars
signed a joint letterwith the Council on Hemispheric Aairs
criticizing theHuman Rights Watch report for its alleged factual
inac-curacy, exaggeration, lack of context, illogical arguments,and
heavy reliance on opposition newspapers as sources,amongst other
things.[347][348][349]
The International Labor Organization of the United Na-tions had
also expressed concern over voters being pres-sured to join the
party.[225]
Chvez meets with Hillary Clinton at the Summit of the Americason
19 April 2009.
In 2010, Amnesty International criticized the Chvez
ad-ministration for targeting critics following several
po-litically motivated arrests.[350] Freedom House listedVenezuela
as being partly free in its 2011 Freedom inthe World annual report,
noting a recent decline in civilliberties.[351] A2010Organization
of American States re-port found concerns with freedom of
expression, humanrights abuses, authoritarianism, press freedom,
threats to
-
18 6 POLICY OVERVIEW
democracy,[352][353] as well as erosion of separation ofpowers,
the economic infrastructure and ability of thepresident to appoint
judges to federal courts.[352][353][354]OAS observers were denied
access to Venezuela;[354]Chvez rejected the OAS report, pointing
out that its au-thors did not even come to Venezuela. He said
Venezuelashould boycott the OAS, which he felt is dominated bythe
United States; a spokesperson said, We don't rec-ognize the
commission as an impartial institution. Hedisclaimed any power to
inuence the judiciary.[355] AVenezuelan ocial said the report
distorted and tookstatistics out of context, and said that human
rights vio-lations in Venezuela have decreased.[356] Venezuela
saidit would not accept an IACHR/OAS visit as long as San-tiago
Cantn remains its Executive Secretary, unless theIACHR apologizes
for what he described as its supportof the 2002 coup.[261][357]
In November 2014, Venezuela appeared before theUnited Nations
Committee Against Torture over casesbetween 2002 and 2014.[358]
Human rights expert of theUN committee, Felice D. Gaer, noted that
in only 12public ocials have been convicted of human rights
vi-olations in the last decade when in the same period havebeen
more than 5,000 complaints.[359] The United Na-tions stated that
there were 31,096 complaints of humanrights violations received
between the years 2011 and2014.[360] Of the 31,096 complaints, only
3.1% of thecases resulted in only in an indictment by the
VenezuelanPublic Ministry.[360][361]
Allegations of Anti-semitism See also: Accusationsof Chvez
anti-Semitism
Chavezs opposition to Zionism and close relations withIran led
to accusations of antisemitism[362][363] Suchclaims were made by
the Venezuelan Jewish commu-nity at a World Jewish Congress Plenary
Assembly inJerusalem.[364] Claims of antisemitism were promptedby
various remarks Chvez made, including in a 2006Christmas speech
where he complained that a minor-ity, the descendants of the same
ones that cruciedChrist, now had taken possession of all of the
wealthof the world.[365][366] In 2009, attacks on a synagoguein
Caracas were alleged to be inuenced by vocal de-nunciations of
Israel by the Venezuelan state media andHugo Chvez even though
Chavez promptly condemnedthe attacks blaming an
oligarchy.[364][367] A weeklongCICPC investigation revealed the
synagogue attack to bean 'inside job', the motive apparently being
robbery ratherthan anti-semitism.[368][369]
6.5 Media and the press
Human Rights Watch criticized Chvez for engaging inoften
discriminatory policies that have undercut journal-ists freedom of
expression.[345] Freedom House listed
Venezuelans protesting against the closing of RCTV.
