]. In 1982 (according to other sources - while studying at the academy), Chavez founded with his colleagues the underground organization COMACATE (an abbreviation made up of the first and second letters in the names of middle and junior officer ranks),. Later, COMACATE was transformed into the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario), named after the hero of the Latin American war of independence Simon Bolivar (Simon Bolivar),,.
In February 1992, Lieutenant Colonel Chavez led a military coup against Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez (Carlos Andres Perez), unpopular due to high levels of corruption and government spending cuts,,. The uprising, during which 18 people died and 60 were injured, was crushed by the government,. Chavez surrendered to the authorities and was placed in a military prison,. In November 1992, Chavez's associates launched a new, again unsuccessful, coup attempt. Chavez spent two years in prison, in 1994 he was released under an amnesty,,,. He reorganized his supporters into the Movement of the Fifth Republic (Movimiento V Republica) and moved from armed struggle to legal political activity,.
In 1998 Chávez ran for president under the slogan of fighting corruption. At the time, he refrained from radical political rhetoric, and the reform program he proposed could not be called revolutionary. In the elections on December 6, 1998, Chavez won with 56.5 percent of the vote,,,,. The Chávez government's policies included a number of large-scale social programs, including the establishment of universal education and healthcare systems. The government established tight control over the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, whose profits were directed to the needs of society: the construction of hospitals and schools, the fight against illiteracy, the implementation of agrarian reform and others. Having thus won the support of the low-income majority of the population, Chavez proceeded to nationalize enterprises in various industries.
In 1999, a new Venezuelan constitution was adopted, which increased the presidential term from five to six years. In the presidential elections that followed on July 30, 2000, Chavez won 60 percent of the vote,,. In the subsequent period, Chavez's political course, called the "Bolivarian movement towards socialism", shifted to the left. The President made harsh statements against the "predatory oligarchs" - the leaders of the oil industry, as well as the hierarchs of the Catholic Church and opposition journalists. On the foreign policy front, Chavez took an anti-American stance. In 2001 he condemned military operation US in Afghanistan. According to the Venezuelan president, the Americans themselves used terrorist methods to fight terror. It is quite natural that in the attempt to overthrow Chavez in 2002, many, including the Venezuelan leader himself, blamed the United States,,.
On April 11, 2002, as a result of a coup d'état, Chavez was deprived of power, but on April 14 he returned to the presidency with the support of loyal army units and numerous supporters,,. Until April 14, the state was headed by Pedro Carmona Estanga. He dissolved parliament, suspended the work of the Attorney General and the Comptroller of State, and repealed legislation passed during the Chávez presidency that redistributed part of the national wealth in favor of the poor. The United States readily welcomed the coup "beneficial to the Venezuelan democracy." When Chavez returned to power, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice advised the Venezuelan president to learn from recent events. After 2002, the opposition tried to fight Chavez with constitutional methods. In 2004, opponents of the president won a referendum on confidence in the country's leadership. The majority of Venezuelans (more than 59 percent) then supported the president, and his power only strengthened,.
Anti-Americanism and anti-globalism have become calling card Chavez. Under his leadership, Venezuela began to claim leadership in the US opposition in the Western Hemisphere,,. According to press reports, the Venezuelan government provided assistance to Colombian guerrillas, spent considerable sums to help other Latin American states, opposed the creation of a free trade area of the Americas (FTAA, Free Trade Area of the Americas) ,,. Moreover, Chavez tried to win sympathy within the United States itself. His American opponents have argued that Venezuela is allocating funds to lobby its interests in Congress. On the territory of the States, groups of supporters of the Venezuelan president arose. Chavez agreed to supply heating oil at a reduced price for low-income areas in the north of the United States,,.
Chavez won sympathy all over the world with attacks against the USA . The Americans could not help but be outraged by the list of Chavez's foreign friends, with whom he called the "axis of goodness": Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Cuban President Fidel Castro,,. Venezuela has established particularly friendly relations with Cuba. Chavez sold energy resources to the island state at low prices and provided him with economic assistance. Castro responded by sending numerous Cuban specialists to Venezuela, in particular medical professionals, who were instrumental in implementing the social programs of the Chávez government.
On August 22, 2005, there was a scandalous incident related to the name of Chavez. On this day, American "television preacher" Pat Robertson publicly called on the US authorities to kill Chavez, who could turn Venezuela into a "springboard for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism" on the American continent,,. Although Chavez himself expressed indifference to the incident, other Venezuelan officials demanded that the US authorities hold Robertson to account. The representative of the American State Department said that Robertson, as a private person, has the right to any statements, while emphasizing that the official position of the United States does not correspond to the opinion of the preacher.
