(Hugo Chávez Frías; Sabaneta de Barinas, 1954 - Caracas, 2013) Venezuelan military and politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. The influence of this politician often accused of being a populist transcended the borders of his country by fostering the emergence in Latin America of a new batch of left-wing leaders, opposed like him to economic neoliberalism and US interference and concerned about the most disadvantaged classes and indigenous minorities.
Biography
Hugo Chávez attended primary and secondary school in Sabaneta and higher education at the Venezuelan Military Academy, where he obtained the rank of Second Lieutenant in 1975. He also graduated in Military Sciences and Arts, Engineering branch, mention in Terrestrial. He held various positions in the Venezuelan Armed Forces, the last of which was commander of the Colonel Antonio Nicolás Briceño Parachute Battalion (1991-1992). In December 1982 he created, with two other Army captains, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement-200, of nationalist and leftist orientation.
In 1989 the then president of Venezuela, Carlos Andrés Pérez, applied a shock plan with neoliberal measures under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to face the serious economic and financial crisis affecting the country in those years. The popular classes of Caracas mobilized massively against the government's plan, in a movement known as Caracazo. The President ordered the army to repress the demonstrations, which provoked strong discontent within the Armed Forces.
In 1992, Hugo Chavez led as military commander a coup attempt to overthrow the government of Carlos Andres Perez. In spite of being favorably received by part of the population, the coup failed and Chávez was arrested, tried and sentenced to two years of imprisonment in Yare prison (1992-1994). }
From the army to politics
In May 1993, the Parliament dismissed President Carlos Andres Perez, accused of embezzlement of public funds. Fulfilling his electoral promise, in 1994, the new President, Rafael Caldera, agreed the dismissal of the process opened against Chávez. After being released, Chávez left the army and entered fully into the political struggle; he founded the V Republic Movement (MVR) and began to travel around the country explaining his proposals.
Chávez based his speech on the denunciation of the corruption of the system and of the main political parties. Three percent of Venezuela's population was upper class, 17 percent was middle class and the remaining 80 percent was destitute or marginalized.
His opponents accused him of populism and of selling rhetorical hopes empty of real content, but this would only accentuate Chavez's tendency to present a society divided into two sides, the people on one side and the "decadent oligarchy" on the other, and to confront without avoiding tension with the media, aligned in part with the opposition, and with one of the main institutions of the country, the Church.
In the presidency
At the head of the V Republic Movement and with the support of several leftist parties, Chavez presented his candidacy to the presidential elections of December 6, 1998 and was elected with 56.2% of the votes, winning over the consensus candidate of the traditional parties (COPEI and Accion Democratica). Following his program, the new president promoted the election of a Constituent Assembly in charge of drafting a new constitutional text, which would later be approved in a referendum. After the approval of the new constitution in 1999, in July 2000 Chavez was reelected President of Venezuela for the 2000-2006 period with a wide margin over his adversaries.
Two years later, on April 11, 2002, the Chávez government was the object of a failed civilian-military coup that elevated Pedro Carmona, the president of the employers' association Fedecámaras, to the presidency. Imprisoned for two days in the Orchila Island, Hugo Chavez was reinstated thanks to the action of fractions of the National Army and his supporters, and the country returned to constitutional order. The opposition organized new demonstrations that led to a general strike between December 2002 and February 2003. Conflicts with the opposition did not cease, and in August 2004, Chavez faced a recall referendum of his presidential mandate, from which he emerged strengthened by obtaining 59% of the votes, and which enabled him to govern until the end of his term. Two months later, Chávez's party achieved a resounding triumph in Venezuela's regional and local elections.
In view of the possibility of a presidential replacement offered by the elections at the end of 2006, the opposition was able to gather wills and unite around a single candidate, the social democrat Manuel Rosales. The elections were held on December 3 in a climate of total normality and with a participation of 70% of the electorate; Venezuelans once again gave their approval to Chavez, who became President for the third time for the 2007-2013 period after obtaining 63% of the votes.
During his third term, he advanced in the proposal to deepen the called "socialism of the XXI century", for which, among other decisions, he extended the nationalization process of numerous service companies. Presidential reelection was one of the hottest issues among those exposed to political debate during 2007. In November of that year, the Venezuelan parliament approved a controversial constitutional reform bill which contemplated, among other aspects, the elimination of the autonomy of the Central Bank, the reduction of the working day to six hours and the creation of the presidency for life of the Republic. The project was submitted to a popular referendum on December 2 and the results showed a majority opposition to it.
After the defeat, Hugo Chávez maintained his intention of submitting again to popular consultation a constitutional reform that would allow him to remain in power. Thus, supporters and opponents of the same confronted each other in an intense electoral campaign which, in spite of the radical polarization in which Venezuelan society was immersed, was carried out normally and without violence. On February 15, 2009, the new electoral appointment took place, which with 54% of the votes approved the unrestricted nature of the number of presidential reelections.
The presidential elections were held on October 7, and in them only two figures had a chance of victory: the incumbent President Hugo Chávez, candidate of the Gran Polo Patriótico; and Henrique Capriles, representative of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, a coalition around which almost all the opposition to Chavism was agglutinated. The ballot boxes once again confirmed Chávez in power.
