Hugo Chávez: 1954—: President

The charismatic Hugo Chávez, elected president of Venezuela in 1998, is sometimes described by political pundits as Latin America's most controversial leader after Fidel Castro. Chávez has set this mineral–and resource-rich South American nation on a course of political, economic, and social reform he describes as a "Third Way" between a socialist and a free-market economy. In 2002, Chávez faced growing national discontent as his promised economic betterments were not forthcoming.

Childhood in Farming Village

Hugo Chávez Frias was born July 28, 1954, in Sabaneta, a small farming town in Venezuela's western state of Barinas. Both parents were teachers, and they struggled to make ends meet, as Chávez recalled in an interview with Lally Weymouth of Newsweek. "I had to go with my father in the wee hours of the morning to help him fish to be able to eat. I sold sweets that my grandmother baked in the public square to have money to buy shoes and notebooks." Such a situation was not uncommon for much of Venezuela's population. Crude oil was a steady export out of Venezuela by 1930, but political and economic power remained in the hands of a small group of wealthy landowners and industrialists. For much of the twentieth century, caudillos, or military dictators, ruled from Caracas, its capital.

Chávez was a standout baseball player as a teen, a talent that helped gain him entry into the country's elite military academy. From there he joined the army and advanced through its ranks to head an elite paratrooper unit. Rankled by the corruption among the officer class—bribery and payoffs had become common currency at nearly all levels of Venezuelan life—Chávez formed a secret anti-corruption organization in the late 1980s with other disgruntled officers. He captured international attention on February 4, 1992, when he commanded a force of 12,000 troops in a coup against President Carlos Andrés Pérez. The insurrection was suppressed, "but not before Chávez, in an unforgettable televised jeremiad, denounced the moral and economic rot at the heart of that once-so-hopeful republic. He became an immediate hero," wrote Benjamin Moser in Newsweek International. For leading the coup, he was sentenced to prison.

The notoriously corrupt Pérez regime eventually fell byitself through the impeachment process. Years later, Chávez explained his reasoning behind his bid for power. "Here was a country full of gold, oil, iron, aluminum, water and fertile lands, yet 80 percent of the population was living in poverty," he told Joseph Contreras in Newsweek International. Released from jail in 1994, he became active in the political organization that he and other soldiers had founded, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement.

At a Glance . . .

Born July 28, 1954, in Sabaneta, Barinas, Venezuela; son of schoolteachers; married to María Isabel Rodríguez; children: Rosa Virginia, María Gabriela, Hugo Rafael, Raúl Alfonzo, and Rosa Inés. Education: Earned degree from Military Academy of Venezuela, 1975; Simón Bolívar University, graduate degree, international relations Military Service: Venezuelan Army; held rank of lieutenant-colonel by 1990; commander of paratrooper unit. Religion: Roman Catholic. Politics: Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement; Fifth Republic Movement.

Career: Graduated from Military Academy with rank of second lieutenant; joined Venezuelan Army, 1975; jailed for coup attempt, 1992; formed Fifth Republic Movement, political opposition group, c. 1992; elected president of Venezuela, 1998.

Addresses: Office— Embassy of Venezuela, 1099 30th St. NW, Washington, DC 20007.

Became Legitimate Political Threat

Venezuela is one of the world's major exporters of oil. The country daily sends 1.5 million barrels to the United States alone. Still, the nation of 23 million has suffered under a moribund economy, with high rates of inflation and unemployment. By 1998, Venezuela, under President Rafael Caldera Rodríguez, was still suffering from a long-term recession. The country struggled to make its foreign debt payments when barrel prices on the world market fell. Venezuela also had a bloated public sector; nearly one in every three employed Venezuelans held a government job. Corruption continued: even middle-ranking government officials enjoyed such perks as chauffeurs for themselves and families. Tax evasion was widespread. There were estimates that 80 percent of customs revenues went uncollected because of bribery at the ports and borders.

Chávez formed the Polo Patriotico (Patriotic Pole), a coalition of 14 small parties, and decided to make a bid for the presidency under the banner of a "Fifth Republic Movement." His 1998 campaign tapped into the national mood of discontent and won widespread support. He promised great changes should he be elected, foremost among them an end to corruption. Concerning the powerful Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), or state-run oil company, he pledged to give it less financial support and make it more accountable. He called for a constituent assembly, and charged the country's past leaders and long-entrenched political organizations with selling the country's oil, gas, and mineral resources off to foreign investors. They alone profited from such deals, Chávez asserted, while the majority of ordinary Venezuelans did not. His speeches were sprinkled with quotes from Christ and Simón Bolívar, the hero of Venezuela's independence movement, but his opponents charged him with demagoguery. Chávez told Time International in November of 1998 that his foes were justified in smearing his name. "There's an offensive against us—painting me as Hitler or Mussolini, a crazed assassin," Chávez told reporters. "What they're really scared of is losing all that they're used to robbing from this country."

