Plan of Investigation
Venezuela was almost at the end of a period of more than 30 years of stable democratic rule. On February 1988, President Perez was elected for his second term. Venezuela had an export economy which heavily relied on high international oil prices; in the 1980’s there was a decline of oil prices which gave the government a strong strain in public spending. The economy was on its way to crashing which led to an increase of the economic gap in the country as well as in the military. Also there were many suspicions of corruption inside the government, with President Perez leading.
How did the two failed 1992 coup d’état attempts led by Hugo Chavez help his political career? This investigation will answer the question by analyzing the result of the rwo failed coups; first, that the coups exposed the corruption, failures and weakness of President Perez and his government; second, that the coups presented an image to the Venezuelan people of a dynamic, charismatic and populist leader in the person of Chavez. The most important sources used will be contemporary press accounts, Chavez’s speech and reactions from ordinary Venezuelan people at the time.
This investigation will only asses the period between 1990 and 1998 in order to account for Chavez’s rise to power.
Summary of Evidence
Venezuela had experienced an interrupted civilian democratic rule from 1958 until 1992; with the exception to some minor coup attempts in the early 60s, but the country’s elected leaders were able to keep the military loyal and a democratic government in place.
Venezuela has one of the biggest oil reserves in the world, so they heavily on relied on high prices of oil in the international market for their export. When the price ...
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...tions of 1999 when he won with his political group, the PSUV.
Works Cited
Barbukin, Sergei. "The 1992 Coup Attempts in Venezuela: Causes and Failures." JPMS: Journal of Political and Military Sociology 27, no. 1 (1999): 141.
The New York Times. "Venezuela Crushes Army Coup Attempt - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/05/world/venezuela-crushes-army-coup-attempt.html
Richard Lapper. “Venezuela and the Rise of Chavez: A Background Discussion Paper.” Council of Foreign Relations. Last modified November 22, 2005. http://www.cfr.org/venezuela/venezuela-rise-chavez-background-discussion-paper/p9269
“‘Por Ahora’ Hugo Chávez 4 de febrero 1992 (con subtítulos en Ingles)” YouTube video, 1:10, posted by “fobioh”, Last modified: March 27, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcoFPsoKLU
Chavez was greatly supported the idea of equality the he “gained national stature as a labor union spokesman” with all the action he would take not only in his community but others as well. He was such an influential person that the people of the US Senate offered him to” have a testimony during an US Senate subcommittee hearing” . While he is there he lets the people know how these migrant farm workers are being treated and what people are able to do to help. His actions that he took changed US History by letting the people know what and how the migrant workers are treated.
Chávez’s leadership was based on an unshakable commitment to nonviolence, personal sacrifice and a strict work ethic. He emphasized the necessity of adhering to nonviolence, even when faced with violence from employers and growers, because he knew if the strikers used violence to further their goals, the growers and police would not hesitate to respond with even greater vehemence. Despite his commitment to nonviolence, many of the movement’s ‘enemies’, so to speak, made efforts to paint the mo...
Guatemala held democratic elections in 1944 and 1951, they resulted in leftist government groups holding power and rule of the country. Intervention from the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed a more conservative military minded regime. A military coup took place in 1954 to over throw the elected government and install the rule of Carlos Castillo Armas. Carlos Armas was a military general before the coup and with the CIA orchestrated operation he was made President from July 8th 1954 until his assassination in 1957. Upon his assassination, similar militant minded presidents rose to power and continued to run the country. Due to the nature of military dictatorship, in 1960, social discontent began to give way to left wing militants made up of the Mayan indigenous people and rural peasantry. This is the match that lit Guatemala’s Civil War, street battles between the two groups tore the country and pressured the autocratic ruler General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes to fight harder against the civilian insurrection. Similar to the government Abductions th...
