Hugo Chávez life and biography

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (born 28 July 1954) was the President of Venezuela. As the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation. He is also a critic of neoliberalism, globalization, and United States foreign policy.

A career military officer, Chávez founded the left-wing Fifth Republic Movement after orchestrating a failed 1992 coup d'état against former President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

From baseball to revolutionary

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frias was born on July 28, 1954, in Sabaneta, Venezuela, a small farming village located in the western state of Barinas. Even though both of his parents were school-teachers, the family, like most Venezuelans, was poor and struggled to make ends meet. Eventually Chávez's father, Hugo de los Reyes, gained political power when he became regional director of education and later the governor of Barinas.

Young Chávez escaped a life of poverty thanks to his skill as a baseball player. Baseball is the leading sport in Venezuela. The country has major leagues and national tournaments just like in the United States. There are also several competitions in which players from Central and South American countries participate. Following high school the talented player was given a scholarship to the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences, a prestigious college, where he earned a degree in military science and engineering. From there Chávez joined the army and quickly rose through the ranks to become head of an elite paratrooper unit.

While in the army Chávez was troubled by the corruption he saw among high-ranking military officers. Actually, the regime in power at the time, headed by Carlos Andrés Peérez (1922–), was notorious for widespread bribery and payoffs. Deciding to take a stand, Chávez organized a group of like-minded soldiers and secretly formed an anticorruption organization called the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement. In 1992, Chávez and his band of over twelve thousand attempted to overthrow the Pérez government in a bloody coup that cost hundreds of lives. Although the coup was unsuccessful and Chávez ended up going to prison for the next two years, he became a national hero thanks to the media. In televised broadcasts he came across as a passionate speaker determined to make a change.

El Comandanté

When Chávez was released from prison two years later, a new president was at the helm, but the plight of Venezuelans was no better. Prices of goods and unemployment were high, 80 percent of the population was living in poverty, the foreign debt was staggering, and corruption among government officials continued unchecked. Chávez decided to make a bid for the presidency and formed the Polo Patriotico (Patriotic Pole), which was composed of fourteen small political parties representing a wide variety of views. Disillusioned by the current administration, and tired of having political power in the hands of the upper classes, millions of poor Venezuelans rallied in support of Chávez, who they called El Comandanté (The Commander).

In rousing speeches Chávez condemned the two major political parties of Venezuela, accusing leaders of dishonesty, bowing to foreign investors, and mismanaging the country's oil revenues. He stressed that the nation was desperate for change and he vowed that changes would be made if he was elected. For example, he promised to put an end to government corruption and to revamp the Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-run oil company, which was responsible for exporting billions of barrels of oil per year. Hundreds of thousands of citizens attended political rallies where the charismatic Chávez delivered speeches peppered with quotes from the Bible and from his hero Simon Bolívar (1783–1830), the nineteenth-century revolutionary leader of Venezuela.

On December 6, 1998, Chávez was elected president by 56 percent of the vote, becoming the youngest elected president in Venezuelan history. On the night of his win, El Comandanté addressed the throngs of people in the streets, and according to U.S. News … World Report, he shouted, "You are the future owners of Venezuela." He went on to tell reporters, "People voted for a profound transformation, and they will have one." The transformation began immediately as Chaévez set about overhauling the entire government structure of Venezuela.

He formed a constitutional assembly that drastically reduced the powers of Congress; the assembly also reviewed the judicial branch in an attempt to rid the courts of corrupt judges. In the biggest move, Chaévez and his assembly reworked the Venezuelan constitution; the new version was approved by 75 percent of voters on December 15, 1999. The changes enacted were broad in scope: The country's name was changed to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; the term of office of the president was extended from five to six years; the Congress was replaced by a unicameral (single body) National Assembly; and the power of political parties was slashed. Social reforms were also added, including free university-level education.

By 2003 Chávez's opposition had grown into a coalition called the Democratic Coordinating Committee, which included the Fedecámaras and many of Venezuela's unions. Once again the opposition decided to try and remove the president from power—this time through legal means. Venezuela's constitution, rewritten by Chávez and his assembly, contained a clause allowing the population to recall elected officials, including the president. The opposition spend months collecting over three million signatures on a petition calling for Chávez's removal from office. They presented the petition to Venezuela's National Electoral Council in November of 2003.