Chávez's supporters ranged from the poor to the left to the conservative business community in Caracas. He was called "El Comandante," and those who gathered for his political rallies often sported the trademark of his Fifth Republic Movement, a red parachutist's beret. In polling on December 6, 1998, he was elected with 56 percent of the vote to become the youngest president in Venezuelan history. He immediately began fulfilling his pledge to reform Venezuela entirely. In July of 1999, a constitutional assembly met and drastically reduced the powers of Congress. The assembly also began a process of judicial reform to rid the court system of corruption. Chávez also purged the Customs Service, and revenues at the country's major seaport, Puerto Cabello, doubled.

Chávez's promised new constitution was drafted and put to voters in a referendum on December 15, 1999. It was approved by 71 percent of voters. The changes were sweeping: Venezuela officially changed its name to the "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," stipends were granted for stay-at-home mothers, and university education became free. The power of Venezuela's political parties was also dramatically slashed. For this, Chávez was accused of decimating the country's democratic institutions, but he explained in an interview with Time that his goal was to bring "moral" as well as "electoral" power to Venezuelans. "Moral power is a restructuring of offices that already exist—the comptroller general and the prosecutor general," Chávez stated. "These institutions are supposed to be independent, but they're used for political purposes. They're appointed by Congress and serve as a shelter for corruption."

Re-Elected with Larger Majority

Venezuela's new constitution called for elections in 2000. Chávez won a sound 60 percent of the vote. He was a charismatic leader, and citizens regularly pressed "wish letters" into his hands during public appearances. Tales circulated that Chávez had interceded to help many in personal or financial crises. His weekly radio call-in program, Alo Presidente, offered him a chance to solve problems, dispense wisdom, and explain his government's policies.

At times, Chávez's foreign policy worried Washington, for the United States was dependent on Venezuelan oil and interested in maintaining good relations. Chávez spurned an offer of ships and Army Corps of Engineers personnel after 1999 floods killed several thousand, and he refused to allow anti-drug flights over Venezuelan territory. As Chávez told Newsweek 's Weymouth, "what would be the opinion of President Clinton if President Chávez asked for permission to conduct flights over Washington? We cannot violate our sovereignty." He also made visits to Iraq and its president, Saddam Hussein, as well as to Libya and to Cuba. He invited Castro for a state visit, where they played baseball for the press. The Chávez government was also accused of aiding leftist rebels in next-door Colombia. Interviewed by Maria Amparo Lasso for Newsweek International, Chávez stated his position clearly. "We do not have a relationship with the guerrillas," he told Lasso. "We decided not to continue the line of previous Venezuelan governments who declared that the guerrillas were the common enemy of Colombia and Venezuela. The guerrillas are not our enemy, unless they attack Venezuela, which has not occurred. What we've done is facilitate the paths for a dialogue to peace."

Since taking office, Chávez has been accused of displaying increasingly dictatorial behavior. In June of 2001, the El Pantaletazo, or "G-String" Scandal erupted. An anonymous mailing to 140 top Venezuelan military officers included women's undergarments and the taunt that they were not macho enough to stage a coup against Chávez. At other times, Chávez charged that Pérez, the former president, now living in Miami, was behind a conspiracy to unseat him.

Chávez provoked a minor diplomatic squabble in the fall of 2001, when he appeared on Venezuelan national television and displayed a photograph of slain Afghan women and children. He linked their deaths to the U.S.-led military effort launched that October. "We must find the terrorists," a report in NotiSur quoted him as saying. "But not like this…. Look at these children. These children were alive yesterday. They were eating with their parents and a bomb fell on them." The U.S. ambassador to Venezuela was recalled to Washington.

Significant Land Reform Law

Later that year, Chávez forced 49 economic decrees through the national assembly just before its special legislative powers were slated to expire. The most dramatic of them was a land reform program. Statistics indicated that 70 percent of Venezuela's fertile land was owned by just three percent of the population; moreover, only four percent of arable land was being farmed. In the new Ley de Tierras, unused land would be given to the landless poor. The Ley began with unused government land, but there were worries that private property would be confiscated as well. That and other economic reforms served to increase the emigration of middle-class Venezuelans, who had been relocating to Florida and Spain since Chávez first took office. Even the Vatican representative in Caracas complained, declaring that the Chávez government was becoming too radical.

