Hugo Chávez

Early military career

Following his graduation, Chávez was stationed as a communications officer at a counterinsurgency unit in Barinas.

In 1977, Chávez's unit was transferred to Anzoátegui, where they were involved in battling the Red Flag Party, a Marxist–Hoxhaist insurgency group. After intervening to prevent the beating of an alleged insurgent by other soldiers, Chávez began to have his doubts about the army.

In 1977, he founded a revolutionary movement within the armed forces, in the hope that he could one day introduce a leftist government to Venezuela: the Venezuelan People's Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación del Pueblo de Venezuela, or ELPV), consisted of him and a handful of his fellow soldiers who had no immediate plans for direct action, though they knew they wanted a middle way between the right-wing policies of the government and the far-left position of the Red Flag. Nevertheless, hoping to gain an alliance with civilian leftist groups in Venezuela, Chávez set up clandestine meetings with various prominent Marxists, including Alfredo Maneiro (the founder of the Radical Cause) and Douglas Bravo.

Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200

Five years after his creation of the ELPV, Chávez went on to form a new secretive cell within the military, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200 (EBR-200), later redesignated the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200). He was inspired by Simón Bolívar, Simón Rodríguez and Ezequiel Zamora, who became known as the "three roots of the tree" of the MBR-200.

In 1984, he met Herma Marksman, a recently divorced history teacher with whom he had an affair that lasted several years. During this time Francisco Arias Cárdenas, a soldier interested in liberation theology, also joined MBR-200. After some time, some senior military officers became suspicious of Chávez and reassigned him so that he would not be able to gain any more fresh new recruits from the academy. He was sent to take command of the remote barracks at Elorza in Apure State.

1992 coup attempt

In 1989, Carlos Andrés Pérez was elected president, and though he had promised to oppose the International Monetary Fund's policies, once he got into office he enacted economic policies supported by the IMF, angering the public. In an attempt to stop widespread lootings and protests that followed his spending cuts, known as El Caracazo, Pérez initiated Plan Ávila, a military contingency plan by the Venezuelan Army to maintain public order, and an outbreak of violent repression unfolded. Though members of Chávez's MBR-200 movement allegedly participated in the crackdown, Chávez did not, since he was then hospitalized with chicken pox. He later condemned the event as "genocide".

Chávez began preparing for a military coup d'état known as Operation Zamora. The plan involved members of the military overwhelming military locations and communication installations and then establishing Rafael Caldera in power once Pérez was captured and assassinated. Chávez delayed the MBR-200 coup, initially planned for December, until the early twilight hours of 4 February 1992.

On that date five army units under Chávez's command moved into urban Caracas. Despite years of planning, the coup quickly encountered trouble since Chávez commanded the loyalty of less than 10% of Venezuela's military. After numerous betrayals, defections, errors, and other unforeseen circumstances, Chávez and a small group of rebels found themselves hiding in the Military Museum, unable to communicate with other members of their team. Pérez managed to escape Miraflores Palace. Officially, thirty-two civilians, police officers and soldiers were killed, and fifty soldiers and some eighty civilians injured during the ensuing violence.

Chávez gave himself up to the government and appeared on television, in uniform, to call on the remaining coup members to lay down their arms. Chávez remarked in his speech that they had failed only "por ahora" (for now). Venezuelans, particularly poor ones, began seeing him as someone who stood up against government corruption and kleptocracy. The coup "flopped militarily—and dozens died—but made him a media star", noted Rory Carroll of The Guardian.

Chávez was arrested and imprisoned at the San Carlos military stockade, wracked with guilt and feeling responsible for the failure of the coup. Pro-Chávez demonstrations outside San Carlos led to his transfer to Yare Prison. Another unsuccessful coup against the government occurred in November, with the fighting during the coups resulting in the deaths of at least 143 people and perhaps as many as several hundred. Pérez was impeached a year later, charged with malfeasance and misappropriating funds.

1998 election

At the start of the election run-up, front runner Irene Sáez was backed by one of Venezuela's two primary political parties, Copei. Chávez's revolutionary rhetoric gained him support from Patria Para Todos (Homeland for All), the Partido Comunista Venezolano (Venezuelan Communist Party) and the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism). Chávez received support from different sectors: the lower class felt that Chávez cared about their needs and would offer a solution to their problems; members of the middle class, frustrated with corruption and wishing for a strong-handed government, also supported; Chávez also received support from members of the old left, as well as the members of the militarist right wing, some of them nostalgic for the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. By May 1998, Chávez's support had risen to 30% in polls, and by August he was registering 39%. Voter turnout was 63%, and Chávez won the election with 56.2% of the vote.

