Hugo Chavez was the president of which country. Hugo Chavez - short biography and political portrait, photo
According to some reports, the cancer of the President of Venezuela was specially called by the American special services. Among the South American presidents in 2011 began literally an epidemic of cancer. Tumors have been diagnosed in Paraguayan leader Fernando Lugo, former Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Argentine leader Cristina de Kirchner, Colombian leader Juan Santos and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
For the latter, the disease proved fatal. Chavez passed away exactly one year ago - March 5, 2013. Comandante himself believed that his tumor did not appear by chance. He stated that there is a "cancer conspiracy" against the countries of the region pursuing an anti-American policy. Chavez turned out to be very close to the truth, historian Boris Borisov believes.
Cancer was discovered in the presidents a year and a half after the summit in Mexican Cancun on February 23, 2010, - says Boris Borisov. - The creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States was announced there. As conceived by Hugo Chavez, this structure was to become a competitor to the Organization of American States, where the United States plays a leading role. But the attempt to challenge the power of Washington on the American continents turned out tragically. According to some reports, it was there that an attempt was made on Chavez using radiation and carcinogenic chemicals. The Americans had been preparing the operation for more than a year and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it.
Mexican dossier
The study of the so-called Mexican dossier helped shed light on the mystery of Chavez's death. The US Congress decided to find out how the Drug Enforcement Agency conducted business on the territory of a neighboring state.
US drug cops have been accused by Congress of aiding Mexican drug cartels. Under the guise of their "operational measures", as the congressmen found out, they laundered money from the sale of drugs, and also settled with the mafia by "controlled arms deliveries," Borisov continues.
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It follows from congressional documents that the United States took control of a part of Mexican organized crime, dividing the cartels into “us” and “them”. It was the Americans who told the gangs what to do, and also handed over individual mafiosi to the Mexican authorities, thereby strengthening their proteges in the mafia. So the soil was prepared for the covert operation in Mexico. Under the cover of drug police, CIA agents began to operate in the country.
death ray
The decision to eliminate Hugo Chavez was made a year before the assassination attempt - in March 2009. It happened in the White House at a meeting with President Barack Obama, Boris Borisov is sure. - From the investigation of the “Mexican dossier” by the US Congress, the date of this meeting, its participants and the agenda are known.
At that time, everyone already knew about the plans of the Venezuelan president to announce the creation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States in Cancun a year later. The assassination attempt was planned in such a way that neither the dozens of summit delegates nor the hundreds of journalists covering the event would guess about it.
The CIA conducted medical experiments away from prying eyes - in a cancer center in Pennsylvania, where experiments are often carried out on homeless patients who have no relatives. With the money of the Ministry of Defense, tests of the effect of new chemicals on the development of cancer took place there. At the same time in the military laboratory. Johns Hopkins upgraded the X-ray scanner. Its power and beam directivity were increased. In this project, according to the surviving financial documents, several departments took part. These are the Pentagon, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the Bureau of Radiation Protection, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which conducted radiochemical experiments on prisoners, and, of course, the CIA. The entire course of work and research results are classified. These experiments were completed by November 2009 - three months before the Cancun summit.
The CIA financed the creation of a new type of terror weapon, Boris Borisov explained. - The operator or even the autonomous program of the scanning device acts pointwise with radiation of increased power on the selected victim. After that, a malignant tumor begins to form in the irradiated area of the human body. The scheme to eliminate the recalcitrant Chavez provided for the combined effect of directed radiation and chemicals. The very ones that the Americans tested in Pennsylvania on the homeless and the poor.
Having created a secret murder weapon, the Americans brought it to Mexico in December 2009. It was not difficult to do this. Indeed, in preparation for the summit and in order to ensure the safety of meetings at the presidential level, the United States officially supplied radiological equipment to Cancun. The latest gamma-ray scanners and X-ray screening machines were installed in the meeting rooms. The local authorities did not spend a cent. Washington financed everything, allocating about $400 million.
But something must have gone wrong. The death ray, controlled remotely, did not turn off in time, and after the passage of Chavez, it scanned several more Latin American leaders. For many of them, it turned into cancer.
Will the whole truth come out?
Boris Borisov is sure that the details described above became available only due to the conflict between the ruling elites within the United States.
