Who is Hugo Chavez Frias?

Who is Hugo Chavez Frias?
By Jody Mcintyre
Source: New Internationalist
Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Since I arrived in Venezuela a little over a week ago, Hugo Chavez Frias has been a busy person. On my first evening in the capital, Caracas, he was addressing thousands of young people in a sports stadium and boxing with recently returned Olympic athletes. The next day, he addressed a rally of tens of thousands of government supporters in the state of Merida. From there, he went to Tachira, to similarly massive crowds swelling through the streets. On Friday evening, he made a surprise visit to a festival at the Plaza de los Museos, Caracas, where young people were celebrating the launch of the second Venezuelan satellite, named ‘Miranda’, which was built in China by scientists from both countries.

Ask yourself this: in Europe, is there a single political leader who would turn up, without warning and with little security around him, at a festival of young people and be immediately surrounded by passionate supporters? As he made his way through the crowd, there were chants of ‘Uh, Ah, Chavez no se va!’ (Chavez is not going). The next day, that chant continued into the city of Zulia, where tens of thousands rallied once again. According to a report in the BritishObserver newspaper on Sunday, Chavez is ‘drained and bloated by cancer treatment’, and ‘sometimes has trouble walking.’ You have to wonder if Rory Carroll, the author of the report, is actually talking about the same person. Indeed, you have to wonder if he is living on the same planet.

Chavez didn’t seem to have any difficulty walking onto the stage in Zulia, with an electric guitar hanging across his stomach and pretending to join in with the band that was performing. Appropriately, his speech began with a spontaneous sing-a-long with the crowd, before moving on to the assertion that ‘Venezuela today is independent and free, and we are not a colony of anyone!’

From pacted to participatory democracy

There are accusations that Chavez has built a cult of personality in Venezuela, and it is undeniable that he is a character difficult to avoid. During election campaigns, he is particularly in his element. After all, Chavez has won more democratic elections than any other president in recent years. Since he first came into power, after winning 56 per cent of the vote in 1998, the political culture of the country has been transformed. Millions of poor Venezuelans, excluded from the political system during the preceding decades of ‘pacted democracy’ in which the two mainstream parties shared power, voted for the first time. In the following year, Chavez won a referendum to write a new constitution for the country, and the public submitted proposals for what it would contain. The pocket-sized Bolivarian Constitution is often held up by Chavez during interviews and rallies, and is still sold on street corners today. After the Constitution was passed, again by a democratic election, the President was re-elected for a second time in as many years, this time with 59 per cent of the vote. In 2006, Chavez was re-elected with 62 per cent.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/who-is-hugo-chavez-frias-by-jody-mcintyre