In July 2006, Chávez made a visit to Russia where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two countries entered into important agreements. First, an agreement was reached on the supply of Russian weapons and military aircraft to Venezuela. Secondly, a partnership was planned in the energy field: in particular, it was planned to develop new oil fields in Venezuela with the participation of the Russian company Lukoil,.
Chavez's speech at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in September 2006 was widely known: the Venezuelan leader called US President George W. Bush the devil and predicted the collapse of the "American empire",. During the 2006 election campaign, which Chavez led under the slogan "in the name of love" (por amor), he promised his "chief rival" Bush - "Mr. Devil" that "imperialist candidates will be pulverized", , .
Prior to the 2006 elections, Venezuelan society was divided. Chávez's supporters, who are the majority among Venezuelans and who mainly represent the low-income segments of the population, saw him as a leader defending the interests of the poor. Opponents of the president accused him of populism, a penchant for autocracy and attempts to imitate the communist regime of Cuba,,,,. Although Chavez's opponent, the governor of the oil-producing state of Zulia, Manuel Rosales, managed to rally the disparate opposition forces into a single whole,, in the December 3, 2006 elections, Chavez won,,,,,.
Even before the official announcement of the results of the vote, Rosales admitted defeat, and Chavez began to celebrate the victory, which he dedicated to his friend Castro, and proclaimed the beginning of a new era of socialist revolution, , , , , . Before the election, Chavez announced plans to amend the Venezuelan constitution, allowing the president to be re-elected an unlimited number of times,,,. Taking the presidential oath on January 10, 2007, Chavez promised to carry out intensive socialist transformations in Venezuela, including the nationalization of the largest energy and telecommunications companies,.
Later, in January 2007, Parliament granted Chávez expanded powers for a period of one and a half years. The president got the opportunity to govern the country with the help of decrees, bypassing the legislature. In February, the promised nationalization of corporations in key industries began. Venezuela bought the assets of the largest energy company Electricidad de Caracas (EDC) from the American AES Corporation. An agreement was made to buy shares in the telecommunications giant CANTV, owned by American Verizon Communications.
On May 1, 2007, Chavez announced the suspension of Venezuela's cooperation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The president called the reason for this step the desire to distance himself from international institutions controlled by the United States. At the end of June, the Venezuelan leader again visited Russia. Like the previous time, the main topics of the visit were the purchase of Russian weapons by Venezuela and cooperation between the two countries in the oil and gas industry,.
In July 2007, Chavez announced his intention to submit a bill to parliament allowing the President of Venezuela to be re-elected an unlimited number of times. Chavez explained that citizens should not be deprived of the right to choose the leader they like as many times as they want.
On December 2, 2007, the citizens of Venezuela did not support the constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez,. A total of 69 amendments were submitted to the referendum: in addition to abolishing the limitation on the number of presidential terms, it was supposed, for example, to increase the term of office of the head of state from six to seven years, abolish the autonomy of the Central Bank of Venezuela, give voting rights to sixteen-year-old citizens and introduce a six-hour working day. At the same time, Chavez initiated only 33 amendments, united in block "A", while the other 36 amendments, united in block "B", were proposed by the parliament. According to the results of the referendum, the first block of reforms was supported by only 49.3 percent of voters, and the second - by 48.9 percent; respectively, 50.7 and 51.1 percent of voters voted against, .
Despite losing the referendum, Chavez continued to consolidate power. Back in 2006, he announced the creation of a new party, which, along with the Movement of the Fifth Republic led by Chavez, was to include other parties supporting the "Bolivarian movement towards socialism." The first congress of the new party, called the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) was held in January-March 2008. The new political organization was headed by Chavez himself, calling it the "party of social struggle and defense of the fatherland",.
In February 2008, after the declaration of Kosovo's independence, Chavez announced that he would not recognize the sovereignty of this republic, adding that such steps were aimed at weakening Russia, destabilizing the region and creating a number of dangerous precedents. According to Chavez, the US also instigated riots in Tibet to tarnish the PRC's image on the eve of the Olympics.
In June 2008, after the operation of the Colombian military against the guerrilla organization Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Chavez invited the leaders of the FARC to release the hostages and lay down their arms.
Chavez was also on the side of Russia during the conflict in South Ossetia in August 2008 (subsequently, this conflict was referred to in the media as the "five-day war"). Chavez said that he supported Russia's recognition of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, approved on August 26 by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but did not say whether Venezuela was going to recognize the independence of the republics. Chavez also accused the United States of escalating the conflict.