Venezuelas press as being Not Free in its 2011 Map ofPress
Freedom, noting that "[t]he gradual erosion of pressfreedom in
Venezuela continued in 2010.[370] ReportersWithout Borders
criticized the Chvez administration forsteadily silencing its
critics.[371] In the groups 2009Press Freedom Index, Reporters
Without Borders notedthat Venezuela is now among the regions worst
pressfreedom oenders.[371]
In July 2005 Chvez inaugurated TeleSUR, a Pan-American
equivalent of Al Jazeera that sought to chal-lenge the present
domination of Latin American televi-sion news by Univision and the
United States-based CNNen Espaol.[372] In 2006 Chvez inaugurated a
state-funded movie studio called Villa del Cine (English: Cin-ema
City).[373]
Chvez also had a Twitter account with more than3,200,000
followers as of August 2012.[374][375][376] Ateam of 200 people
sorted through suggestions and com-ments sent via Twitter. Chvez
said Twitter was an-other mechanism for contact with the public, to
evaluatemany things and to help many people,[377] and that hesaw
Twitter as a weapon that also needs to be used bythe
revolution.[378]
-
19
6.6 Foreign policyFurther information: Foreign policy of the
Hugo ChvezgovernmentChvez refocused Venezuelan foreign policy on
Latin
Chvez with fellow South American presidents of Argentina
andBrazil
American economic and social integration by enact-ing bilateral
trade and reciprocal aid agreements, in-cluding his so-called oil
diplomacy.[379][380] Relation-ships with Cuba (CubaVenezuela
relations) and Iran(IranVenezuela relations) were of particular
impor-tance. Chvez focused on a variety of multinational
in-stitutions to promote his vision of Latin American inte-gration,
including Petrocaribe, Petrosur, and TeleSUR.Bilateral trade
relationships with other Latin Americancountries also played a
major role in his policy, withChvez increasing arms purchases from
Brazil, formingoil-for-expertise trade arrangements with Cuba, and
cre-ating unique barter arrangements that exchange Venezue-lan
petroleum for cash-strapped Argentinas meat anddairy products. He
also befriended pariah states such asBelarus and Iran.[381]
7 In popular culture Syndicated cartoonists from around the
world cre-ated cartoons, illustrations, and videos of HugoChvezs
controversial political career and the reac-tions to his
death.[382][383][384][385]
Hugo Chvez appears as a heroic character in theLatin American
postmodern fantasy novel UnitedStates of Banana (2011) by Giannina
Braschi;Chvez leads left-wing Latin American leaders EvoMorales,
Lula, Fidel Castro, and Cristina Fernn-dez de Kirchner on a quest
to liberate the people ofPuerto Rico from the United
States.[386]
Oliver Stone directed the 2009 documentary Southof the Border,
where he sets out on a road tripacross ve countries to explore the
social and po-litical movements as well as the mainstream
mediasmisperception of South America, while interview-ing seven of
its elected presidents.[387]
Bolivarian memorabilia for sale in Venezuela, 2006
On January 15, 2014, Mexican novelist NormaGomez released Swan
Song, a political thriller thatpoints to American involvement in
the death ofHugo Chvez.[388]
On 5March 2014, Oliver Stone and teleSUR releasethe documentary
lm Mi Amigo Hugo (My FriendHugo), a documentary about his political
life, oneyear after his death. The lm also is a spiritual an-swer
and a tribute from Stone to Chvez.[389]
8 Personal lifeChvez married twice. He rst wed Nancy
Colmenares,a woman from a poor family in Chvezs hometown
ofSabaneta. Chvez and Colmenares remained married for18 years,
during which time they had three children: RosaVirginia, Mara
Gabriela, and Hugo Rafael, the latter ofwhom suers from behavioural
problems.[390] The cou-ple separated soon after Chvezs 1992 coup
attempt.During his rst marriage, Chvez had an aair with his-torian
Herma Marksman; their relationship lasted nineyears.[391] Chvezs
second wife was journalist MarisabelRodrguez de Chvez, with whom he
separated in 2002and divorced in 2004.[392] Through that marriage,
Chvezhad another daughter, Rosins.[393] Both Mara and Rosaprovided
Chvez with grandchildren.[390][394] Allegationswere made that Chvez
was a womanizer, and had beenthroughout both his marriages, but
these have remainedunproven and are contradicted by statements
provided by
-
20 10 DEATH
other gures close to him.[395]
Chvez was a Catholic. He intended at one time to be-come a
priest. He saw his socialist policies as havingroots in the
teachings of Jesus Christ,[396] (liberation the-ology) and he
publicly used the slogan of Christ is withthe Revolution!"[397]
Although he traditionally kept hisown faith a private matter, Chvez
over the course ofhis presidency became increasingly open to
discussinghis religious views, stating that he interpreted Jesus as
aCommunist.[398] He was, in general, a liberal Catholic,some of
whose declarations were disturbing to the reli-gious community of
his country. In 2008 he expressedhis skepticism of an afterlife,
saying that such idea wasfalse.[399] He also would declare his
belief in Darwin'stheory of evolution, stating that it is a lie
that God cre-ated man from the ground.[400] Among other things,
hecursed the state of Israel,[401] and he had some disputeswith
both the Venezuelan Catholic clergy and Protestantgroups like the
New Tribes Mission,[402][403] whose evan-gelical leader he
condemned to hell.[404] In addition,he showed syncretistic
practices such as the worship ofthe Venezuelan goddess Mara
Lionza.[405][406] In his lastyears, after he discovered he had
cancer, Chvez becamemore attached to the Catholic Church.[407]
9 Illness
Chvez walking with a cane accompanied by Rafael Correa inJuly
2011, shortly after his surgery.
