Hugo Chavez: The Poor Man’s Hero
Hugo Rafael Chávez was the charismatic president of Venezuela who used the mission of helping the poor to change the Venezuelan Constitution and to take advantage of the country’s vast oil reserves to grow his popularity. He was born in 1954 during the presidency of Marcos Pérez Jiménez in small-town Venezuela. He pursued a political career, outlasting cruel presidents who tried to quell his revolutionary ideas. He also aided coups against unjust political figures and eventually took the commander in chief position for himself. Hugo Chavez is best remembered for his involvement in multiple coups, long history of anti-government action, and significant constitutional changes during his time in power.
Hugo Chavez came from humble beginnings as one of the seven children belonging to Elena Chavez, a schoolteacher, and Hugo de los Reyes Chávez, a local politician. Despite growing up quite far from the political turmoil in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas, young Hugo quickly became involved in politics because of his father’s line of work. He enrolled in the tuition-free military academy in Caracas because his parents could not afford better schooling, but also because he wanted to become a pro baseball player via the school’s excellent baseball program. At one point during his baseball focused high school years, Chavez and some fellow cadets visited Peru, met the president, Juan Alvarado, and marveled at his great relationship with the army and the poor. Chavez, it turned out, was not a good baseball player or student, so he ended up joining the military in the first years of his adult life. During that period, while pursuing a group of anti-government insurgents, Chavez began to empathize with their mission as peasants fighting for a higher quality of life.
After being in the military and watching corruption in the form of weaponry theft and money theft, Chavez decided the old government ways needed to be changed. In 1992, Chavez and a group of his military cohorts arranged a coup that involved capturing the current president, Carlos Andrés Pérez, and seizing military bases throughout Venezuela. The plan went awry for Chavez when his attempt at capturing the commander in chief failed, and Chavez surrendered, but only after being allowed to speak on national television exhibiting his charismatic political appeal. After serving jail time for the failed coup, Chavez founded a socialist political party called “Movement of the Fifth Republic” which fed on the poor people’s discontent regarding the disparity of social classes in Venezuela. After becoming president in 1999, Chavez’s approval rating peaked at eighty percent. He then began advocating for an end to corruption, increased spending on welfare programs, and pursued distribution of oil wealth to the whole country. Chavez then drafted a new constitution requiring new elections for all officials countrywide. The new constitution allowed him to appoint pro-Chavez justices for the all-new supreme court and allowed the president to pass certain laws by decree. These sweeping changes caused riots, alienation from other countries, and Chavez’s approval rating dropped to thirty percent. A coup resulted in 2002 that led to his removal from office for just three days before his vice president replaced the interim president and reinstated Chavez. Chavez remained in power until his death.
Hugo Chavez’s constitutional revisions, empty promises, and squandrance of those who opposed his presidency made him one of many negative political figures in Venezuela’s history. His ideas about helping the poor were short-lived, and the people of Venezuela were quickly enraged by his attempts at maximizing presidential power. The country widely supported Chavez’s rise to power because over fifty percent of people were in poverty and were promised wealth from oil revenues, welfare programs, and a crackdown on the corruption which had robbed them of a basic standard of living. These were empty propositions, and they were part of the deceptive strategy Chavez used to gain and retain power as president. Another part of Chavez’s strategy to gain the popular vote was to alienate first world countries, especially the U.S, at one point calling current president George W. Bush “the devil.” This strategy caused tense diplomatic relations in future years between the U.S and Venezuela, Venezuela’s Latin American counterparts, and other socialist countries formerly supportive of Chavez like Russia, Cuba, and China. Overall, Chavez’s deceptive, aggressive, and aristocratic strategies have lasting effects today as Venezuela has been thrust into a tumultuous authoritarian situation which has left millions of former Chavez supporters in a worse situation than before his presidency (from 1999–2013.) Chavez died at the age of 58 in 2013.
Hugo Chavez came from a poor family, but his dad introduced Chavez to politics. Hugo Chavez built himself a reputation because of his anger towards the government, his military service, and organization of political coups. His presidential career was full of deceptive amendments of the constitution and other false promises. His initiative to help the poor was used as a way to gain the popular vote. Hugo Chavez is best remembered for his involvement in multiple coups, long history of anti-government action, and significant constitutional changes during his time in power.
Works Cited
Leonard, Thomas M. “Chávez, Hugo.” Encyclopedia of Modern Latin America (1900 to the Present), Facts On File, 2017. Modern World History, online.infobase.com/Auth/Index?aid=100522&itemid=WE53&articleId=243509. Accessed 2 Apr. 2019.
Nelson, Brian A. “Hugo Chávez.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1 Mar. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Hugo-Chavez. Accessed 2 Apr. 2019.
Young, Jeff C. Hugo Chavez: Leader of Venezuela. Greensboro, North Carolina, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2007. Leaders of the world.