In January 2009, in response to Israel's armed operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador from the country, while Chavez called the Israelis' actions aggression and announced a severance of diplomatic relations with Israel. Bolivia has also taken similar steps. In response, Israel expelled the Venezuelan embassy from the country.
In early 2009, Chavez announced that he intended to write a column, "Chavez's Lines," in a number of Venezuelan newspapers, the first of which was devoted to Chavez's favorite sport, baseball. According to experts, Chavez decided to take up journalism, imitating Fidel Castro.
In January 2009, it became known that a referendum was scheduled for February 15 of the same year on the abolition of the limit on the number of terms in office for the President of Venezuela and other elected positions. A similar proposal failed in a referendum in 2007, but this time the proposal to change the constitution was supported by 55 percent of the voters, thereby earning Chavez the right to run for a third six-year term in the next presidential election in 2012. It is noteworthy that representatives of the US State Department stated that the referendum in Venezuela satisfied all democratic norms,,,.
On September 10, 2009, during an official visit to Russia, Chavez announced that Venezuela would recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In response, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said that Chavez is a marginal and his statement will not have any consequences. On September 15, 2009, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry handed over a government note on the official recognition of the sovereignty of Abkhazia.
In 2009, El Niño caused a drought in Venezuela, which led to a critical drop in the water level in hydroelectric reservoirs, which generate about 75 percent of the country's electricity. Because of this, cases of power outages have become more frequent in Venezuelan cities, and the subway in Caracas was working intermittently. As a response, Chavez demanded that the inhabitants of the country save electricity: in particular, he suggested not playing football at night, washing cold water shower for no more than three minutes and do not use air conditioners. However, according to critics, the reason for the interruptions in the supply of electricity was the nationalization of the country's energy complex, since the Chavez government did not take measures to modernize it,,. In February 2010, Chavez announced an "electrical crisis" due to power outages and called on the public and businesses to reduce electricity consumption under the threat of sanctions and tariff increases. In January 2011, Chavez announced that he had overcome the crisis, however, even after that, the media wrote about problems with the supply of electricity in the country,.
In June 2011, Chavez underwent surgery in one of the Cuban clinics,. On June 30, the president admitted that during the operation he had a cancerous tumor removed,. In mid-July of the same year, Chavez again went to Cuba to undergo chemotherapy. Before treatment, he transferred part of his powers to the vice-president of the country, Elias Jaua (Elias Jaua) and the Minister of Finance, Jorge Giordani (Jorge Giordani),.
After completing the treatment course, in August 2011, Chavez announced the nationalization of the gold mining industry in Venezuela: before his decree, the largest company operating in this sector in the country was the Canadian company with Russian capital Rusoro Mining,. In December 2011, her representatives revealed that she had not been approached by the Venezuelan government with proposals for a joint venture or compensation, and promised to file a complaint with international arbitration. In addition, in August 2011, Chavez announced the return to the country of the gold reserve, which was kept in banks in Europe and the United States (the main part - in the UK). In total, it was reported that the Central Bank of Venezuela intended to repatriate from 160 to 218 tons of gold, and place part of the gold and foreign exchange reserves in banks in China, Russia and Brazil,,.
Meanwhile, the course of treatment that Chavez underwent in the summer of 2011 was not enough: in February 2012, doctors in Cuba performed another operation on him to remove the tumor.
On June 11, 2012, Chávez registered as a candidate for the upcoming October 7, 2012 presidential elections in Venezuela, his main rival was the single opposition candidate, former Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles. On the eve of Chavez announced his full recovery. "Over the past few days here in Venezuela, I have had a CT scan, magnetic resonance imaging, and all the results are absolutely normal after the operation and courses of radiation therapy," RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
In the Venezuelan presidential elections held on October 7, 2012, Chávez was re-elected for a new six-year term with 54.4 percent of the vote. Capriles was supported by 44.9 percent of those who voted in the country.
Chavez has been married twice. With his first wife, Nancy Colmenares (Nancy Colmenares), he divorced in 1992, after which he began to live with his mistress - Erma Marksman (Herma Marksman). His second wife was journalist Marisabel Rodríguez Oropeza. Marizabel helped Chavez create the 1999 constitution, but she filed for divorce in 2002 and denounced the reforms being implemented in 2007. ex-husband. Chavez has three children from his first marriage: Rosa Virginia (Rosa Virginia), Maria Gabriela (Maria Gabriela) and Hugo Rafael (Hugo Rafael) and one daughter from the second - Rosines (Rosines).