Most likely, Congress and the press would not have unearthed anything if they had not been allowed to do so by interested individuals from the US financial elite who have conflicts with the Barack Obama administration. If the conflict of interests in Washington develops, it is possible that new details of the assassination attempt on the President of Venezuela will emerge. Be patient: there are 80 thousand pages of secret documents in the “Mexican dossier” folder, of which only 10% have been handed over to the congressional commission so far. And suddenly there will be a new Snowden - a whistleblower, ready to reveal the methods of the big US game on the Latin American continent?
In the town of Sabaneta in the state of Barinas in the southeast of Venezuela, in a large family of a school teacher.
His maternal ancestor was an active participant in the Civil War of 1859-1863. Great-grandfather became famous for the fact that in 1914 he raised an anti-dictatorial uprising. The stories and legends about these heroic events in the family were passed down from generation to generation and had a strong influence on the formation of the future leader of the "Bolivarian revolution".
Immediately after school, Hugo Chavez entered the Military Academy of Venezuela, from which he graduated in 1975 with the rank of second lieutenant. Served in the airborne units; the red beret of the paratrooper subsequently became an integral part of his image.
In 1982 (according to other sources, while studying at the academy), Chavez, together with his colleagues, created the KOMAKATE organization (COMACATE, an abbreviation of the first two letters of military ranks - commandante, major, captain, teniente, which means lieutenant). Chavez immediately became the undisputed leader of the organization. Over time, Komakate was transformed into the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement, named after the hero of the Latin American war of independence, Simon Bolivar.
In February 1992, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez led a coup d'état against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who was unpopular due to high levels of corruption and government spending cuts. Chavez planned to create a military-civilian junta from among people who were not tainted with corruption, as well as to convene a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution. However, the government managed to stop the rebellion attempt.
Chavez surrendered to the authorities and was placed in a military prison. He spent two years in prison, in 1994 he was released under an amnesty. He organized his supporters into the Fifth Republic Movement and moved from armed struggle to legal political activity.
Hugo Chavez participated in the 1998 presidential campaign under the slogan of fighting corruption. On December 6, 1998, in the general elections held in Venezuela, he won a landslide victory, gaining 56.5% of the vote. Three months later, on July 25, elections to the unicameral assembly were held. They ended in triumph for Chavez's supporters.
The government has established tight control over the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, whose profits were directed to the needs of society: the construction of hospitals and schools, the fight against illiteracy, the implementation of agrarian reform and other social programs. All this contributed to the mass popularity of the new leader among the poor majority. Relying on his support, Chavez began to nationalize enterprises in various industries.
In 1999, a new constitution was adopted in Venezuela, and on July 30, 2000, new general elections were held, in which Hugo Chavez won with 60% of the vote.
In the subsequent period, Chavez's political course, called the "Bolivarian movement towards socialism," shifted to the left.
Taking advantage of the favorable situation on the world energy market, as well as a certain US dependence on Venezuelan oil supplies, Chavez changed his foreign policy. In a matter of years, Venezuela has become an authoritative regional leader and has actually led the movement against neoliberalism in the Western Hemisphere. Sharp criticism of the policies of the US, the IMF and the WTO, attempts to rally other Latin American countries on the basis of anti-Americanism, led to a sharp confrontation between Venezuela and the United States.
The opposition, frightened by the statements, and most importantly, by the actions of Chavez, tried by all means to get rid of him. On April 12, 2002, Chavez was overthrown in a coup d'état, but two days later, on April 14, thanks to the help of his supporters and loyal army units, he returned to power.
Chavez suffered from cancer, which required him to undergo long-term treatment in Cuba and Venezuela itself. He underwent several surgeries and underwent chemotherapy. After another operation performed on him in Cuba in early December 2012, Chavez's condition was complicated by a lung infection.
Medically indicated inauguration of the President-elect of Venezuela.
In February, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to his homeland from Cuba, as reported in his microblog on Twitter. Since then, he has been in the military hospital of Caracas, but has never appeared on television after returning to his homeland.
On March 6, 2013 Agence France-Presse, citing Vice President Nicolás Maduro, reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Hugo Chavez possessed organizational talent, exuberant energy, great capacity for work, eloquence, and the ability to convince people that he was right. He quoted from memory the Bible, the works of Bolivar, was fond of Zen Buddhism. He wrote poems and stories, was fond of painting.
At the end of 2007, Chavez published a collection of songs, which included popular Venezuelan and Mexican songs, performed personally by the president in a special television and radio broadcast; in 2008 he recorded a composition for the musical collection of revolutionary songs "Musica Para la Batalla" ("Music for the struggle").