Although anti-Chávez demonstrations were waged from late 2003 until voting took place in August, the Venezuelan president still maintained a strong following among the lower classes, which accounted for about eighteen or nineteen million voters. Chávez himself was not silent during this period, traveling across the country on a campaign trail and using the slogan "Chávez no se vá" (Chávez will not go). On August 15, 2004, a record number of the population turned out to vote, so many that officials extended the polling hours until after midnight. Streams of people waited for hours to vote, standing in lines that sometimes stretched for over half a mile. The wait, however, did not bother most citizens. As one Venezuelan told Elizabeth DiNovella, a reporter for the Progressive, "We are defending our right to democracy."

When all the ballots were tallied Hugo Chávez remained president, taking 59 percent of the vote. On the night of his win, a triumphant Chávez remarked to DiNovella, "The no of the campaign is the no of Cristo [Christ] against imperialism. It's the no of Christ against leaving behind the poor. This is an ancient no. And today it is reborn by this flood of people." But the opposition was far from satisfied, and after the election they cried fraud, making accusations that there had been discrepancies both in voter registration and at the polls.

The entire process, however, had been overseen by two impartial groups: the Carter Center, headed by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1947–), and the Organization of American States.

Although Hugo Chávez emerged victorious from his 2004 recall election, Venezuela emerged as a country clearly divided. According to Fred Rosen in a NACLA Report on the Americas, no political middle ground exists: citizens are either adamantly pro-Chávez or intensely anti-Chávez. Such division will make the remaining two years of his presidency very difficult ones.

In addition, Chávez continues to foster a hostile relationship with many Western countries, especially the United States. At a January 2005 world conference held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the Venezuelan leader spoke out vehemently against the Bush administration, and talked of an "open aggression" between the two nations. He claimed, however, that the aggression was directed at Venezuela from the United States. Several weeks prior to the conference, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (1954–) asserted that the Venezuelan leader was "a negative force in the region." Chávez said that such claims were unfounded. "The most negative force in the world today," Chávez contended, "is the government of the United States."

Chávez ended his speech on a positive note, echoing the sentiments with which he began his political career: "We must start talking again about equality." And a month later, it seemed that perhaps small steps were being taken toward healing relations between Venezuela and the United States. According to CNN.com, while speaking to an assembly of the Organization of American States, Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said that Venezuela "had only one enemy: poverty." "We extend our hand in friendship," Rodriguez added, "since we know that peace, based on mutual respect, is the best path toward achieving prosperity."

Family
Chávez has been married twice. He first wedded Nancy Colmenares, a woman from a poor family originating in Chávez's own hometown of Sabaneta. Chávez and Colmenares remained married for eighteen years, during which time they had three children: Rosa Virginia, María Gabriela, and Hugo Rafael. They separated soon after Chávez's 1992 coup attempt. During his first marriage, Chávez also had an affair with historian Herma Marksman; their relationship lasted nine years. Chávez is divorced from his second wife, journalist Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez. Through that marriage, Chávez had another daughter, Rosinés. Chávez has two grandchildren, Gabriela and Manuel.

Chávez was raised a Roman Catholic, although he has had a series of disputes with both the Venezuelan Catholic hierarchy and Protestant groups like the New Tribes Mission. Originally he kept his own faith a private matter, but over the course of his presidency, Chávez has become increasingly open to discussing his religious views, stating that both his faith and his interpretation of Jesus' personal life and ideology have had a profound impact on his left-wing and progressivist views. He often invokes God and asks for prayer in speeches, as he did when he asked Venezuelans to pray for Fidel Castro's health. He describes himself as Christian who grew up expecting to become a priest. According to him, as a result of this background his socialist policies have been borne with roots in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Talk-show
Throughout his presidency, Chávez has hosted the live talk show known as Aló Presidente ("Hello, President!"). The show broadcasts in varying formats on state owned Venezolana de Televisión (VTV—Venezuelan State Television) each Sunday at 11:00 AM. The show features Chávez addressing topics of the day, taking phone calls and live questions from both the studio and broadcast audience, and touring locations where government social welfare programs are active. Additionally, on 25 July 2005, Chávez inaugurated TeleSUR, a proposed Pan-American homologue of Al Jazeera that seeks to challenge the present domination of Latin American television news by Univision and the United States-based CNN en Español. Chávez's media policies have contributed to elevated tensions between the United States and Venezuela.

Reuters : "Chavez easily won a new 6-year term at an election in October and his death will devastate millions of supporters who adored his charismatic style, anti-U.S. rhetoric and oil-financed policies that brought subsidized food and free health clinics to long-neglected slums.

Detractors, however, saw his one-man style, gleeful nationalizations and often harsh treatment of opponents as evidence of an egotistical dictator whose misplaced statist economics wasted a historic bonanza of oil revenues.

Chavez's death paves the way for a new election that will test whether his socialist "revolution" can live on without his dominant personality at the helm."

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