Hugo Chavez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until his death in 2013.

Born into a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military officer, and after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system, he founded the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s to work towards overthrowing it. Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup d'état against the Democratic Action government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992, for which he was imprisoned. Released from prison after two years, he founded a socialist political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998.

 

Chavez Electoral Performance:

Chavez won his first term in office with 56.2% of the popular vote, which he increased to 59.8% in the next elections. By the time he won his third term in 2006 he had a whopping 63% of the voters of Venezuela backing him. The turnout for the 2006 elections was 74% of the eligible voters in the country. The nearest to competition Chavez faced was in his last term in office, when he won with support from 54% of the votes against his opponent's 45%, and that election in October 2012 saw a mind-boggling 80% voter turnout.

So what are Chavez's unforgivable crimes against Washington?

In his speech in UN, Chavez roared "The devil was here yesterday. Right Here, Right Here and I can still feel the smell of sulphur in this table." obviously pointing out at the then US president.

Chavez nationalised his country's most valuable resources, marginalising the powers of some very big American companies. He chose to ally with Cuba and started a programme to import Cuban doctors from Havana's fabled health sector to help push up rural health missions in Venezuela, raising hackles in Washington. He also reached out to Iran and other countries the US deemed untouchables. In effect, Chavez is a quintessential American hero who thumbed his nose at established power centres. He also initiated far-reaching policy shifts empowering more indigenous people in the country.

If these enterprises were all only cosmetic, for Venezuela also had a reputation for producing world beauties with its cosmetic surgery advances and cheap prices for such surgeries.

About 48% of Venezuelan households lived in extreme poverty in 1997 according to the World Bank; that is the year before Chavez first came to power. A Wikipedia chart shows that the Chavez period reduced this to 21%. Chavez managed to dramatically redistribute wealth far more equitably during his reign. And this was through the 2008 collapse of the financial system and the resultant contraction of the global economy.

Galloping inflation has been the one big elephant in the Venezuelan presidential suite. It clocked 22.8% early March this year. However, inflation has been descending from more than 100% in 1990 to an excess of a mere 70% in mid-'90s. So any amount of control of the beast should be in keeping with its size before Chavez took over in 1998.