Political ideology

Chávez was described as a leftist, with one journal stating that he was "billed as the hemisphere's second leftist leader after Cuba's Fidel Castro." In a 1996 interview, Chávez stated "I am not Marxist, but I am not anti-Marxist. I am not communist, but I am not anti-communist." In 1999, Chávez told the New York Times that "If you are attempting to determine whether Chavez is of the left, right, or center, if he is socialist, Communist, or capitalist, well, I am none of those, but I have a bit of all of those." In a 1998 interview, Chávez stated that "I am not a socialist. I believe that today's world, Latin America and the world to come require a leap forward. We are going beyond socialism and even savage capitalism."

Opposition to capitalism and neoliberalism

Both before and during his presidency, Chávez spoke out against "savage capitalism", neoliberal capitalism and simply capitalism in various speeches. During his first electoral campaign, as noted by one observer, Chávez made clear his rejection of what he called "savage capitalism", using the words of Pope John Paul II. Chávez wanted greater state intervention in the economy, but "built bridges to the private sector to promote the development of national industry." According to Eduardo Semtei, a political scientist considered close to the ideas of Chavez, "From the beginning he had the idea that the classic capitalist model is a model contrary to the development of society."

In 1999, Chávez argued that a new constitution drafted by an assembly packed with his allies would distance Venezuela from "savage capitalism." He reiterated this position on 28 September 2001, when Chavez spoke negatively of neoliberal capitalism and the economic measures of the Carlos Andrés Pérez, El Gran Viraje, one of the causes of the Caracazo riots.

In various interviews conducted in 2002, Chávez shared his views on capitalism, saying that the Bolivarian Revolution was an alternative to neoliberalism, saying that capitalism was "sown... in the marrow" of Venezuela and the rest of the world, stating that his revolution and its missions were more humane. Ultimately, Chávez said that the Bolivarian Revolution was "an alternative economy to dehumanized capitalism."

In 2003, Chávez argued that the Soviet Union disappeared when it failed in its efforts to dismantle "the devastating logic of capital", stating that it is the "alternative model" that he promoted was the one now confronting "neoliberalism and savage capitalism". While at the World Social Forum on 26 January 2003, Chávez criticized the idea that capitalism and neoliberalism "won" following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, saying that some individuals raised "the thesis of single thinking, there are no more alternatives,... socialism is over, and communism is over and long live neoliberal capitalism and all this fairy tale."

Chávez noted in a 2005 interview that "At one time I came to think about the Third Way. I was having trouble interpreting the world. I was confused... I spoke and wrote a lot about 'human capitalism'. Today I am convinced that it is impossible... I became convinced that socialism is the way."

Chávez arguably did not fully talk openly about the socialism of the 21st century until 3 December 2006, during a speech after his reelection in the 2006 presidential elections.

Marxism and socialism

Chávez's connection to Marxism was a complex one, though he had described himself as a Marxist on some occasions. In May 1996, he gave an interview with Agustín Blanco Muñoz in which he remarked, "I am not a Marxist, but I am not anti-Marxist. I am not communist, but I am not anti-communist." In a 2009 speech to the national assembly, he said: "I am a Marxist to the same degree as the followers of the ideas of Jesus Christ and the liberator of America, Simón Bolívar". He was well versed in many Marxist texts, having read the works of many Marxist theoreticians, and often publicly quoted them. Various international Marxists supported his government, believing it to be a sign of proletariat revolution as predicted in Marxist theory. In 2010, Hugo Chávez proclaimed support for the ideas of Marxist Leon Trotsky, saying "When I called him (former Minister of Labour, José Ramón Rivero)" Chávez explained, "he said to me: 'President I want to tell you something before someone else tells you... I am a Trotskyist', and I said, 'well, what is the problem? I am also a Trotskyist! I follow Trotsky's line, that of permanent revolution", and then cited Marx and Lenin.

Chávez also noted his identification with socialism, noting that "The Constitution speaks that the socioeconomic regime of Venezuela must have a strong cooperative and associative content and that gives it a charge that breaks with individualism and neoliberalism, which gives a strong socialist content to the project. In that direction we have to go all out. To cooperate is to socialize the economy, to give it a social content. I am sure that in Puerto Cruz, agricultural cooperatives will emerge." Later in his presidency Chávez promoted the socialism of the 21st century. His approach was more heavily influenced by the theories of István Mészáros, Michael Lebowitz and Marta Harnecker, who was Chávez's adviser between 2004 and 2011, rather than by those of Heinz Dieterich.