Used materials
Ewan Robertson. Chavez Wins Venezuelan Presidential Election with 54% of the Vote. - Venezuelanalysis.com, 07.10.2012
Hugo Chavez registers for Venezuela's election. - BBC News, 11.06.2012
Dmitry Znamensky. Chavez announced his recovery a year after the first operation. - RIA News, 10.06.2012
Andrew Cawthorne. Ignore rumors, Venezuela says in Chavez cancer saga. - Reuters, 29.02.2012
Daniel Cancel. Rusoro May Turn to Arbitration to Resolve Venezuela Gold Mining Dispute. - Bloomberg, 17.12.2011
Venezuela Begins Return of Gold Reserves from Abroad to Central Bank. - Venezuelanalysis.com, 02.12.2011
Chavez repatriates Venezuela's foreign gold reserves. - BBC News, 26.11.2011
Roman Asankin, Seda Yeghikyan. Hugo Chavez nationalizes everything that glitters. - Kommersant, 19.08.2011. - № 153 (4694)
Chávez to nationalize the Venezuelan gold industry. - Reuters, 18.08.2011
Comandante Chavez delega al vicepresidente Elias Jaua para ejecutar un conjunto de funciones. - Venezolana de Television, 16.07.2011
Hugo Chavez delegates duties ahead of new therapy. - San Francisco Chronicle, 16.07.2011
Fernando Garcia. Chavez tiene cancer. - La vanguardia, 01.07.2011
Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born on July 28, 1954 in Sabaneta, Venezuela, in a family of teachers. Before becoming known for his reform attempts and hard-liners as President of Venezuela (1999-2013).
Chávez attended the Venezuelan Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1975 with a degree in military arts and science. Then he went to serve in the airborne troops.
In 1992, Chávez, along with other disaffected military personnel, attempted to overthrow the rule of Carlos Andrés Pérez. The coup attempt failed, and Chavez subsequently spent two years in prison, but was eventually pardoned. After his release, he created the Fifth Republic Movement, a revolutionary political party. Chavez ran for president in 1998 campaigning against government corruption and promising economic reforms.
President of Venezuela
After coming to power in 1999, Chávez decided to change the Venezuelan constitution, amending the powers of Congress and judicial system. As part of the new constitution, the country's name was changed to "Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela".
As president, Chavez faced challenges both at home and abroad. His attempts to increase his influence with the state oil company in 2002 sparked controversy and led to protests, which led to the military leaders in 2002 to temporarily remove him from power. The protests continued after his return to power, as a result, a referendum was held, where it was decided whether to keep Chavez in office. In August 2004, a vote was taken in a referendum and a majority vote decided to keep him as president.
Hostile relations with the US
Throughout his reign, Chavez was known as a straightforward and categorical person, he did not hold back much when expressing his opinion or criticism. He insulted oil executives, church officials and other world leaders, and was especially hostile to the US government, which he believed was involved in the failed 2002 coup. Chavez was against the war in Iraq, saying that the United States, having launched military operations, is abusing its powers. He also called President George Walker Bush a vile imperialist.
Relations between the US and Venezuela have been strained for some time. Since taking office, Chavez has been selling oil to Cuba - a long-time US adversary - and has spoken out against US plans to end drug trafficking in Colombia. He also helped partisan troops in neighboring countries. In addition, during his reign, Chavez threatened the United States with a halt in oil supplies if there was another attempt to remove him from power. However, he donated household fuel to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which destroyed many fuel refineries.
The international cooperation
Regardless of Venezuela's relationship with the US, when Chavez was president, he effectively used his country's oil resources to build relationships with other countries, including China and Angola. In 2006, he helped create the Bolivarian Alliance for America, a socialist free foreign trade organization united by Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, and Evo Moralis, President of Bolivia. Chavez was also an active member of the Non-Aligned Movement, which included more than 100 countries, including Cuba, Iran and a number of African countries.
Ill health and death
Chavez was diagnosed with cancer in June 2011 after surgery to remove a pelvic abscess, and from 2011 to early 2012 he underwent three surgeries to remove cancerous tumors.
Prior to his third operation, in February 2012, Chávez acknowledged the severity of his condition and that he might no longer be able to continue serving the country as president, and he subsequently named Venezuelan Vice President Nicolás Maduro as his successor. Due to deteriorating health, Chavez was not allowed to attend the official inauguration ceremony for a fourth term in January 2013.
After his years of battle with cancer, Hugo Chavez died in Venezuela on March 5, 2013 at the age of 58. He is survived by his wife, Maria Isabel Rodriguez, and five children: Rosines, Maria Gabriella, Rosa Virginia, Raul Alfonso and Hugo Rafael. Two days after Chávez's death, Vice President Maduro announced that Chávez's body would be embalmed and in a glass tomb permanently displayed in a museum in Caracas currently under construction. It is located near the palace where Chávez ruled for more than a decade and was named el Museo Histórico Militar de Caracas (Russian Museum of the Revolution in Caracas).