As a child, Chavez dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player and kept his passion for baseball for life.
Chavez has been married twice. He divorced his first wife, Nancy Colmenares, in 1992. His second wife was journalist Marisabel Rodriguez. Marisabel helped Chavez create the 1999 constitution, but filed for divorce in 2002 and denounced her ex-husband's reforms.
Chavez has four children from his first marriage: Rosa Virginia, Maria Gabriela, Hugo Rafael and Raul Alfonso, and one daughter from his second, Rosines.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Hugo Chavez is the current President of Venezuela. A socialist and anti-globalist, known as an ardent opponent of US foreign policy actions.
Full name Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born in the city of Sabaten in Venezuela on July 28, 1954. Both parents are school teachers. From childhood, Chavez became interested in baseball, he has not given up this hobby until today. During his school years, Hugo Chavez was not only a participant, but also a multiple winner of art exhibitions.
short biography Hugo Chavez: young years
The official biography is full of white spots and ambiguities. It is still not known exactly where he studied. Some say that Chavez graduated from a military academy, others say with confidence that he was a student at the university in Caracas. According to some sources, in 1982 he became the head of SOMASATE (revolutionary organization), according to others - it was much earlier. Later, the organization in which there were associates in the military academy and Hugo Chavez himself became known as the Bolivarian movement.
One of the key moments in the life of the president was the 1992 coup. He was the leader of this military action. The uprising was unsuccessful, the Peres regime remained in power. Many revolutionaries were seriously injured, 18 of them died. Hugo Chavez was arrested, but after 2 years he was released under an amnesty.
His political career began in 1994 after the pardon of Rafael Calder. Chavez wasted no time and created his own movement. In the same year I was in Cuba. In those days, Norberto Seresole had a great influence on the current president and it was he who convinced him to follow the ideology of the Libyan leader Gaddafi. Hugo Chavez announced his own revolutionary convictions for the first time at the University of Havana. All principles have been successfully implemented into reality. In November 2004, the work was crowned with success and Chavez was awarded the Muammar Gaddafi International Prize for his significant contribution to the protection of human rights.
As President of the Republic, Chavez is famous for being the first person to meet Saddam Hussein after the conflict in Kuwait in 1990.
1998 was marked by victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections at the same time. Parliamentary elections have confirmed that Hugo Chavez has established himself as a politician. He was supported by the coalition, the Fifth Republic Movement, as well as various left-wing parties of the MAS, "Motherland for All". The opponent was the Communist Party of Venezuela, it took 76 out of 189 seats in parliament and, respectively, 17 out of 48 in the Senate. In percentage terms, this amounted to 34%.
The program was of a general nature. First of all, the promises concerned constitutional reform, then the program described the fight against corruption, and its leaders promised to end it. The abuses of the political elite must also come to an end. A program of social justice and a democratic society has been developed. The masses were promised participation in government. The main trump card of the DPR was the "Bolivarian committees", they were created for the most part in poor urban areas.
Here is a brief biographical
1998 - Chavez first claimed the presidency
On April 11, 2002, Chavez lost power due to a coup d'état, but it was not for long, and three days later the presidency returned to its sovereign master
July 2006 - Chavez made his first visit to Russia, here he settled some political issues with the leader of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin
On September 10, 2009, during another official visit to Russia, Chavez announced that he, on behalf of the government of Venezuela, recognizes the full political independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia
February 2010 - Chavez took quite bold measures. An "electrical crisis" was declared. At this time, the country experienced problems associated with interruptions in the supply of electricity. The population was ordered to reduce electricity consumption, the same requirements were prescribed for enterprises. In case of disobedience to the presidential decree, sanctions were applied with an increase in tariffs.
January 2011 - Chavez announced the overcoming of the crisis. However, only the severity of the problem was removed, but the problem itself was still relevant. The media repeatedly reported interruptions.
June 2011 - Chavez begins to have health problems. He underwent surgery for the first time in one of the Cuban clinics.
On June 30 of the same year, he made an official statement regarding this issue, said that during the operation he was removed from a cancerous tumor.
February 2012 showed that the 2011 operation was not enough and the doctors had to perform another operation to remove another tumor.
