{"id":612,"date":"2012-10-18T14:25:21","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T19:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/modernlatinamerica\/?page_id=612"},"modified":"2012-10-18T14:25:21","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T19:25:21","slug":"venezuela-and-el-libertador","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/chapters\/chapter-8-venezuela\/moments-in-venezuelan-history\/venezuela-and-el-libertador\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela and El Libertador"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and The Bolivarian Dream
\n<\/strong>By Nicole Cacozza<\/p>\n

The late president of Venezuela, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, inspired both fanatical support and deep mistrust in the international community.\u00a0 Born in 1954 in the small town of Sabaneta, he entered the military academy at seventeen where he served until his political debut\u2014first as an opposition to the President, then later as president himself. After his ascension to the presidency in 1998, he clashed openly with the United States government, famously calling George W. Bush \u201cel Diablo<\/em>\u201d before the UN in 2006 and publicly expressing support and solidarity for deposed Libyan leader Mohammar Gaddafi. [Watch his speech<\/a> subtitled in English.]<\/em>\u00a0Critics often point to how he has managed to consolidate political power in the executive and Chavez is frequently labeled a dictator despite the presence of nominally democratic elections (in 2006, the last round of presidential elections in Venezuela, Ch\u00e1vez won with a resounding 65 percent of the votes.) Despite such claims, he retained widespread popularity in Venezuela and had political allies throughout Latin America and the Middle East. His work to re-legitimize the branches of government that had become corrupt, nationalize the oil production of Venezuela, and provide social programs to citizens built a broad base of support\u2014one that Ch\u00e1vez inevitable relied upon during the 2012 elections where he defeated opposition candidate Henrique Capriles with 55% of the popular vote over Capriles’ 44%. He maintained his image and connection to the people of Venezuela through his weekly talk show Al\u00f3 Presidente<\/em> where he frequently takes calls, and through an active Twitter account (@chavezcandanga).<\/p>\n

In order to better understand Chavez\u2019 political philosophy it is crucial to examine the figures he credited with inspiration. Chief among these is the revolutionary hero Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar<\/a>. An orphaned son from a wealthy Venezuelan family, Bol\u00edvar traveled to Europe and America as a young man and wrote extensively throughout his life, expressing political and social view in vast volumes of letters, speeches and monographs. He supported the first revolutionary junta, which declared Venezuela\u2019s independence in 1811. However, European resistance to liberation led to years of war in order to fully secure this independence.\u00a0 The first junta fell and Bol\u00edvar was driven out of the country.\u00a0 He quickly recovered and launched a new campaign to drive the Spanish from Caracas.\u00a0 In yet another fleeting victory, he captured the city, only to lose it within the year to replenished Spanish forces.\u00a0 Bol\u00edvar was forced into exile for a second time, and once more he recruited new forces in order to launch a third and final offensive.\u00a0 In December 1816 he returned to South America for the last time, and for nearly a decade Bol\u00edvar and his allies fought Spanish royalists, eventually driving them from the continent altogether.\u00a0 His leadership in the revolution earned him the nickname El Libertador<\/em>, The Liberator.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Bol\u00edvar played a part in the independence of modern day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia\u2014a country renamed in his honor\u2014but after freeing this huge swath of Latin America, he could not effectively govern such widespread territory.\u00a0 Despite his long held aspirations of a unified Latin American bloc, regional differences came to the forefront of the newly liberated countries.\u00a0 Bol\u00edvar\u2019s vision of the entirety of Latin America joining together in a proposed \u201cCongress of Panama\u2019\u2019 never came to fruition.\u00a0 In 1830, only six years after securing the continent\u2019s independence, Bol\u00edvar withdrew from public life shortly before succumbing to tuberculosis.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez identified both personally and politically with Bol\u00edvar and used this to insert himself into a narrative of sacrifice for the advancement of the country. Bol\u00edvar\u2019s personal life was tragic, both parents died before he was ten, and his wife, too, died when he was only twenty. Bol\u00edvar himself marked this as a turning point; with a wife and family he claims that he may never have been anything greater than a small town mayor.\u00a0 Instead, his life was a story of intellectual and then military pursuit of greatness, answering not to familial love, but the love of the patria<\/em>, the country.\u00a0 For Hugo Ch\u00e1vez to call on Bol\u00edvar when he identified himself, he, too, claimed that role, and dedicated his life and his work to Venezuela.\u00a0 It is not that he is in search of power; it is that he is part of a greater destiny and a larger purpose. Ch\u00e1vez is a part of the revolutionary movement that Bol\u00edvar began, and he is compelled and inspired by fate to continue it into the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar in Venezuela today represents the centralized power of the leader, the militarism of a radical reform, and the overhaul of society that demonizes the colonialists, imperialists and their allies in favor of the peopleI. It is unsurprising that Ch\u00e1vez publicly considered him a hero, and often drew comparisons (both direct and indirect) between himself and El Libertador<\/em>. Instead of Spanish colonialism, Ch\u00e1vez fought against the economic domination of the United States. Instead of royalist insurrections, he faced the opposition of the business elite who mistrusted his politics. He still reached out to los pueblos de mundo<\/em>, the peoples of the world, sought validation from the lower classes.\u00a0 Neither leader relied on a political party, instead choosing to ignite and ride a movement to power. Bol\u00edvar is not trapped in the past as it were; Ch\u00e1vez brought him out, in more ways then one, to continue to spread a liberation message.<\/p>\n

************<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bibliography:<\/span><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera English, \u201cProfile: Hugo Chavez\u201d <http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/americas\/2009\/02\/200921021184128617.html><\/p>\n

Al Jazeera English, \u201cChavez lauds new Latin American Alliance\u201d <http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/americas\/2011\/12\/2011122235415861433.html><\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar, S., Ch\u00e1vez Fr\u00edas, H., & Brown, M. (2009). The Bol\u00edvarian Revolution. London ; New
\nYork: Verso.<\/p>\n

Bol\u00edvar, S., & Salcedo-Bastardo, J. L. 1. (1983). The hope of the universe. Paris: UNESCO.<\/p>\n

Boudin, C., Gonz\u00e1lez, G., & Rumbos, W. (2006). The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions,\u00a0100 Answers. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.<\/p>\n

Bushnell, D., & Langley, L. D. (2008). Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar: Essays on the life and legacy of the
\nliberator. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Pub.<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e1vez Fr\u00edas, H., & Guevara March, A. (2005). Ch\u00e1vez, Venezuela and the new Latin America: \u00a0An interview with Hugo Ch\u00e1vez. New York, NY: Ocean Press.<\/p>\n

Gott, R. (2005). Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and the Bolivarian Revolution. London ; New York: Verso.<\/p>\n

Skidmore, T.E., Smith, P.H., Green, J.N., (2010) Modern Latin America. (7th ed.) New York:\u00a0Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

Washington Post, \u201cChavez looks ahead to Venezuela campaign after cancer treatment, vows\u00a0\u2018knockout\u2019 in vote\u201d. <http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/the_americas\/chavez-looks-ahead-to-venezuelacampaign-after-cancer-treatment-vows-knockout-in-vote\/2012\/05\/07\/gIQAJLI78T_story.html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and The Bolivarian Dream By Nicole Cacozza The late president of Venezuela, Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, inspired both fanatical support and deep mistrust in the international community.\u00a0 Born in 1954 in the small town of Sabaneta, he entered the military … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":610,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-612","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/612\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}