The key to what would be Chavez's last reelection (for the 2013-2019 term) was the social achievements of his government, as reflected in the drastic reduction of illiteracy, the increase of university students from popular social backgrounds, the expansion of public health coverage and the creation of popular markets with basic necessities at prices subsidized by the State.
After the electoral triumph, Chávez appointed Nicolás Maduro as Vice President of the Republic, who had been serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position in which he was also ratified. The President's decision was interpreted as the will to deposit in Maduro the inheritance of his leadership, taking into account that Chavez's health had deteriorated since he was diagnosed with cancer in June 2011.
On the day scheduled for his investiture (January 10, 2013), the President could not be present in Caracas because he was in Havana receiving oncological treatment. Vice President Maduro remained at the head of the government, receiving directives from his President from Cuba.
Chavez passed away on March 5, without being sworn in as President. Vice President Maduro remained at the head of the executive on an interim basis, until the celebration of new elections. Chavez's funeral, attended by more than thirty heads of state from all over the world, lasted three days; at the end of the funeral it was announced that his body would be embalmed and exhibited in a mausoleum, where Venezuelans could go to pay homage to the leader.
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Psssst I also love my trans comrades. 1 upbear = 1 fascist mauled by a bear :stalin-heart:
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Probably no one more contentious in Venezuelan history despite the fact we've had literal dictators running the show.
Cool people irl are lonely and experiencing this, too. The hard part is finding them
“If it makes you feel any better, gender is all made up”
Yeah so is money but that doesn’t make me less worried about my bills
Can you imagine learning to speak Dutch? Like, you spend years of effort, and in the end, you get the ability to speak a goofy version of German with only like 20 million people who all speak English anyway.
If you don't speak English, and move here, I can very easily imagine that
Insomnia gang is here
and we're not going anywhere
(because we can't fucking sleep like an actual human bean)
Angrily petting my cat rn (he does not realise and is purring (cuz he's stupid (cuz he's a cat)))
counterpoint: i get to walk around and have a good time with my little guys
This feels like such a boomer take but I'm going for it. It was cool in the 90s when "we" were all kids. I absolutely do not get the newfound obsession with it. I guess the people who say we are on a constant 30 year nostalgia loop are right. I'm still sticking with the 80s vibe, for all the bad it had
It was the perfect game for me as a kid, then gold and silver came out and were absolutely perfect sequels. Then the rest kept coming out and I played them years on in emulators, not that impressed, never finished any ithers. I borrowed the new one from my library (thank you library), and it was kinda neat to see them walking around. But the series heart has been the same for like 30 years, same level of difficulty which is to be expected it is a child's series, same 4 moves stuff.
Growing up in the 2010s (and using reddit) really inflated my idea of how much children's entertainment I'd still enjoy in my 20s
New Pokemon looks mediocre but it would definitely keep me quiet during a road trip if I was 10
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy a bunch of stuff made for kids, but sometimes you gotta remind yourself that you're not the target audience and move on
Mumbai is getting 200 electric double decker buses :lets-fucking-go:
air pollution is a big issues here and a lot of the buses are old and have messed up emissions
:solidarity: Solidarity from 7,500 miles away, comrade. Congrats!
Tight. Any idea how long it takes to charge a bus battery? Or are they more like electric trolley buses?
No it's no the trolley kind.
The batter is 231 kWh, or roughly 4-5 electric car batteries. I have no clue what the charging speeds are but it'll probably take all night
The range is 250 km which is pretty great
I need to FUCKING VENT. FUCK.
I help mod a discord for an art school and I've taken responsibility for helping with their coaching program and with re-organizing the discord for the new year. Today they gave me elevated permissions to help make changes only for someone to DM my friend and fellow mod "uhmmm don't you think the ratio of men to women is skewed heavily towards men? And is that a bad look?" As soon as I got the new role (which comes with a bright fucking yellow to my name.) The person also complained about coaching TAs being male, even though I simply volunteered to help initially, and when we recommended a third TA, the list was primarily women. And the fourth, and newest, TA is another woman.
It legit hurts, like I'm putting labor into what could just be a piss poor substitution for regular forums just so someone can take a dumb stab at my genitals.
I have never been dismissive of the idpol discourse and I make a point to elevate marginalized voices in almost everything I do - which makes my regular day job a fucking hell. And to get this kind of argument thrown at me just annoys the shit out of me.
Like I legit wanna cry.
liberal "diversity" is a fucking disgrace of actual egalitarianism. They only injure themselves and embolden the right wing.
As an art student with (contrary to recent comments) quite a few regrets, i feel your pain. Rich young libs will just pick up the idpol bag and fucking juggle it like self-serving clowns sometimes.
I love the people that say it was 4 out of 12 unions that voted to reject the biden deal, lol, no thought. It's like when chuds look at an electoral map and get mad that Trump isn't president... look at all the red!!
I watched an episode of a 1960 tv series and a guy described a woman as a "spinster aged 24".
Bro, the temperature in my house is 16°C. I live under a blanket and I'm constantly fucking freezing. And looking at my power usage it's still at 10USD a day for december so far.
:ancap-good: love handing over control of power infrastructure to the "free" market