May 31, 2012 - a big resonance in the press. Hugo Chavez gave a decent house as an incentive prize to the three millionth subscriber of the Twitter page
June 25 - Venezuela decided to protest the impeachment of President Fernando Lugo and recalled its ambassador from Paraguay. Hugo Chavez personally spoke about this. He said that neither he nor his country would recognize the new government and that Fernando Lugo would remain president for them.
July 10 - a new election campaign of Hugo Chavez began, he began to travel with his program to the provinces. At the same time, he claims to be completely cured of cancer.
October 11, 2012 - With the light hand of Chavez, Nicolas Maduro, who is also the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, becomes Vice President of the country
December 10, 2012 - again flies to Cuba for another operation. Cancer does not leave the leader alone
December 13, 2012 - officially reported that the state of health has improved and stabilized
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In the entire history of the modern world order, it is unlikely that you will find many charismatic and odious representatives among the heads of state. Therefore, a man like Hugo Chavez could not remain without public attention even after his death. His emotional verbal attacks on political opponents, boundless love and respect for his people made the hero of our story one of the brightest and most famous modern presidents. His life and career will be discussed below.
Beginning of life
Chavez Hugo was born on July 28, 1954 in the western state of Venezuela - Barianas, in the city of Sabaneta. His father was Hugo de los Reyes Chavez, an Afro-Indian with an admixture of Spanish blood, who worked as a village teacher. Our hero still has five brothers alive, and another died as a baby.
Hugo's mother was a Creole and really hoped that her son would choose the path of a priest, although the young man himself dreamed of becoming an athlete and was fond of baseball. By the way, he retained his love for this sport for the rest of his life. It is also noteworthy that Chavez Hugo showed promise as an artist as a child and at the age of 12 he even received an award at one of the regional exhibitions.
Study and participation in the coup d'état
The future head of the Latin American country graduated in 1975 from the Military Academy of Venezuela. There is unconfirmed evidence that he also studied at the University. (Caracas). Chavez Hugo served in parts of the airborne troops and therefore it is not surprising that he used colors (an attribute of the Venezuelan paratrooper) as part of his image throughout his later life.
In 1992, Hugo, like many disaffected military personnel, took part in an attempt to remove then-president Carlos Andreas Pérez from power. Unfortunately for Chavez, the coup failed and he ended up in jail for two years but was eventually pardoned.
Life after prison time
Once at large, the restless Venezuelan created a revolutionary political party called the Movement for the Fifth Republic. Largely thanks to such activity, he was at the top. In 1998, Chavez announced his candidacy for the presidency of the country. In his election program, there were theses about the fight against corruption in the government, promises to carry out significant and such expected economic reforms.
Presidency
Having won the race for leadership, Hugo Chavez, whose photo is shown in the article, tried to amend the country's constitution, and also amended the powers of the main legislative body of Venezuela - Congress. The new president touched upon the work and the judicial system.
While in the country's top post, Chavez fully experienced all the "charms" of being president. So, his attempt to strengthen his control over the oil companies in 2002 led to serious controversy and protests, against which the military commanders were forced to remove Hugo from power for a while. As a compromise, it was decided to hold a referendum, which would decide the issue of people's confidence in Chavez. In the summer of 2004, such a vote was held, and on its basis, the leader of the country remained unchanged.
Relations with the United States of America
Time has shown that Hugo Chavez is a president who is extremely intolerant of him. He repeatedly spoke negatively about the government of this country and believed that it was they who were involved in the attempt to overthrow him in 2002. Hugo vehemently opposed the military campaign in Iraq and stated that the United States fought without proper authority. In addition, he called the then US President Bush Jr. "a vile imperialist."
It is also important that Chavez did not hesitate to sell oil in large quantities to the eternal enemy of the United States - Cuba, and also provided maximum support to partisan troops in neighboring states.
But despite all this, Chavez donated black gold to help the affected population from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Domestic politics
During the reign of Chavez, it was first officially announced that three hundred thousand representatives of the country's indigenous population - the Indians, have an unconditional right to own the lands of their original residence, and can take part in the registration and registration of their borders. Also, between 2000 and 2012, the poverty rate dropped significantly (from 44% to 24%). It is impossible not to note the increase in the level of education of Venezuelans, which became possible thanks to the involvement of Cuban teachers. The program for the construction of shops for low-income segments of the population was opened.
But with all this, it should be noted that it has always been and is in strict dependence on world oil prices. And therefore, at the time of the crisis of 2009-2010. The state's GDP fell from 3.2% to 1.5%.
