Hugo Chávez

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For other people named Hugo Chávez, see Hugo Chávez (disambiguation).
This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Chávez and the
second or maternal family name is Frías.
Hugo Chávez

45th President of Venezuela

In office
14 April 2002 – 5 March 2013
Vice Presidents See list[show]
Preceded by Diosdado Cabello (Acting)
Succeeded by Nicolás Maduro
In office
2 February 1999 – 12 April 2002
Vice Presidents See list[show]
Preceded by Rafael Caldera
Succeeded by Pedro Carmona (Acting)
President of the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela
In office
24 March 2007 – 5 March 2013
Deputy Diosdado Cabello
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Nicolás Maduro
Personal details
 Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías
Born
28 July 1954
Sabaneta, Venezuela
5 March 2013 (aged 58)
Died
Caracas, Venezuela
 Cuartel de la Montaña
Resting place  Caracas, Venezuela

Political party United Socialist Party of Venezuela

(2007–2013)
 Fifth Republic Movement
(1997–2007)
Other political
 Great Patriotic Pole (2011–
affiliations 2013)

 Nancy Colmenares (divorced)

 Marisabel Rodríguez
Spouse(s) (divorced)

 Rosa Virginia
 María Gabriela
Children  Hugo Rafael
 Rosinés

Alma mater Military Academy of Venezuela

Signature

Military service
Allegiance Venezuela
Service/branch Venezuelan Army
Years of
1971–1992
service
Rank Lieutenant colonel

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Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (/ˈtʃævɛz/; Spanish: [ˈuɣo rafaˈel ˈt͡ʃaβes ˈfɾi.as]; 28 July 1954 – 5
March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was President of Venezuela from 1999 to
2013. Chávez was also 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 2012.

Born into a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military
officer, and after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system based on the
Puntofijo Pact,[1] he founded the clandestine Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200
(MBR-200) in the early 1980s. 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. Pardoned from prison after two years, he founded a political party
known as the Fifth Republic Movement and was elected President of Venezuela in 1998. He
was re-elected in 2000 and again in 2006 with over 60% of the votes. After winning his
fourth term as president in the October 2012 presidential election,[2] he was to be sworn in on
10 January 2013, but Venezuela's National Assembly postponed the inauguration to allow
him time to recover from medical treatment in Cuba.[3] Suffering a return of the cancer
originally diagnosed in June 2011, Chávez died in Caracas on 5 March 2013 at the age of
58.[4][5]

Following the adoption of a new constitution in 1999, Chávez focused on enacting social
reforms as part of the Bolivarian Revolution. Using record-high oil revenues of the 2000s, his
government nationalized key industries, created participatory democratic Communal
Councils and implemented social programs known as the Bolivarian missions to expand
access to food, housing, healthcare and education.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Venezuela received
high oil profits in the mid-2000s,[15] resulting in temporary improvements in areas such as
poverty, literacy, income equality and quality of life occurring primarily between 2003 and
2007,[7][15][16] though these gains started to reverse after 2012 and it has been argued that
government policies did not address structural inequalities.[17]
On 2 June 2010, Chávez declared an "economic war" due to shortages in Venezuela,
beginning the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela.[18] By the end of Chávez's presidency in the
early 2010s, economic actions performed by his government during the preceding decade
such as deficit spending[19][20][21][22][23] and price controls[24][25][26][27][28] proved to be
unsustainable, with Venezuela's economy faltering while poverty,[7][15][29] inflation[30] and
shortages in Venezuela increased. Chávez's presidency also saw significant increases in the
country's murder rate[31][32][33][34] and continued corruption within the police force and
government.[35][36] His use of enabling acts[37][38] and his government's use of Bolivarian
propaganda were also controversial.[39][40][41][42]

Internationally, Chávez aligned himself with the Marxist–Leninist governments of Fidel and
then Raúl Castro in Cuba, as well as the socialist governments of Evo Morales (Bolivia),
Rafael Correa (Ecuador) and Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua). His presidency was seen as a part of
the socialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. Chávez described his policies as anti-
imperialist, being a prominent adversary of the United States's foreign policy as well as a
vocal critic of U.S.-supported neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism.[43] He described
himself as a Marxist.[44][45][46][47][48] He supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation
and was instrumental in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Bolivarian Alliance for the
Americas, the Bank of the South and the regional television network TeleSUR. Chavez's
ideas, programs, and style form the basis of "Chavismo", a political ideology closely
associated with Bolivarianism and socialism of the 21st century.

