Chávez, Hugo 1954-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his policies have sparked controversy at home, throughout the Latin American region, and in the United States. Whereas Chávez’s supporters value his social agenda, critics perceive him as ideological, intolerant, and impractical. Chávez, however, has stayed in power through democratic means and carries overwhelming support, despite large-scale attempts to remove him from office.

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was born in Sabaneta, Barinas, on July 28, 1954. He graduated from Venezuela’s Academy of Military Sciences with a degree in engineering in 1975. Chávez first gained national attention in 1992 when he led an unsuccessful military coup to oust President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Chávez and a group of fellow military officers had founded the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement ten years earlier; the group honored the nineteenth-century Venezuelan freedom fighter Simón Bolívar (1783-1830). Chávez sought to restore the Bolivarian ideas of national sovereignty, economic independence, and social services for the people. With these ideals, Chávez led the failed 1992 revolt, and was subsequently imprisoned for two years.

By 1994 Chávez had transformed from a “military rebel to a democratic player” (Canache 2002, p. 69). He founded the political party Movement of the Fifth Republic leading up to the 1998 presidential elections. His platform emphasized his desire to end corruption, return oil to state control, and eliminate poverty (Marcano and Tyszka 2004, p. 31). This platform earned him political victory in 1998 with 56 percent of the vote, in 2000 with 60.3 percent, and in 2006 with 63 percent (Canache 2002, p. 69; Marcano and Tyszka 2004, p. 31; Political Database of the Americas). Chávez’s popularity has grown since he shifted from the military to the political stage.

Chávez’s mass appeal remains debatable. Scholars and journalists attribute his success to his emphasis on the country’s poor through health and education programs (Canache 2002, p. 70; Fukuyama 2007, p. A18). Francis Fukuyama writes that Chávez maintains local appeal because of his social agenda, in which he “has opened clinics staffed with Cuban doctors in poor barrios throughout Venezuela” (2007, p. A18). The rise in oil prices on the world markets has allowed the government to increase social spending despite the country’s external debt (Guevara 2005, p. 36).

However, critics argue that the statistics contradict the myth. Francisco Rodríguez argues that social spending in Venezuela decreased from 31.5 percent prior to Chávez’s administration to 29.3 percent by 2004. The reduction of illiteracy dropped slightly, from 1.1 million before Chávez became president to 1.0 million illiterate Venezuelans over the age of fifteen during his tenure (Rodríguez 2007, p. 2). The percentage of poor families increased from 42 percent in 1999 to 60 percent in 2004, and unemployment levels reached 15 percent in both 1999 and 2004 (Marcano and Tyszka 2004, p. 390). Instead, Chávez’s popularity is based on the country’s double-digit economic growth, according to Rodriguez.

Chávez’s opponents have threatened his grasp on power. In April 2002 rebel military officers staged a failed coup, which some Venezuelan officials believe was backed by the U.S. government (Morsbach 2006). Tw o years later, the opposition conducted a failed recall referendum, in which 59 percent of Venezuelans voted to allow Chávez to complete the remainder of his term (BBC News 2004).

As of 2007, Venezuela’s economy remained stable while a large number of Venezuelans lived in deep poverty. Nevertheless, Chávez’s support surpassed that of his critics.

SEE ALSO Coup d’Etat; Left Wing; Nationalization; Petroleum Industry; Populism; Poverty; Social Movements; Socialism

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BBC News. 2004. Venezuela Ratifies Chavez Victory. August 27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3605772.stm.

Canache, Damarys. 2002. From Bullets to Ballots: The Emergence of Popular Support for Hugo Chávez. Latin American Politics and Society 44 (1): 69-90.

Fukuyama, Francis. 2007. Keeping Up With the Chávezes. Wall Street Journal, February 1: A17.

Guevara, Aleida. 2005. Chávez, Venezuela, and the New Latin America: An Interview with Hugo Chávez. New York: Ocean Press.

Marcano, Cristina, and Alberto Barrera Tyszka. 2004. Hugo Chávez sin uniforme: Una historia personal. Caracas, Venezuela: Grupo Editorial Random House Mondadori, S.A.

Morsbach, Greg. 2006. Venezuela Marks Coup Anniversary. BBC News, April 12. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4901718.stm.

Political Database of the Americas. Georgetown University, Center for Latin American Studies. http://pdba.georgetown.edu/.

Rodríguez, Francisco. 2007. Why Chávez Wins. Foreign Policy. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3685.

Sarita D. Jackson