Relations with the media
Hugo Chavez, whose biography is literally full of colorful antics and phrases, has always had an ambiguous relationship with journalists.
Many privately owned media outlets spoke of the development of a dictatorship in Venezuela. To this, Chavez responded by signing a law protecting children from dangerous information, on the basis of which air time was divided into three daily periods. "Adult" hours were considered the interval of 23:00-5:00.
In 1999, viewers saw a program called "Hello, President!". Hugo personally hosted the TV program, interacted with people, answered and asked questions. Starting from February 15, 2007, he began to spend an hour and a half on the air daily, thereby trying to be closer to the people.
End of life
In June 2011, Chavez was diagnosed with cancer. This happened after the removal of the pelvic abscess. The president spent the entire next year in continuous treatment, having survived three surgeries. There was an active fight against cancerous tumors. But the result was sad, and on March 5, 2013, the great dictator died, leaving his wife a widow. He also left five children. The commander was buried at the Museum of the Revolution, located in Caracas. The coffin with the body of the deceased was placed in a marble sarcophagus.
Who replaced Hugo Chavez? His successor was who, while his predecessor was in office, was vice president.
“Comandante, wherever you are, thank you, thank you a thousand times from this people that you defended, that you loved and that never let you down,” Vice President Maduro said in his mourning speech, addressing the departed Chavez.
After Chavez returned to Caracas from Cuba, where he was treated after another oncological operation, the President of Venezuela did not appear in public. The fact that the president is doing very bad became clear after the Venezuelan authorities announced that the 58-year-old Chavez had a new severe respiratory infection. Venezuelan Minister of Communications and Information Ernesto Villegas said that the respiratory system of Chavez, weakened after undergoing chemotherapy, began to fail: "Our commander and president clings to Christ and life. He is aware of the severity of his condition and fully complies with all the prescriptions of doctors."
People poured into the streets of Venezuelan cities, mourning the death of the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution. The coffin with the body of Chavez will be put up for public farewell until Friday, when the funeral will take place. A week of mourning has been declared in the country.
WHO WILL REPLACE CHAVES?
It is believed that after the death of the president, the powers of the head of the Bolivarian Republic should pass to the vice president. True, the problem may lie in the fact that Chavez, due to illness, could not take the oath after the next re-election. The military command of Venezuela has already pledged allegiance to the vice president and the country's parliament and called on the people to remain calm. And according to the head of the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry Elias Jaua, early presidential elections after the death of Hugo Chavez will be held in the country no later than in a month; during this time, vice-president Nicolas Maduro will act as head of state.
Like earlier the question of the succession of power in Venezuela in the event of Chavez's departure, the editor-in-chief of Latin America magazine Vladimir TRAVKIN, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, “is not a successor appointed by Chavez, but an official who was chosen together with the president during the recent elections. He has as many votes as Chavez, ie. over 56 percent. Behind him is the majority of the population. This is a man who is considered not only in Venezuela, but also in Latin America as a worthy successor to the work of the current Venezuelan leader.” However, some observers doubt that the former driver and trade unionist Maduro has the charisma comparable to that of the late Chavez - and this could make it very difficult for him to confront the opposition in the upcoming presidential elections.
There is an opinion that the presidential powers should have been temporarily transferred to the chairman of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, who was supposed to hold early elections.
The main Venezuelan opposition leader who fought Chavez in the presidential elections, Enrique Capriles, offered condolences on the death of the president and called on the country's population to unite at a difficult moment. But it seems that he is already ready to join the fight for the post of head of state. As Vladimir Travkin, editor-in-chief of Latin America magazine, noted in a commentary to MK, Enrique Capriles “has his own approach to the development of Venezuela, but he is not an anti-socialist, he simply opposes the regime of personal power, which is personified by Chavez. This is the most visible opposition force, although it does not have entirely positive features for a country like Venezuela. Capriles, though a Catholic, is Jewish. In addition, he is a homosexual. In Venezuela, for all its political correctness, not everyone likes it. However, there is no other candidate yet.”
WHAT WAS HUGO CHAVES
Chavez took office as Venezuelan president in 1999. This was preceded by many events.