The magazine "Vlast" and the radio station "Echo of Moscow" continue the joint project "Authorities". This time we will talk about one of the most eccentric politicians in the world - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
On Sunday, presidential elections were held in Venezuela, on the eve of which all opinion polls predicted an unconditional victory for incumbent President Hugo Chavez. For example, a survey by the American Research Agency public opinion Zogby International showed that 60% of the country's citizens are going to vote for the current president of Venezuela. The president's rival, head of the oil-rich state of Zulia Manuel Rosales, trailed him by 29% of the vote.
Hugo Chavez was also absolutely sure of victory. At meetings with voters, he did not hide the fact that he did not consider Manuel Rosales a competitor, and in his speeches he criticized not him, but American hegemony. "We resist the devil, and we will defeat him. On December 3, we will knock out the most powerful empire on the planet," the Venezuelan leader said.
For election speeches, Hugo Chavez chose large squares where hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans gathered to listen to the president. Those who have heard Chavez speak say that he is an excellent orator with a sense of humor. “He speaks perfectly without a piece of paper, he can keep the audience in suspense for a long time,” says the author of books about Hugo Chavez, a leading researcher at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Emil Dabayan. “And he speaks differently with different listeners. ordinary people he uses slang that only people on the street can understand. If he speaks in an audience where educated people sit, he operates with philosophical concepts, demonstrates knowledge of history. He is a very temperamental, groovy person. "Therefore, it is not surprising that the Venezuelan president acts irresistibly on impressionable people. "The meeting with Chavez made a very strong impression on all of us," says Yulia Barkova, a member of the Russian folk ensemble Grenada, who performed in front of the President of Venezuela during his visits to Moscow. - To follow his thoughts is simply amazing. You are amazed at his erudition, how he feels the audience, how vividly and interestingly he speaks."
Hugo Chavez is not just a good speaker - he puts on real performances. Recently, during a two-hour performance in front of several thousand of his supporters, Chavez made them dance salsa, sing songs, and then held a competition to see who would clap the loudest. After ten minutes of thunderous applause, the leader of Venezuela suddenly interrupted the fun: "Whoever breaks the silence first, that donkey." Then he was the first to laugh out loud at his own witty joke.
The public also remembered the speech of the President of Venezuela at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Coming to the podium, Hugo Chavez made several energetic movements with his nose, as if he smelled an unpleasant smell, after which he said that he smelled the devil: the day before, US President George W. Bush spoke on the same podium. For those who didn't get the hint, Hugo Chavez clarified: "Yesterday's speech by Bush is a script for Hitchcock. I can even give it a title - The Devil's Recipe. Everywhere he looks, he sees extremists everywhere. It's not about that we are extremists, but that the world is waking up, the world is rising from its knees!"
A man with a biography of Hugo Chavez had virtually no chance of becoming president of a Latin American country. Traditionally, representatives of national elites are in power in Latin America. And Hugo Chavez was born into a poor family in 1954. His parents Hugo de Los Reyes Chavez and Elena Fries are rural teachers who lived in the town of Sabaneta in the southeast of the country. In addition, among the ancestors of Hugo Chavez were Indians and Africans. In Venezuela, these are called "indeos" and are contrasted with representatives of the elite with lighter skin.
But Hugo always believed that he would become a hero of Venezuela, like his famous great-grandfather, General Pedro Pérez Delgado, nicknamed Maisanta, who became famous for raising a rebellion against the dictator Juan Vicente Gomez in 1914. Hugo and his friends often arranged forays into places heroic battles trying to find shell casings lost in the sands.
After graduating from school, Hugo decided to become a military man and entered military academy, which he graduated in 1975 with the rank of second lieutenant. Rapidly advancing in the service, in 15 years he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. During his service, Hugo Chavez became seriously interested in baseball and began to dream of a career as a professional player. In 1969, as part of the Criollitos de Venezuela team, he even participated in the national baseball championship.
