Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias (28 July 1954-5 March 2013) was President of Venezuela from 2 February 1999 to 12 April 2002 (succeeding Rafael Caldera and preceding Pedro Carmona) and from 14 April 2002 to 5 March 2013 (succeeding Diosdado Cabello and preceding Nicolas Maduro). Chavez was a self-described Marxist and a key ideologue of Bolivarianism, a Latin American ideology which combined left-wing nationalism with socialism, and he was a prominent opponent of US imperialism until his death in 2013.
Biography[]
Rise to Power[]
Chavez at the military academy
Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born to a working-class family in Sabaneta, Venezuela in 1954, and he became a career military officer. After becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system based on the Puntofijo Pact, he founded the Revolutionary Bolivarian-Movement 200 in the early 1980s, and he led the MBR-200 in a failed coup against President Carlos Andres Perez in 1992. He was imprisoned and pardoned two years later, and he founded the Fifth Republic Movement and was elected President in 1998.
Presidency[]
Chavez was re-elected in 2000 and again in 2006 with over 60% of the votes, and he oversaw the start of the Bolivarian Revolution, characterized by social reforms, the nationalization of key industries (including the highly-profitable oil industry), the creation of democratic Communal Councils, and the creation of Bolivarian missions to expand access to food, housing, healthcare, and education. A coup attempt led by Pedro Carmona in 2002 briefly succeeded in ousting Chavez from power, but he returned to power after two days. Venezuela received high oil profits in the mid-2000s, resulting in temporary improvements in areas such as poverty, literacy, income equality, and quality of life from 2003 to 2007. In 2010, he declared an "economic war" due to shortages in Venezuela, but his government's deficit spending and price controls proved to be unsustainable, while poverty, inflation, the murder rate, and shortages rose. Corruption within the police force and government continued, and his government was criticized for its use of enabling acts and propaganda. He was a prominent opponent of the United States and its ideologies of neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism, and he allied himself with Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Nicaragua, describing himself as a Marxist and seeking to counter US imperialism in Latin America. He died in office as President in 2013 at the age of 58, and Nicolas Maduro succeeded him as President.