Contents
 1 Early life
 2 Military career
o 2.1 Military academy
o 2.2 Early military career
o 2.3 Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200
 2.3.1 1992 coup attempt
 3 Political rise
o 3.1 1998 election
 4 Presidency (1999–2013)
o 4.1 First presidential term: 2 February 1999 – 10 January 2001
 4.1.1 Constitutional reform
o 4.2 Second presidential term: 10 January 2001 – 10 January 2007
 4.2.1 Opposition and the CD
 4.2.2 Coup, strikes and the recall referendum
 4.2.3 "Socialism of the 21st century"
o 4.3 Third presidential term: 10 January 2007 – 10 January 2013
 4.3.1 United Socialist Party of Venezuela and domestic policy
o 4.4 Fourth presidential term: 10 January 2013 – 5 March 2013
 5 Political ideology
o 5.1 Bolivarianism
o 5.2 Marxism
o 5.3 Other influences
  5.3.1 Conspiracy theories
 6 Policy overview
o 6.1 Economic and social policy
 6.1.1 Food and products
 6.1.2 Communes
 6.1.3 Currency controls
o 6.2 Crime and punishment
 6.2.1 Prisons
o 6.3 Democracy under Chávez
o 6.4 Corruption
 6.4.1 Aiding FARC
o 6.5 Human rights
 6.5.1 1999 Venezuelan Constitution
 6.5.2 Criticisms
 6.5.2.1 Allegations of antisemitism
o 6.6 Media and the press
o 6.7 Foreign policy
 7 In popular culture
 8 Personal life
 9 Illness
 10 Death
 11 Honors and awards
o 11.1 Recognition
o 11.2 Honorary degrees
 12 See also
 13 References
o 13.1 Footnotes
o 13.2 Bibliography
 14 External links

Early life
He was born on 28 July 1954 in his paternal grandmother Rosa Inéz Chávez's home, a modest
three-room house located in the rural village Sabaneta, Barinas State. The Chávez family
were of Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan and Spanish descent.[49] His parents, Hugo de los
Reyes Chávez, described as a proud COPEI member,[50] and Elena Frías de Chávez, were
schoolteachers who lived in the small village of Los Rastrojos.[50]

Hugo was born the second of seven children.[51][52] Hugo described his childhood as "poor...
[but] very happy",[53] though his childhood of supposed poverty has been disputed as Chávez
possibly changed the story of his background for political reasons.[50] Attending the Julián
Pino Elementary School, Chávez was particularly interested in the 19th-century federalist
general Ezequiel Zamora, in whose army his own great-great-grandfather had served.[54][55]
With no high school in their area, Hugo's parents sent Hugo and his older brother Adán to
live with their grandmother Rosa, who lived in a lower middle class subsidized home
provided by the government, where they attended Daniel O'Leary High School in the mid-
1960s.[56][57][58] Hugo later described his grandmother as being "a pure human being... pure
love, pure kindness".[59] She was a devout Roman Catholic and Hugo was an altar boy at a
local church.[60] His father, despite having the salary of a teacher, helped pay for college for
Chávez and his siblings.[50]
(Brown & Hugo, 2009)

Bibliography
Brown, & Hugo, C. (2009). Simón Bolívar: The Bolivarian Revolution, introduced by Hugo Chavez.
Retrieved 30 1, 2019, from http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/en/publications/simon-
bolivar-the-bolivarian-revolution-introduced-by-hugo-chavez(37311a5d-06ba-4f00-9bde-
01365c4515f9).html