History of Venezuela (1999–present)
Instead of continuing Venezuela's past alignment with the United States and European strategic interests, Chávez promoted alternative development and integration policies targeted to the Global South.[10] Chávez, who had been involved since the early 1980s in a leftist group in the military called the Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200 (MBR 200), first came to national prominence as the leader of a coup attempt on Pérez in February 1992.Although the attempt failed, before being imprisoned Chávez was allowed to speak on national television, during which he apologised for the loss of lives and called on his forces to cease fighting, but also defended his goals of reform and stated famously that he was putting down his weapons "por ahora" – for now – implying that he might one day return.[citation needed] In November 1996, about 1.3 million workers walked off the job in a general public sector strike; and in late August 1998, Caldera obtained legislation from Congress enabling him to rule by decree.At the MBR 200 national assembly in December 1996, its members voted to participate in the upcoming 1998 presidential and 1998 parliamentary elections, and created a new organisation, the Fifth Republic Movement (Movimiento Quinta República, MVR) intended to unite groups opposed to the main parties.[20][21] He took the presidential oath of office on 2 February 1999, the principal points of his mandate were to reform the constitution, break up what his supporters perceived as an entrenched oligarchy, reverse Venezuela's economic decline, strengthen the role of the state in the economy, and redistribute wealth to the poor.[citation needed] However, as a recession triggered by historically low oil prices and soaring international interest rates rocked Venezuela, the shrunken federal treasury provided very little of the resources Chávez required for his promised massive populist programs.[40][non-primary source needed] With large oil incomes in Chávez's first years of presidency,[22] he had successfully initiated a land transfer program and had introduced several reforms aimed at improving the social welfare of the population.Chávez's clashes with multiple social groups he supposedly alienated and his close ties with controversial presidents Mohammad Khatami, Sadaam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi also hurt his approval rating.[20] Venezuela became Cuba's largest trade partner while Chávez, following Castro's example, consolidated the country's bicameral legislature into a single National Assembly and created community groups of loyal supporters allegedly trained as paramilitaries.[51] On late morning of the 11th, by which time hundreds of thousands of people were standing outside the PDVSA offices, CTV leader Carlos Ortega suddenly called for a continuation of the march to the presidential palace at Milaflores, saying "With a great sense of responsibility I address our nation to request in the name of democratic Venezuela.Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, requested an investigation of concerns that Washington appeared to condone the removal of Mr Chavez,[57][58] which subsequently found that "U.S. officials acted appropriately and did nothing to encourage an April coup against Venezuela's president", nor did they provide any naval logistical support.On 22 October 14 military officers who had been suspended for participating in the coup, led by General Enrique Medina Gómez, occupied the Francia de Altamira Plaza in a wealthy Eastern Caracas neighbourhood and declared it a "liberated territory".In July 2003 he launched "Mission Robinson", billed as a campaign aimed at providing free reading, writing and arithmetic lessons to the more than 1.5 million Venezuelan adults who were illiterate prior to his 1999 election.[73] In early and mid-2003, Súmate, a grassroots volunteer civilian voter rights organization, began the process of collecting the millions of signatures needed to activate the presidential recall provision provided for in Chávez's 1999 Constitution.[74] Reports then began to emerge among opposition and international news outlets that Chávez had begun to act punitively against those who had signed the petition, while pro-Chávez individuals stated that they had been coerced by employers into offering their signatures at their workplaces.Charges were made of summary dismissals from government ministries, PDVSA, the state-owned oil corporation, the Caracas Metro, and public hospitals controlled by Chávez's political allies.