Unlike many Latin American countries, Venezuela has not been ruled by a military junta since 1958, there has been no dictatorship, but an established democratic system with two parties that succeeded each other. At the same time, corruption corroded society, the proceeds from the sale of oil were squandered by the powerful of this world (namely, thanks to oil in the 1970s, Venezuela achieved quite good economic indicators, which gave reason to the wits to call it “Saudi Venezuela”). At the same time, the people received only crumbs from the export of black gold.
In February 1992, Hugo Chavez, a paratrooper lieutenant colonel with 17 years of military service, tried to stage a military coup in Venezuela.
As conceived by Chavez, five army units were to take control of key positions in Caracas. Chavez's rebels even managed to occupy the presidential palace, but they failed to capture the head of state Carlos Perez - he fled through the garage.
At that time, no more than 10% of the military supported Chavez in the army. A bunch of inconsistencies led to the fact that the coup did not work. The conspirators did not manage to speak on television with an appeal to the nation, but the fugitive president went straight to TV. The case was lost in Caracas, although "on the ground" the rebels managed to take the situation under control. Chavez, the loser, did not go into hiding - he even came to TV with the consent of the winners. It was a very successful trick: having promised to make a brief call to stop the bloodshed, Chavez suddenly broke into a fiery speech on the air: “Comrades! Unfortunately, so far the tasks set by us have not been achieved in the capital!”
Chavez was imprisoned for two years. There he developed severe visual problems. Difficulties with his eyes haunted him for the rest of his life. While the lieutenant colonel was behind bars, in the same year there was another coup attempt in the country - and also failed.
Ironically, a year later, the very same Perez, whom the lieutenant colonel was trying to overthrow, was placed in the same prison where Chavez was imprisoned on charges of corruption.
In 1994, Chavez was pardoned by another Venezuelan president and was released, greeted by a crowd of journalists. The failure of the coup with the final appeal still played in favor of Chavez - the broad masses saw in him a strong fighter and a charismatic leader who is capable of change. From a PR standpoint, it was a clear win.
In prison, Chavez decides to go to power peacefully. After gaining freedom, Chavez turned to politics. The doctrine that inspired Chavez is called "Bolivarism" - in honor of the hero of the struggle of the South American countries from the Spanish rule, Simon Bolivar. Even the country Chavez, having come to power, renamed the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
Chavez entered the 1998 presidential election under the flag of the fight against corruption: 56.5% of the vote ensured his victory. Enemy number one along with corruption is declared poverty. The fight against poverty is entrusted to the Bolivarian Missions. Chavez establishes tight control over the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela. Superprofits from oil are directed to the construction of hospitals and schools, the implementation of agrarian reform, the elimination of illiteracy and other social programs. Among the poor, Chavez's popularity is growing by leaps and bounds.
One of Chavez's first moves in power is to launch his Bolívar 2000 plan. Forty thousand soldiers began to help the needy population: carry out mass vaccination, distribute food to the inhabitants of the slums. Thousands of sick poor people who had no money to travel around the country were transported by military helicopters and transport planes.
Critics say that despite the high oil revenues and the proclaimed reforms, Chavez's success in the socio-economic sphere looks more than modest. Poverty (the poor include about half of Venezuelans), unemployment (its level is one of the highest on the continent) - these ulcers have not disappeared. And the declared fight against corruption remained just a declaration.
I have communist friends, but I am a nationalist! I am a revolutionary in the spirit of Bolivar!, Chavez himself declared. "The Lord is the supreme commander, followed by Bolivar, and then I," proclaimed Chavez, who considered himself the leader of the "Bolivarian, nationalist and Christian revolution."
Some experts have characterized Chavez as an "authoritarian nationalist", comparing him to the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser or the early Fidel Castro.
It is likely that a number of circumstances did not come together in a certain combination, Chavez's fame is unlikely to have crossed the borders of Latin America. One such circumstance may have been a surge in anti-globalization activity. Chavez was a welcome guest at anti-globalization forums, he was considered the most promising revolutionary leader in Latin America. But no amount of popularity among anti-globalists can compare with how much Chavez was helped to gain charisma at the world level by the United States of America.
Chavez's coming to power was perceived in Washington by Bill Clinton's administration without much drama. And Chavez himself was not too persistent in anti-American rhetoric. The situation has changed radically since Bush came to power. Chavez did not support the "war on terror" declared by Bush. Chavez at the end of 2001 showed on TV photos of Afghan children who became victims of the American military operation.
“Venezuela is one of the main problems of the United States in Latin America. The rapprochement of this country with Cuba poses a serious threat,” then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once said. In response, Chavez compared the White House to a madhouse.
