Cfr article and last class!

The article on Venezuela and the rise of Hugo Chavez discussed some various interesting facts about Chavez and his life in politics. In fact, I did not know so much about his early life, but it sport of reminded me a little of Lula’s life, as they were both activists since a young age. Obviously this is not a comparison, but in a sense they were very active with their own community, Lula with the Union labors and Chavez in the army.

Anyway, the article was brilliant on describing Chavez with 3 major influences in his life, which really relate to his current politics a lot. The influences by the Cuban Revolution, Simon Bolivar and joining the army in such an early age and actually being able to be a part of the leftist policies aimed by this military left, like land reform and nationalism.  This combination of influences screams “Chavismo” and it shows clearly how his influences and his revolutionary heroes are such present figure during his political career.

I also thought it was very interesting that while Venezuela was having so many conflicts on the streets, due to the many social problems, Chavez and the military left were planning a coup. This coup eventually failed but the interesting part in my opinion is that he got to go to jail and educate himself on politics. He really got the chance to learn from the best on how to succeed as a politician; most important he actually got advice to be elected through legitimate elections and not a coup. On top of that, when he went to jail he became well known, especially by the lower classes so I feel like this was a really important passage to his future in politics.

When elected he was really no surprise, it seems to me that it was really expected from him to impose his power all over the public and private sectors which is exactly what he did.  The controversial constitutional reform and concentration of power especially in the Supreme Court, clear influences from his experiences.

I also thought that somehow his transactions related to oil were not that bad, the reason I say this is because he did do some investments to bring medical help to the population mostly made possible by the oil business with Cuba in exchange for health professionals, but still valid to help the population. Pretty much a lot of good things can be made available to the population due to this partnership with Cuba and trade of oil, oil is definitely the reason of why Venezuela is and probably will be in a good economic situation for the next few years.