Know 30 facts Short Biography of President Hugo Chavez who ruled Venezuela said twitter is a weapon of revolution

Know 30 facts Short Biography of  President Hugo Chavez who ruled Venezuela said twitter is a weapon of revolution

Venezuela is a South American country rich in natural resources, especially oil.

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NAME: Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías
AKA: Hugo Rafael Chávez AKA: Hugo Chávez

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OCCUPATION: Politics

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BIRTH DATE: July 28, 1954

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DEATH DATE: March 05, 2013

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EDUCATION: Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences

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PLACE OF BIRTH: Sabaneta, Venezuela

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PLACE OF DEATH: Venezuela

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Hugo Chávez served as president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013.
Political party     Fifth Republic Movement (1997–2008)
United Socialist Party (2008–2013)

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Chávez was the son of schoolteachers.
Even though both of his parents were schoolteachers, the family, like most Venezuelans, was poor and struggled to make ends meet.
Eventually Chávez's father, Hugo de los Reyes, gained political power when he became regional director of education and later the governor of Barinas.


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Chávez attended the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences, where he graduated in 1975 with a degree in military arts and science.
He graduated from the military academy, being rated one of the top graduates of the year (eight out of seventy five)
Chávez decided to study at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas.
At the Academy, he was a member of the first class that was following a restructured curriculum known as the Andrés Bello Plan.
This plan had been instituted by a group of progressive, nationalistic military officers who believed that change was needed within the military.
This new curriculum encouraged students to learn not only military routines and tactics but also a wide variety of other topics, and to do so civilian professors were brought in from other universities to give lectures to the military cadets.

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He went on to serve as an officer in an army paratrooper unit.
After becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system, he founded the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s to work towards overthrowing it.

Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup d'état against the Democratic Action government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992, for which he was imprisoned.


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In 1992, Chávez and his band of over twelve thousand attempted to overthrow the Pérez government in a bloody coup that cost hundreds of lives.
Chávez subsequently spent two years in prison
President Rafael Caldera, long an advocate of political reconciliation, dropped charges against Chavez and other coup plotters in 1994 and released them from prison.
coup was unsuccessful but he became a national hero

Chávez went on a 100-day tour of the country, promoting his Bolivarian cause of social revolution.
During this time, he divorced his first wife


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He then started the Movement of the Fifth Republic, a revolutionary political party. Chávez ran for president in 1998, campaigning against government corruption and promising economic reforms.

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1977-78
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), was a secretive cell within the military that consisted of him and a handful of his fellow soldiers.

Chávez married twice.

He first wed Nancy Colmenares, a woman from a poor family in Chávez's hometown of Sabaneta. Chávez and Colmenares remained married for 18 years, during which time they had three children:
a)Rosa Virginia (born September 1978)

b)Maria Gabriela (born March 1980)

c)Hugo Rafael (born October 1983)

The couple separated soon after Chávez's 1992 coup attempt.
During his first marriage, Chávez had an affair with historian Herma Marksman; their relationship lasted nine years.


In 1997, Chavez married to Marisabel Rodríguez, his second marriage.
in June 2000 he separated from his wife Marisabel, and their divorce was finalized in January 2004
Through that marriage, Chávez had another daughter, Rosinés.
Both María and Rosa have provided Chávez with grandchildren.

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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).

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In 1981, Chávez, by now a captain, was assigned to teach at the military academy where he had formerly trained. Here he indoctrinated new students in his so-called "Bolivarian" ideals, and recruited those whom he felt would make good members of the MBR-200

In 1984, he met a Venezuelan woman of German ancestry named Herma Marksman who was a recently divorced history teacher. Sharing many interests, she eventually got involved in Chávez's movement and the two fell in love, having an affair that would last several years

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Year 1998-
Chávez decided to make a bid for the presidency and formed the Polo Patriotico (Patriotic Pole), which was composed of fourteen small political parties representing a wide variety of views. Disillusioned by the current administration, and tired of having political power in the hands of the upper classes, millions of poor Venezuelans rallied in support of Chávez, who they called El Comandanté (The Commander).