In June 2011, Chvez revealed in a televised address fromHavana,
Cuba, that he was recovering from an operationto remove an
abscessed tumor with cancerous cells.[408]Vice President Elas Jaua
declared that the President re-mained in full exercise of power and
that there wasno need to transfer power due to his absence from
thecountry.[409] On 3 July, the Venezuelan government de-nied,
however, that Chvezs tumour had been completelyremoved, further
stating that he was heading for com-plete recovery.[410] On 17 July
2011, television news re-ported that Chvez had returned to Cuba for
further can-cer treatments.[411]
Chvez gave a public appearance on 28 July 2011, his
57th birthday, in which he stated that his health trou-bles had
led him to radically reorient his life towards amore diverse, more
reective and multi-faceted out-look, and he went on to call on the
middle classes andthe private sector to get more involved in his
BolivarianRevolution, something he saw as vital to its
success.[412]Soon after this speech, in August Chvez announced
thathis government would nationalize Venezuelas gold in-dustry,
taking it over from Russian-controlled companyRusoro, while at the
same time also moving the countrysgold stocks, which were largely
stored in western banks,to banks in Venezuelas political allies
like Russia, Chinaand Brazil.[413]
On 9 July 2012, Chvez declared himself fully recoveredfrom
cancer just three months before the 2012 Venezue-lan presidential
election, which he won, securing a fourthterm as president.[414] In
November 2012, Chvez an-nounced plans to travel to Cuba for more
medical treat-ment for cancer.[415]
On 8 December 2012, Chvez announced he would un-dergo a new
operation after doctors in Cuba detectedmalignant cells; the
operation took place on 11 Decem-ber 2012.[416] Chvez suered a
respiratory infectionafter undergoing the surgery but it was
controlled.[417]It was announced 20 December by the countrys
vice-president that Chvez had suered complications fol-lowing his
surgery.[418] It was announced on 3 January2013 that Chvez had a
severe lung infection that hadcaused respiratory failures following
a strict treatmentregimen for respiratory insuciency.[419] However
hewas reported to have overcome this later that month,[420]and it
was reported that he was then undergoing fur-ther treatment.[421]
On 18 February 2013, Chvez re-turned to Venezuela after 2 months of
cancer treatmentin Cuba.[422] On 1 March 2013, Vice President
NicolsMaduro said that Chvez had been receiving chemother-apy in
Venezuela following his surgery in Cuba.[423] On 4March, it was
announced by the Venezuelan governmentthat Chvezs breathing
problems had worsened and hewas suering a new, severe respiratory
infection.[424]
10 Death
Main article: Death and state funeral of Hugo Chvez
On 5 March 2013, Vice President Nicols Maduro an-nounced on
state television that Chvez had died in a mil-itary hospital in
Caracas at 16:25 VET (20:55 UTC).[425]The Vice President said Chvez
died after battling atough illness for nearly two years.[425]
According to thehead of Venezuelas presidential guard, Chvez died
froma massive heart attack, and his cancer was very advancedwhen he
died.[426] Gen. Jose Ornella said that near theend of his life
Chvez could not speak aloud, but mouthedhis last words: Yo no
quiero morir, por favor no me
-
21
dejen morir (I don't want to die. Please don't let medie).[426]
Chvez is survived by four children and fourgrandchildren.[427]
Suggestions of foul play[425][428] (that Chvez had beenpoisoned
or infected with cancer,[429][430][431]) werestrongly denied by the
U.S. Department of State asabsurd.[432]
His death triggered a constitutional requirement that
apresidential election be called within 30 days. ChavezsVice
President, Maduro, was elected president on April14, 2013.
11 Honours and awards
11.1 Recognition
The United States-based Time magazine included HugoChvez among
their list of the worlds 100 most inuen-tial people in 2005 and
2006, noting the spreading of hisanti-globalization eorts and
anti-US sentiment through-out Latin America.[440][441] In a 2006
list compiled bythe leftist British magazine New Statesman, he was
votedeleventh in the list of Heroes of our time.[442] In 2010the
magazine included Chvez in its annual The Worlds50 Most Inuential
Figures.[443] His biographers Marcanoand Tyszka believed that
within only a few years of hispresidency, he had already earned his
place in historyas the president most loved and most despised by
theVenezuelan people, the president who inspired the great-est zeal
and the deepest revulsion at the same time.[444]
In 2008 Chvez was awarded the Blue Planet Award [445]by the
Ethecon Foundation,[446] one of the comparativelyvery few
'grass-root' foundations.[447]
11.2 Honorary degrees
Chvez was awarded the following honorary degrees:[448]
Kyung Hee University, South Korea; HonoraryDoctorate in
Political Science Granted by RectorChungwon Choue on 16 October
1999.
UniversidadAutnoma de Santo Domingo, Domini-can Republic;
Honorary Doctorate in Jurisprudence,9 March 2001.
University of Braslia, Brazil; Honorary Doctorate Granted by
Rector Alberto Prez on 3 April 2001.
Universidad Nacional de Ingeniera, Nicaragua;Honorary Doctorate
in Engineering Granted byRector Aldo Urbina on May 2001.[449]
Diplomatic Academy of theMinistry of Foreign Af-fairs, Russia;
Honorary Doctorate, 15 May 2001.
Beijing University, China; Honorary Doctorate inEc