Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. He 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. He 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.

About Hugo Chávez in brief

Summary Hugo ChávezHugo Rafael Chávez Frías (28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. He 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. Born into a middle-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, he became a career military officer. He 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 two years later, he founded a political party known as the FifthRepublic Movement and was elected president ofenezuela in 1998 with 56. 2% of the vote. After winning his fourth term as president in the October 2012 presidential election, he was to be sworn in on 10 January 2013. However, the inauguration was postponed due to his cancer treatment, and he died in Caracas on5 March 2013 at the age of 58. He 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. He aligned himself with the Marxist–Leninist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba, and the socialist governments of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.

Chavez’s ideas, programs, and style form the basis of \”Chavismo\”, a political ideology closely associated with Bolivarianism and socialism of the 21st century. He supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and was instrumental in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the Community of LatinAmerican and Caribbean States, the Bank of the South and the regional television network TeleSUR. The high oil profits coinciding with the start of Chavez’s presidency resulted in temporary improvements in areas such as poverty, literacy, income equality and quality of life between primarily 2003 and 2007, though extensive changes in structural inequalities did not occur. By the end of his presidency in the early 2010s, economic actions performed by his government during the preceding decade, such as deficit spending and price controls, proved to be unsustainable, with Venezuela’s economy faltering. At the same time, poverty, inflation and shortages increased. His presidency saw significant increases in the country’s murder rate and continued corruption within the police force and government. The family were of Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan Spanish descent. His parents were a proud member of COPEI – and COPEEI member Elena de Reyes, Elena Pielián de Pielquino, and Elena de Páez de Ponce de los Reyes, who lived in the small town of Los Rastrojos, in the 19th century.