Revolutionary
At the same time, the energetic officer Chavez was actively involved in secret activities. Not only comrades knew about this, but also military counterintelligence. In the late 1970s, a secret organization was created in the army, the core of which was Chavez's colleagues from the military academy. "A trip in 1974 as part of a group of cadets to Peru to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho, which brought a decisive victory for the patriots over the Spanish colonialists in the war for the independence of South America, made an indelible impression on Chavez," said Emil Dabayan. "This example inspired the future president The most important milestone in his self-identification was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Simon Bolivar, which was widely and solemnly celebrated both in Venezuela and far beyond its borders in 1983. This stimulated the military to more in-depth study of the history of the creative activity of the national hero of Venezuela, Simon Bolivar, his views, worldview, ideological and political heritage. They were more and more inclined to believe that, despite a significant time distance, many of the precepts of the liberator - as Bolivar is called in Venezuela - have not lost their relevance, that they are quite applicable in modern conditions. "
On February 3, 1992, tanks appeared on the central streets of Caracas and other cities of the country. The rebels marched with eight battalions in four cities, including Caracas and Maracaibo. The reason for the speech was the riots that took place shortly before on the outskirts of Caracas and other large cities: the poor people were driven to despair by the policies of President Carlos Andres Perez, who introduced a liberal economic model in the country. One of the leaders of the rebels was Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez. The coup attempt ended in failure. On the afternoon of February 4, Hugo Chavez surrendered to the authorities, calling on his supporters to lay down their arms. At the moment of the arrest, which was broadcast live, Chavez said that he and his comrades had not succeeded in achieving their goal this time and that they wanted to avoid senseless bloodshed. "But this does not mean the end of the struggle. The struggle will continue," Chavez promised.
Chavez spent the next two years in prison. Upon learning of her husband's arrest, Hugo Chavez left his first wife, Nancy Colmenares, with whom Chavez lived for 18 years. They had three children: two girls and a boy. "Hugo Chavez is a man whom difficulties only make stronger," says Ernest Sultanov, who worked as a correspondent for the Kommersant publishing house in Caracas in 2003-2004 and met with the Venezuelan president on several occasions.
Chavez did not lose heart. And two years later, the next president of Venezuela forgave him and released him from prison. During this time, Chavez's associates revised the tactics of fighting the objectionable regime and created a legal political party"Movement" Fifth Republic "". The charismatic Hugo Chavez quickly became the leader of the party. In the 1998 presidential election, Chavez put forward his candidacy under the slogan of fighting corruption. During the election campaign, he was accompanied by his second wife, Marisabel Rodriguez de Chavez.
The president
Having come to power, Chavez first changed the constitution - in 1999 a new constitution was approved in a referendum. Since 2000, in honor of Simon Bolivar, the country has become known as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. But most importantly, the president received the right to be in power not for five, but for six years, as well as the opportunity to be elected for a second term.
In 2000, Chávez again won the presidential elections, which were held in accordance with the new constitution, which allowed him to remain in power until January 2007 and run for office in 2006.
The president's troubles began when he tried to take control oil industry Venezuela. In 2001, Chavez announced the nationalization of the main oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), and fired all members of the board of directors, replacing them with his fellow former military.
In December 2001, the oil tycoons and labor unions spoke openly against the president for the first time. The first general strike ended in nothing, but soon part of the army joined the opposition. The demonstration ended with a coup - Hugo Chavez was overthrown and sent to the island of Archila, and Pedro Carmona was declared interim president. When this information began to reach the barracks and garrisons of the country, the military, loyal to the president, declared their disobedience to the self-appointed government and demanded the immediate restoration of the constitution and the return of Hugo Chavez. Then hundreds of thousands of chavistas took to the streets and the junta fell after only three days.
It was the poor strata of the population who became the main support of Chavez. "The migrants who moved from the village to the city did not adapt well, they lived in cardboard houses, which were located in Caracas even in the city center. And this population became the backbone of the new regime, its support predetermined both the first victory in the elections and the second," Emil Dabayan says.
"First Lady of Cuba"
"First Lady of Cuba" is what members of the Venezuelan opposition call Hugo Chavez. This is an allusion to Chavez's close friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro. Recently, a scandal erupted in Venezuela due to the publication of the book "Tango for Two", on the cover of which Hugo Chavez was depicted circling in a dance with Fidel Castro. Fidel is Chavez's godfather. It was Fidel's support and influence that helped Chavez gain recognition in Latin America at the time. "Chavez was in Cuba in 1994 at the invitation of Fidel Castro. And we must pay tribute to this: Fidel Castro invited an unknown rebellious lieutenant colonel, saw in him a future political figure. Since then, the friendship between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez began, which continues to this day day," says Emil Dabayan. After gaining recognition in Latin America, Chávez in 2006 made Venezuela a member of Mercosur, the Latin American common market that includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Chavez is clearly aiming to become the heirs of Fidel Castro, the permanent leader of the socialist revolution and the main enemy of the United States in Latin America. Like relatives who want to inherit, sit for days at the bedside of a dying rich uncle, Hugo Chavez almost every month visits the President of Cuba, who underwent a serious operation on July 31, 2006. It is Chavez who notifies the world about the state of health of the Comandante: "Fidel feels better", "He walks more than he lies in bed", "Fidel is at the stage of full recovery." And the photograph of Chavez in a red shirt next to Fidel Castro lying on high pillows, which has spread all over the world, should leave no doubt who is the most faithful follower of the leader of the Cuban revolution.