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On December 6, 1998, Chávez was elected president by 56 percent of the vote, becoming the youngest elected president in Venezuelan history.

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1998-99
Chávez's presidential inauguration took place on 2 February 1999
After becoming, President Chavez made following changes immediately.

a)  
He formed a constitutional assembly that drastically reduced the powers of Congress

b)  
the assembly also reviewed the judicial branch in an attempt to rid the courts of corrupt judges

c)  
In the biggest move, Chaévez and his assembly reworked the Venezuelan constitution; the new version was approved by 75 percent of voters on December 15, 1999

d)  
The country's name was changed to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

e)  
 the term of office of the president was extended from five to six years

f)  
the Congress was replaced by a unicameral (single body) National Assembly; and the power of political parties was slashed

g)  
Social reforms were also added, including free university-level education

h)  
The new constitution called for elections to be held in 2000


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Year 2000-
Once again, Chavez won the elections and he became the President.

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In 2001, he passed a set of forty-nine economic laws, including the Hydrocarbons Law, which brought control of the PDVSA under the direction of the Minister of Energy, who, of course, was part of Chaévez's cabinet.

He introduced land reform program called the Ley de Tierras (Land Law).
At the time, nearly 70 percent of Venezuela's farmable land was owned by less than 3 percent of the population.
In addition, according to national statistics, only 4 percent of useable land was being farmed. Under the new law, land that was not being used would be given to poor farmers.

a public health mission called Barrio Adentro employed over ten thousand doctors dedicated to serving in areas of Venezuela where no doctors were available before.

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Year 2002 – Revolt against Chavez
By 2002, despite Chávez's many social reforms, the economy of Venezuela was in worse shape

April 8, 2002, the protests took a violent turn.
On April 11, fighting broke out between protesters, the national guard (controlled by Chávez), and the military police, which was controlled by the opposition. Guns were fired, resulting in the deaths of at least seventeen people; hundreds more were wounded.

Chávez resigned on April 12, and was taken into custody by members of Fedecámaras, Venezuela's business federation.

That same day the president of Fedecámaras, Pedro Carmona Estanga, took over leadership of the country.
He disbanded the National Assembly and called for a presidential election during the coming year.

Thousands took to the streets, rioting, looting, and demanding that Chávez be reinstated.
 On April 14, Carmona resigned, thus ending the shortest presidency in Venezuelan history.
Chávez returned to power only two days after being ousted,


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Year -2003
Opposition Plan to Remove President Chavez
Venezuela's constitution, rewritten by Chávez and his assembly, contained a clause allowing the population to recall elected officials, including the president.

The opposition spend months collecting over three million signatures on a petition calling for Chávez's removal from office.
They presented the petition to Venezuela's National Electoral Council in November of 2003.

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Year 2004- Recall Election
Hugo Chávez emerged victorious from his 2004 recall election

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Chávez was known for being outspoken and dogmatic throughout his presidency, refusing to hold back any of his opinions or criticisms.
He insulted

a)  
oil executives

b)  
church officials

c)  
world leaders

d)  
was particularly hostile with the United States government, which, he believed, was responsible for the failed 2002 coup against him.

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Year -2006

On 15 December 2006, Chávez publicly announced that those leftist political parties who had continually supported him in the Patriotic Pole would unite into one single, much larger party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV)

he helped create the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a socialist free-trade organization joined by Fidel Castro, president of Cuba, and Evo Morales, president of Bolivia.

Chávez was also an active member of the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of more than 100 countries, including Cuba, Iran, and several African nations.

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Chávez discovered that he had cancer in June 2011, following a surgery to remove a pelvic abscess, and from 2011 to early 2012, he underwent three surgeries to remove cancerous tumor
On 7 October 2012, Chávez won election as president for a fourth time, defeating Henrique Capriles, and for a new six years term


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Hugo Chávez died on March 5, 2013, at age 58, in Venezuela.
He was survived by his
wife, Maria Isabel Rodriguez,
and five children: Rosines, María Gabriela, Rosa Virginia and Hugo Rafael.

