Dictator Hugo Chávez - Charismatic Tyrant of Venezuela

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez ruled the country for 14 years. When he fought for power, he promised to lead the country to prosperity and socialism. However, he ultimately led it into total poverty. At any convenient opportunity, Chávez criticized capitalists and American politicians, even going so far as to call President George W. Bush the devil. Yet, he didn't hesitate to sell oil to his ideological enemies for dollars and gladly embraced the benefits of the capitalist world.

Hugo Chávez was born on July 28, 1954, in the Venezuelan city of Sabaneta. His parents, both simple schoolteachers, lived near the city in a small rural hut made of large palm leaves on a bare earthen floor. The family, consisting of seven children, with Hugo being the second eldest, was very poor.

It is known that Hugo Chávez's mother dreamed of her son becoming a Catholic priest. She sent him to serve at the local church. For a year, Hugo cleaned statues of Jesus, but then got into a fight with a priest and was expelled from the church. Therefore, Chávez's relationship with religion didn't develop positively, although he enjoyed discussing religion. He once said, "The greatest socialist of our era was called Jesus Christ. Just think, Jesus was a capitalist. Who could come up with such a thing?"

There is an opinion that Chávez intentionally distorted the facts of his early biography and that his family wasn't as poor as he claimed. It is known, for example, that Chávez's parents sent him and one of his brothers to their paternal grandmother, Rosa Inés Chávez, who lived in the city of Sabaneta. She lived in a middle-class house provided by the local government. Additionally, Hugo Chávez's father, despite receiving a tiny teacher's salary, managed to pay for Hugo's and all the other children's education at the private school "Daniela Oliviri" in Barinas.

At the age of 17, Chávez entered a military academy in Caracas. During his studies, he became interested in baseball, drawing, and read quite a lot. He read, in particular, Che Guevara's diary and became interested in the ideas of Simón Bolívar. It's worth mentioning that figures like Bolívar had always been popular in Venezuela, even in 1975.

Chávez graduated from the academy as one of the top students. In the following years, he pursued a military career. In the late 70s and early 80s, opposition started forming within military circles. A new secretive organization emerged – Kamakante. This name was a Spanish abbreviation for the initial letters of junior officers' ranks. Its core consisted of Chávez's classmates from the military academy. The catalyst for forming this organization was the bicentennial anniversary of Venezuela's national hero, Simón Bolívar, which was supposed to be celebrated in 1983. Opposition members started closely studying his biography, ideology, and worldview. As a result, Bolívar became an idol of the opposition and a symbol of the new revolutionary movement. Later, the organization came to be known as the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement 200.

In 1988, Carlos Andrés Pérez assumed the presidency of Venezuela. He began implementing unpopular and non-liberal policies. He announced cuts in social spending and ordered the harsh suppression of mass protests in February.

In 1992, members of the movement - Hugo Chávez and Raúl Aranas Cordenas - organized an attempted coup. The conspirators believed they were saving Venezuela from politicians and demagogues who were leading the country into impoverishment. On February 3rd, army columns under Chávez's command took to the streets of the capital, Caracas. Some middle-ranking officers and soldiers supported the uprising. The conspiracy involved 133 officers and nearly a thousand soldiers, not counting numerous civilians. However, it proved insufficient. The Supreme Command quickly declared support for the president and ordered the suppression of the rebellion. Clashes continued until noon on February 4th. According to official figures, 17 soldiers were killed, and over 50 military personnel and civilians were injured in the fighting.