Calling Chavez the "First Lady of Cuba," the Venezuelan opposition is right also because their president influences the Cuban economy: Venezuela is the main supplier of oil to Cuba.
When Fidel Castro is gone, Chavez expects to become the informal leader of all of Latin America. But unlike the Cuban leader, who, due to the poverty of his country, could only influence the mood in Latin America with the help of ideology, Hugo Chavez has great financial resources. Hugo Chavez is the main supplier of weapons to the revolutionaries on the continent. The Colombian rebels, who have been fighting the government for 30 years, are receiving weapons from the Chavez regime, according to the US.
The President of Venezuela is constantly increasing arms purchases. Last year, Venezuela signed a $3 billion contract with Russia. "We must protect every street, every hillock, every corner of our country from the threat of an American military invasion," Hugo Chavez convinces the Venezuelans. And, surprisingly, Venezuelans still believe him.
NARGIZ ASADOV
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That's what Hugo Chavez said
About Russia:"We are happy that we are following the same path with Russia - the path of economic growth. I am determined to continue strengthening relations with Russia. This comes from my soul, from my heart, from the vision of the world, which I think you and I share." About US President George W. Bush:"What do you call him? Is that cowboy John Wayne? He walks like John Wayne. Bush has no idea about politics, he only became president because of his daddy. The US should choose a president that you can really talk to and work with. Bush was an alcoholic , your president is an alcoholic, it's hard for me to say this, but it's true. He is a sick man with a lot of complexes." On friendship with Iran:"We pray to Allah not to start a war against Iran. We believe that the struggle of the Iranian people is our struggle, and we ask everyone to respect the independence of Iran. We are on the side of the Iranian people and we pray for President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad." About oil:"Venezuela has a trump card - oil. And we will play it in the geopolitical space. First of all, we will use our trump card against the United States. And we will do it openly and publicly." |
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That's what they said about Hugo Chavez
Russian President Vladimir Putin:"Mr. Chavez belongs to a new generation of Latin American politicians - politicians who accurately, clearly and very concretely understand and consistently defend the national interests of their states." US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:"Hugo Chavez has a lot of petrodollars. Like Adolf Hitler, he came to power legally and then usurped it. And now Chavez is working closely with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Bolivian leader Evo Morales and others. This worries me a lot." President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko:"Hugo Chavez is very educated, intelligent and strong man. Probably, he aspires to become the leader of Latin America. Hugo Chavez deserves it: he is an extraordinary person, not at all the way Western media portray him." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:"Hugo Chavez is an outstanding leader and inspirer of the revolutionary movement in South America. He is making a huge contribution to the cause of exposing imperialism. I can directly say that he is my brother and, God forbid, a comrade-in-arms. Hugo Chavez is a brother of the entire Iranian people and in general a brother all who seek freedom." |
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died. He was 58 years old. The death was announced by Vice President Nicolas Maduro. The flag was flown at half mast near the building of the military hospital in Caracas, where the Venezuelan leader was treated for the last two weeks before the death of the country.
The last lifetime and now historical footage: on December 10, 2012, the President of Venezuela flies to Cuba. Hugo Chavez in a tracksuit, smiling, clapping a guardsman on the shoulder, clenching his hand into a powerful fist firmly and characteristically in Latin American style, says: "We will win" and "Long live Venezuela."
Venezuelans believed that misfortune - an aggressive cancerous tumor - would again yield to Hugo's inner strength, as they believed last summer, when, after three operations, he declared that for the sake of his people he had conquered death. Already in the fall, Chavez again confidently won the presidential election.
Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias could become a priest - such was the will of his parents, poor rural teachers. But one day the boy had a fight with the holy father and was expelled from the church. He could be a baseball player - Chavez dreamed about it himself. Already as president of the country, he began every weekly newspaper column with baseball. However, even as a young man, Hugo decided that a military uniform suits him much more. The red one takes the paratrooper, as well as the fist raised above the head until the last days were an integral attribute of the unique image of Hugo Chavez.