Back in the days of President Woodrow Wilson, the US ousted its competitor, the UK, from oil-rich Venezuela and supported the then corrupt regime of Juan Vicente Gomez, which gave US companies free rein in the country. As American professor Noam Chomsky wrote in his book “Hegemony or the struggle for survival: the US desire for world domination”, “the policy of open doors and free trade was formulated in the usual format: putting pressure on Venezuela in order to prevent partnership relations with Great Britain while continuing to defend and strengthen US rights to oil development in the Middle East, where the UK and France occupied a leading position. By 1928, Venezuela had become one of the main exporters of oil, and American companies were in charge of the oil fields. Such a policy led to the fact that by 2003 Venezuela was a country with record levels of poverty, despite the fact that its potential and resources were directed to serve the interests of foreign investors, and not its own citizens.
The confrontation between Chavez and the White House has moved to the ideological level. The main Bolivarian took up arms against the American model of neoliberalism, designating it as “the highest stage of capitalist madness.” It is the neoliberal model that “makes the development of democracy impossible, because it interferes with the achievement of social justice, without which democracy is unthinkable,” Chavez assured in response to accusations of being anti-democratic And the aggressiveness of the United States towards Venezuela is explained by Chavez by the fact that Caracas does not accept the model of "neoliberal capitalism".
Rich in “black gold,” Venezuela considered itself under Chavez to be the engine of Latin American integration. The famous Monroe Doctrine "America for Americans" was developed here into the formula "Latin America for Latin Americans". "North America is one continent, South America is a completely different one," Chavez said, calling on Latin American states to introduce a single currency "sucre" in order to force the "weakening US dollar" out of circulation from the continent.
Chavez will remain in people's memory as a tireless orator who could speak for hours at rallies (he learned this from his senior comrade Fidel) and not go into his pocket for a word. Emotionality and readiness to get personal, not embarrassed in the selection of expressions - this was the signature style of Hugo Chavez. Suffice it to recall how he attacked US President Bush Jr.: “He is in this place because he is his daddy's son. They brought him to power. He was an alcoholic. Your president is an alcoholic. This is true. It pains me to say this, but it's true. He is an alcoholic. Sick person".
Oil revenues made possible the success of Chavez's Bolivarian missions. And it was "black gold" that gave Chavez weight in the world in many respects. Venezuela is one of the world leaders in the production and export of oil, one of the founders of OPEC. Chavez himself once said that he became an enemy to the United States largely due to the fact that "Venezuela resurrected OPEC by organizing a summit of the leaders of the states that make up this organization."
Chavez had many enemies, inside and outside Venezuela. "We have the opportunity to destroy him, and I think that the time has come for us to realize this opportunity," - in August 2005, the well-known American evangelist televangelist Robertson publicly made such a "Christian" attack on Chavez. The Christian Coalition of America headed by him helped Bush Jr. a lot in his election to the presidency. A terrible embarrassment came out - the State Department had to call the words of the televangelist "inappropriate" and disown him. Meanwhile, accusations of dictatorship and the word "oil" in a speech against Chavez, who "is going to turn Venezuela into a launch pad platform for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism on the continent” sounded equally often.
There are plenty of people who want to deal with the Venezuelan leader. Back in late 1999, Fidel Castro told Venezuelan journalists that counter-revolutionary elements from Miami had held a secret meeting to discuss the details of organizing the alleged terrorist attack against Chavez. The conspirators were going to arrive in Caracas with forged documents through some third country in order to less attract the attention of border guards and customs officers. In April 2002, Chavez was removed from power for two days when the opposition staged a coup. Pedro Carmona, proclaimed interim president, immediately canceled all the main provisions of socio-economic policy. But the military loyal to Chávez staged a counter-coup and freed their president from the military base where he was being held by the rebels. The failed coup did nothing to improve Venezuela's relations with the United States. Chavez repeatedly accused the Americans of complicity in the coup. Although after the failure of the coup, America condemned it, and there is no direct evidence of US involvement in the events of 2002, it is easy to assume that the American intelligence services were aware of what was happening. Even the disease that killed Chavez is attributed by his supporters to the intrigues of enemies. And who knows?
Hugo Chavez was re-elected to the post of President of Venezuela in October 2012, but he failed to complete the next term ...
MK TV: In memory of Hugo Chavez