[81] While the OAS observers and a reluctant Bush administration, endorsed the results, a few critics, including economists Ricardo Hausmann of Harvard and Roberto Rigobon of MIT, alleged that certain procedures in the election may have allowed the government to cheat.A program called "Mission Identity", to fast track voter registration of immigrants to Venezuela—including Chávez supporters benefiting from his subsidies—has been put in place prior to the upcoming 2006 presidential elections.Chávez has engaged, with varying degrees of success, numerous other foreign leaders, including Argentina's Néstor Kirchner, China's Hu Jintao, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russia's Vladimir Putin.[96] In 2006 Chávez announced Venezuela's bid to win a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council; Washington officials encouraged Latin American and Caribbean nations to vote instead for Guatemala.[97] Analysts quoted by Forbes magazine said that Chávez would offer to supply 20% of China's crude oil needs if Beijing backed Venezuela's bid to join the UN Security Council.In accordance with his foreign policy trends, Chávez has visited several countries in Latin America, as well as Portugal, Belarus, Russia, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Vietnam, Mali and Benin.[112] On 30 April 2007 Chávez announced that Venezuela would be formally pulling out of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, having paid off its debts five years ahead of schedule and so saving US$8 million.[117] In May 2007, the Chavez government refused to renew the license of the nation's most popular television station, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), alleging the company participated in the 2002 coup d'état.[125][126] In 2005, President Chávez initiated a program to provide cheaper heating fuel for poor people in several areas of the United States (New York Daily News, 21 September 2006).Chávez, irritated by Zapatero's suggestion that Latin America needed to attract more foreign capital, referred to former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar as a fascist.He also proposed limiting central bank autonomy, strengthening state expropriation powers and providing for public control over international reserves as part of an overhaul of Venezuela's constitution.[148] A 2010 OAS report[149] indicated "achievements with regard to the eradication of illiteracy, the set up of a primary health network, land distribution and the reduction of poverty",[150] and "improvements in the areas of economic, social, and cultural rights".[151] The report also found "blistering" concerns with freedom of expression, human rights abuses, authoritarianism,[152] and "the existence of a pattern of impunity in cases of violence",[153] as well as erosion of separation of powers and "severe economic, infrastructure, and social headaches".
Chavéz's eyesHistory of VenezuelaPre-Columbian period1522–18211821–301830–19081908–581948–581953–99New SpainProvince of VenezuelaViceroyalty of New GranadaCaptaincy GeneralAmerican Confederation of VenezuelaWar of IndependenceFirst RepublicSecond RepublicThird RepublicCaudillismoRevolution of the Reforms1848–1849 civil warMarch RevolutionFederal WarBlue RevolutionApril RevolutionRevindicating RevolutionLegalist RevolutionAndean HegemonyRestorative Liberal RevolutionLiberating Revolution1902–03 blockade1908 coupOil industry historyGeneration of 1928El Trienio AdecoDemocratic period1958 coupPunto Fijo PactCarupanazoPorteñazoCaracazoFebruary 1992 coup attemptNovember 1992 coup attemptVargas tragedy2002 coup attempt2002–03 general strike2004 recall referendum2007 RCTV protestsDeath and state funeral of Hugo ChávezCrisis in VenezuelaVenezuelafree-marketincome redistributionsocial welfarePresidentHugo ChávezGlobal SouthVice PresidentNicolás Madurospecial electionruled by decreeClass divisionadjustment programMovimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario 200coup attempt on Pérez in February 1992Violeta ChamorroRafael Calderaelections in December 1993La Causa Radical48 congressional seats in 1993Movimiento al Socialismo1998 presidential1998 parliamentary electionsFifth Republic MovementBandera RojaPetróleos de VenezuelaHenrique Salas RömerpopulistPhilips PetroleumExxonMobilauditingredistribution of wealthforeign direct investmentcapital flightinflationPlan Bolivar 2000Fidel CastroSpecial PeriodvaccinationConstitution of VenezuelaAssemblea Nacional Constituyenteconstitutionparticipatoryrepresentative democracybicameralunicameralmudslides2000 Venezuelan presidential electionwas reelectedCarter CenterInternational Labour Organizationsanctionsenabling actrule by decreePetróleos de Venezuela S.A.land transferhealthcare systemMohammad KhatamiSadaam HusseinMuammar Gaddafibicameral legislatureNational AssemblypropagandaFedecámarasConfederación de Trabajadores de Venezuelastrike2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attemptFrancisco RodríguezLucas Rincón RomeroCommander-in-ChiefArmed Forces of VenezuelaPedro CarmonaCarmona issued a decreeWorld Social ForumPorto AlegreBrazil