The main dream of Hugo Chavez is hardly destined to come true. Being devoted to the cause of Simon Bolivar, who brought Venezuela freedom from the Spanish colonists, he preached Bolivarianism - the idea of uniting Latin America into one country. But in our time, it was this idealist and romantic who split off not only Venezuela, but also a good part of the continent from the seemingly eternal protectorate of the United States. American preacher Pat Robertson called: "We must kill Hugo Chavez. It's cheaper than starting a war. He is a dangerous enemy."
They used to call him an irreconcilable fighter against the USA, but in reality he simply responded with dignity to imperial attacks and criticized those who resignedly carried out the directives of the State Department. So he spoke about US President George W. Bush from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly: "The devil was here, yesterday he stood in this very place. It still smells of sulfur. The US President is the devil in the flesh. He teaches us to live, speaks with us like the master of the world. He needs a psychiatrist. He wants world domination and teaches us how to behave. This is more serious than Hitchcock films. I came up with the name - "The Devil's Cookbook."
Like many in Latin America, he began his ascent with a coup: on February 4, 1992, Lieutenant Colonel Chavez, with a thousand soldiers, tried to seize power, but failed. He will return to politics after two years in prison and in 1998 he will win his first presidential election, promising radical changes to Venezuela, which was impoverished at that time.
In 2002, he almost overthrew himself. Dissatisfied with the nationalization of oil enterprises, US-incited liberals kidnapped Chávez and occupied the Miraflores presidential palace. But only for two days. The slum dwellers rebelled against the new government, those whose lives the deposed president tried to change with the help of oil revenues redirected to the Venezuelan treasury.
Before Chavez, half of Venezuelans lived below the poverty line, now there are also many - 30 percent. But the days when the newspapers wrote about how to eat dog food correctly, and there was such a thing, are long gone. Into breeze-blown slums held cable cars, kindergartens and schools appeared there. Recently, the UN recognized that illiteracy in the country has been eliminated, in every village there is a merkal - a store with fixed prices and a doctor, most often a Cuban. Hugo Chavez's best friends, the brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, sent 30,000 doctors to Venezuela.
Hugo Chavez was flattered by the nickname "Red Rebel". He could talk endlessly about the future of Venezuela, and once hosted his own television show, Hello President, for eight hours and six minutes non-stop, with only the distraction to take a sip of coffee. And he drank 17 cups of coffee a day.
Chavez's curiosity is legendary. He scrupulously studied how Belarusian tractors work, how Russian military planes and helicopters are arranged, spent a long time at construction sites in Caracas, where engineers from Moscow are building entire blocks for Venezuelans.
Hugo Chavez is not a typical politician. He openly admitted mistakes, sincerely repented to the people if something did not work out, wrote poetry, and painted excellently. The gene responsible for fear was completely absent.
His criticism could not stand even the monarchs. So, in 2007, King Juan Carlos of Spain flared up at an Ibero-American meeting. "Why don't you shut up," - in front of everyone, irritably, turning to you, he shouted to Hugo Chavez. The President of Venezuela only smirked at this.
The disease overtook the "Red Rebel" a year and a half ago, and since then American newspapers have written dozens of times that Hugo Chavez has died. But after each operation in Cuba, he returned to Miraflores and even went on the radio from the hospital ward.
The last operation lasted six hours and was unsuccessful - a fatal infection got into the lungs. The Venezuelan leader's heart stopped. He seemed to have a presentiment of death: he managed to appoint a successor. Chavez always hoped that the Bolivarian Revolution would outlive him.
Career
- In 1975 he graduated from the Military Academy of Venezuela with the rank of second lieutenant. Served in the airborne units.
- In 1982, Chavez founded the underground organization COMACATE with colleagues, which was later transformed into the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement (Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario).
- On February 4, 1992, army columns under the command of Hugo Chavez took to the streets of the capital Caracas. More than a hundred officers and almost a thousand soldiers took part in the conspiracy. The High Command announced its support for the president and ordered the suppression of the rebellion. Already at noon on February 4, Hugo Chavez surrendered to the authorities, called on his supporters to lay down their arms and took full responsibility for organizing this operation. Chavez and a number of his supporters ended up in jail.
- After 2 years, in 1994, Chavez was pardoned by President Rafael Caldera. Immediately after his release, he created the "Movement V Republic".
- In the November 1998 parliamentary elections, the Patriotic Pole coalition that supported Hugo Chavez and was led by the Fifth Republic Movement won about 34% of the vote and won 76 out of 189 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 17 out of 48 seats in the Senate. Chavez won the 1998 presidential election with over 55% of the vote.
Hobbies of Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chavez wrote poems and stories, and from childhood he was fond of painting. At the end of 2007, Chávez published a songbook containing popular Venezuelan and Mexican songs sung by the president.