Bolivarianism

Hugo Chávez defined his political position as Bolivarianism, an ideology he developed from that of Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) and others. Bolívar was a 19th-century general who led the fight against the colonialist Spanish authorities and who is widely revered across Latin America today. Along with Bolívar, the other two primary influences upon Bolivarianism are Simón Rodríguez (1769–1854), a philosopher who was Bolívar's tutor and mentor, and Ezequiel Zamora, (1817–1860), the Venezuelan Federalist general. The fact that Chávez's ideology originated from Bolívar has also received some criticism because Chávez had occasionally described himself as being influenced by Karl Marx, a critic of Bolívar. Beddow and Thibodeaux noted the complications between Bolívar and Marx, stating that "[d]escribing Bolivar as a socialist warrior in the class struggle, when he was actually member of the aristocratic 'criollos', is peculiar when considering Karl Marx's own writings on Bolivar, whom he dismissed as a false liberator who merely sought to preserve the power of the old Creole nobility which he belonged".

Other influences

Chávez's early heroes were nationalist military dictators that included former Peruvian president Juan Velasco Alvarado and former Panamanian "Maximum Leader" Omar Torrijos. One dictator Chávez admired was Marcos Pérez Jiménez, a former president of Venezuela that he praised for the public works he performed. Chávez praised Pérez Jiménez to vilify preceding democratic governments, stating that "General Pérez Jiménez was the best president Venezuela had in a long time... He was much better than Rómulo Betancourt, much better than all of those others. They hated him because he was a soldier."

Chávez was also well acquainted with the various traditions of Latin American socialism, espoused by such figures as Colombian politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán and former Chilean president Salvador Allende. Early in his presidency, Chávez was advised and influenced by the Argentine Peronist Norberto Ceresole. Communist revolutionaries Che Guevara and Fidel Castro also influenced Chávez and Castro's government assisted with the Bolivarian Missions. Chávez was also an admirer of Mao Zedong, whom he referred to as a ‘great strategist, great soldier, great statesman, and great revolutionary’ while visiting China October 1999. During his visit there, he also said that Venezuela was starting to ‘stand up’ like China did five decades earlier ‘under the leadership of its great helmsman (Mao),’ while also voicing his opposition to neoliberalism:

Soviet power has collapsed, but that does not mean that neo-liberal capitalism has to be the model followed by the peoples of the West. If only for that reason, we invite China to keep its flag flying, because this world cannot be run by a universal police force that seeks to control everything.

Chávez also spoke admiringly of Mahatma Gandhi, stating in a 2005 speech that "we must remember that thought of Gandhi that reflects a deep respect for himself, for his own country, for a healthy nationalism" and expressed support for what he said was Gandhi's espousal of being anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist. During the same speech, Chávez also expressed influence from Jawaharlal Nehru, noting he was a main figure of the Non-Aligned Movement, with Chávez citing his leadership as an inspiration "of the need, of brotherhood and solidarity among the peoples of the Third World. The need to unite to defend the interests of our people, of poor people against the abuse of rich people."

Other indirect influences on Chávez's political philosophy are the Gospel teachings of Jesus Christ. Other inspirations of Chávez's political view are Giuseppe Garibaldi, Antonio Gramsci and Antonio Negri.

Promotion of conspiracy theories

In September 2006, Chávez said 9/11 conspiracy theories were "not absurd" and that "a building never collapses like that, unless it's with an implosion". Chávez also told Christopher Hitchens that he did not believe that the footage of the Apollo 11 Moon landings was genuine.

Allegations of antisemitism

Chavez's opposition to Zionism and close relations with Iran led to accusations of antisemitism. Such claims were made by the Venezuelan Jewish community at a World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Jerusalem, after Venezuela's oldest synagogue was vandalised by armed men. In 2006, the Simon Wiesenthal Center published a shortened version of a speech by Chávez, which significantly changed its meaning to make it appear that he had made anti-Semitic remarks. The New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal published the Wiesenthal Center's claim. The Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela, the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress said that Chavez's comments were not aimed at Jews, but rather at "the white oligarchy that has dominated the region since the colonial era". In 2009, attacks on a synagogue in Caracas were alleged to be influenced by "vocal denunciations of Israel" by the Venezuelan state media and Hugo Chávez, even though Chavez promptly condemned the attacks, blaming an "oligarchy". A weeklong investigation by the Venezuelan CICPC concluded the synagogue attack to be an 'inside job', the motive apparently being robbery rather than antisemitism.