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Since Chávez was elected in 1998, more than 100,000 state-owned cooperatives – which claim to represent some 1.5 million people – have been formed with the assistance of government start-up credit and technical training; and the creation and maintenance,
 as of September 2010, of over 30,000 communal councils, examples of localized participatory democracy, which he intended to be integrated into regional umbrella organizations known as "Communes in Construction"

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Achievements –

In the 1999 Venezuelan constitution, 116 of 300 articles were concerned with human rights; these included

a)  
increased protections for indigenous peoples and women

b)  
and established the rights of the public to education, housing, healthcare, and food

c)  
It called for dramatic democratic reforms such as ability to recall politicians from office by popular referendum

d)  
increased requirements for government transparency

e)  
increase localized, participatory democracy, in favor of centralized administration

f)  
It gave citizens the right to timely and impartial information, community access to media

g)  
a right to participate in acts of civil disobedience.

In 2010, Chávez supported the construction of 184 communes, housing thousands of families, with $23 million in government funding.
The communes produce some of their own food, and are able to make decisions by popular assembly of what to do with government funds.

In September 2010, Chávez announced the location of 876 million bolivars ($203 million) for community projects around the country, specifically communal councils, and the newly formed communes.

Chávez also criticized the bureaucracy still common in Venezuela saying, when in discussion with his Communes Minister Isis Ochoa, that "All of the projects must be carried out by the commune, not the bureaucracy." The Ministry for Communes, which oversees and funds all communal projects, was initiated in 2009

Chávez has been strictly enforcing the price control policy, denouncing anyone who sells food products for higher prices as "speculators"

In January 2008, Chávez ordered the military to seize 750 tons of food that sellers were illegally trying to smuggle across the border to sell for higher prices than what was legal in Venezuela.

In February 2009, Chávez ordered the military to temporarily seize control of all the rice-processing plants in the country and force them to produce at full capacity, which he claimed they had been avoiding in response to the price caps

In May 2010, Chávez ordered the military to seize 120 tons of food from Empresas Polar after inconsistencies in reports from the Empresas Polar conglomerate were said to have been detected by authorities.

In 2010 availability of Internet service in Venezuela rose by 43%.
The Venezuelan state has instituted Infocenters, community spaces equipped with computers with internet connections, which are free to use.
By January 2011, there were 737 infocenters, and the programme was awarded a prize by UNESCO

In March 2009, the Venezuelan government set minimum production quotas for 12 basic foods that were subject to price controls, including white rice, cooking oil, coffee, sugar, powdered milk, cheese, and tomato sauce, which is intended to stop food companies from evading the law.

Chávez redistributed 5 million acres of farmland from large landowners, saying: "The land is not private. It is the property of the state
The land is for those who work it."

As part of his strategy of food security Chávez has started a national chain of supermarkets, the Mercal network, which has 16,600 outlets and 85,000 employees that distribute food at highly discounted prices, and runs 6000 soup kitchens throughout the country.

In 2008 the amount of discounted food sold through the network was 1.25 million metric tonnes, often sold at as much as 40% below the price ceiling set for privately own stores.


In 2010, after the government nationalized the port at Puerto Cabello, more than 120,000 tons of food sat rotting at the port.

In May 2010, during a shortage of beef, at least 40 butchers were detained on charges of speculation for allegedly selling meat above the regulated price; some of them were held at a military base and later strip-searched by police.

Chávez has a Twitter account with more than 3,200,000 followers as of August 2012.

Chávez's Twitter account has been described as a way for people to bypass bureaucracy and contact the president directly. 

There is a team of 200 people to sort through suggestions and comments sent via Twitter. 

Chávez has said Twitter is "another mechanism for contact with the public, to evaluate many things and to help many people", and that he sees Twitter as "a weapon that also needs to be used by the revolution".




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Wednesday, March 06, 2013

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