There was also a mainstream reaction to Chávez's 49 reforms. The country experienced a widespread work stoppage and a series of bank closures on December 10th. Chávez then surprised many by stating he would consider changing some of his more controversial laws to maintain peace in the country. Despite the conciliatory remarks, his approval rating continued to plummet. He made an especial target of El Nacional, the independently-owned Caracas daily. Its offices were attacked by a rock-throwing mob of Chávez supporters in January of 2002. The president lost further ground after the incident, widely believed to have been staged by his government. Later that month he lost some of his support in the Asamblea Nacional, when members of the Fifth Republic Movement, irate with his policies, allied with the opposition.

In February of 2002, there were further hints that serious opposition was gathering inside the armed forces, and more than one high-ranking officer began to publicly call for Chávez's resignation. Protests took place in the streets of the capital, mimicking those in Argentina in recent weeks, with women banging pots and pans and denouncing government policies. "In a poor Caracas neighborhood, [Chávez] was greeted not with roses but with bitter protest—a sign that the loathing he inspires in the middle and upper classes had dangerously percolated into even the indigent areas that had once invested such hopes in his revolution," wrote Moser in Newsweek International. The New York Times stated that the Bush administration had received hints that a coup might be imminent, and an unnamed State Department source said the Venezuelan representative was warned not to subvert the democratic process in the country. A day before, a fourth high-ranking military officer called for Chavez to step down. "Remember that the people are above all else. And our loyalty is to the nation, not with a particular leader," Air Force General Román Gómez Ruiz was quoted as saying in the New York Times. "President Chávez, for the good of the country and for love of the armed forces, resign peacefully and take responsibility for your failure." But Chávez gave an interview to the French newspaper, Le Monde, and claimed the alleged dissatisfaction among the military was a publicity plot. "Venezuela has a government that was legitimately elected and enjoys popular support," the New York Times Chávez told the French paper. "I might even say that it enjoys more popular support than any other country in the American continent."

Chávez is still an avid baseball player and an occasional playwright as well. With his second wife, María Isabel Rodríguez, he has five children.

Sources

Periodicals

Current Leaders of Nations, Gale, 1999.

Periodicals

Business Week, December 13, 1999, p. 34; September 18, 2000, p. 66; May 28, 2001, p. 35.

Commonweal, October 23, 1998, p. 11; February 11, 2000, p. 11.

Cuba News, November 2000, p. 10.

Economist, December 12, 1998, p. 35; February 6, 1999, p. 33; June 5, 1999, p. 33; September 25, 1999, p. 38; February 5, 2000, p. 28; August 5, 2000, p. 35; November 18, 2000, p. 4; December 9, 2000, p. 4; January 20, 2001, p. 4; January 27, 2001, p. 1; March 24, 2001, p. 4; October 27, 2001; February 2, 2002; February 16, 2002.

Editor & Publisher, February 4, 2002, p. 28.

International Economy, May 2001, p. 28.

LatinFinance, July 2000, p. 46.

Latin Trade, November 1999, p. 22.

NACLA Report on the Americas, May 2000, p. 15.

New Republic, June 25, 2001, p. 16.

Newsweek, October 23, 2000 p. 45.

Newsweek International, September 13, 1999, p. 39; October 4, 1999, p. 50; October 4, 1999 p. 52; December 27, 1999, p. 23; February 28, 2000, p. 22; July 31, 2000, p. 21; February 5, 2001, p. 4; August 20, 2001, p. 52; November 12, 2001, p. 49; January 28, 2002, p. 29.

Oil Daily, July 27, 1999; November 30, 2000; January 10, 2001; February 26, 2001; December 11, 2001; February 20, 2002.

New York Times, February 26, 2002.

NotiSur: South American Political and Economic Affairs, September 14, 2001; November 9, 2001; January 18, 2002.

Time, October 9, 2000, p. 70.

Time International, November 23, 1998, p. 26; May 10, 1999, p. 19; August 9, 1999, p. 16; May 29, 2000, p. 26.

U.S. News & World Report, December 21, 1998, p. 40; June 11, 2001, p. 36.

On-line

http://www.mre.gov.ve/Chávezing.htm (February 25, 2002).

—Carol Brennan