The reason being is that he remembered all the injustice being committee to the immigrant’s workers and children. The working and living conditions was so bad for the field workers, sometimes they had to live in their car and if they did get housing in immigrant’s labor camp it was very small, it was one small room for a family of five or six. The field worker’s family would work up to fifteen hours a day for minimum wage with no over time, no health insurance benefits. Chavez later went on his own and organize United Farm Workers (UFW); they design a flag for their union, a black eagle in the middle with red color on the outside with his own money of $900, he stared this in his hometown of Delano California. He stared traveling from farm to farm to get worker to join his union. In 1965 Chavez did his first march with 300 people, they march from Delano to Sacramento it took them 25 days to reach Sacramento. They were joined by 10,000 people. They continue to do march and strikes; Chavez was against violence during all his marches and strikes. Chavez tries to negotiate with Gallo and Christian Bros, but to no use they did not want to change things. In 1968, production in the grapes dropped from 90% to 12% nationwide, due to the ongoing strikes. In 1970 Chavez stared fasting and the growers stared to sigh with the union to give the workers better pay and better leaving conditions. In
Chavez is one of the greatest Civil Rights activists of times. As a child he watched workers be mistreated and misused. He follows King and Gandhi’s principles of nonviolence and lives by their standards. He also believes that the highest form of freedom carries with it the greatest measure of
Since the 1970s, Venezuela has gone from being South America’s richest nation into a nouveau-poor society in search of an identity. Once known as the Saudis of the West, Venezuelans have seen their economic fortunes decline in exact proportion to the general fall in world oil prices. Even so, Venezuela’s many problems were hidden from view until relatively recently, when severity measures heralded the sort of economic crises so painfully familiar to other Latin American countries. Runaway inflation, currency devaluations and even food riots have marked this new phase in Venezuelan history, to which the country is still trying to adjust.
Neuman, William. "Venezuela Gives Chávez Protégé Narrow Victory." The New York Times. The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
To sum up, Chavez was a man that fought for farmers to be traded better. One of his quotes was “The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people”. With this, we can conclude that no matter the kind of strike he had lead, it was always for the people. For example, when he was fighting about the pesticide in grapes or lettuces, the true fight he was leading was always a fight for the people in order to make their lives easier. Maybe his life was not easy as a child working at a young age or maybe it got more complicated as he got older and enter the unions to defend the people that worked on farms, but he got to be a hero among the farmers. More importantly, Chavez got the farmers the momentum they needed in order for them to fight for what they wanted, and in the end, accomplished to get the rights they deserved.
Filmmaker Oliver Stone embarked on a journey across the Latin American continent pursuant to the filling of gaps left by mainstream media about the social and political movements in the southern continent. Through a series of interviews he conducted with Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Cristina Kirchner and former president Nėstor Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Raúl Castro of Cuba, Stone was able to compare firsthand information from the leaders themselves with that reported and published by the media (“Synopsis,” n.d.). It gives light to the measures these leaders had to take in order to initiate change in their respective countries, even if their public identities were at stake. Several instances in the film showed the mismatch between these two sources, pointing at the US government’s interests for greatly influencing the media for presenting biased, groundless views.
Venezuela was one of the richest countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Colombia and Ecuador). For most of the first half of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since 1959. Current concerns include: a polarized political environment, a politicized military, drug-related violence along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible mining operations that are endangering the rain forest and indigenous peoples.
... Richard. "Cesar Estrada Chavez."The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Vol 3: 1991-1993. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Reproduced in History Resource Center. San Antonio College Lib., San Antonio, TX. 7 July 2014
In the wake of WWII, the western world was in a state of perpetual fear. After seeing Marxist influence make a shocking impact wherever it landed, the rise of the Soviet Union, the 26rd of July movement in Cuba, and numerous other revolutions with the goal of radical social and political reforms, the world was divided by two mutually exclusive and hostile ideologies: capitalism and Marxism. The two major superpowers of the time, the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union were at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Marxist revolutions of Europe and Russia gave inspiration to many Latin American revolutionaries. The U.S. wanted to ensure that communism and leftist regimes did not spread, particularly in Latin America, where leftist regimes would especially threaten U.S. business interest. The U.S. for over a century had been imperializing Latin America under a series of façades and in the mid-20th century, McCarthyism became the new catch-all excuse to interfere with the affairs of a sovereign nation. Under the guise of containing the spread of communism, many Latin American governments that tried to deviate from the practice of serving U.S. interest were overthrown with the funding and instruction of the U.S. It was with the watchful and accusing eye of Uncle Sam looming over Latin America that in 1970, that Unidad Popular candidate, Salvador Allende, was democratically elected President of Chile. Even before Allende assumed the presidency, oppositional forces were conspiring to destroy him, everything he was to accomplish, and the pro-working class ideology that he represented. The events that occurred in the three years that his presidency endured and which lead to the coup d’état of Pinochet were the product of U.S. hostility towards any t...
Food shortages, high inflation rates, protest, and violence: one sees these headlines in a Google search of Venezuela today. All around the country, there are long lines to buy simple necessities, like bread and milk. High inflation rates lead to shortages of food supplies, which increase frustration leading to protests in the streets and, sadly, an increase of violence. The protests and violence result from the inability of Venezuelans to provide the most basic human needs for their families. Sky-rocketing inflation rates in Venezuela are the result of Hugo Chavez, the former socialist and revolutionary leader of the country, and his administration. While in power, Chavez was so consumed with fixing the social issues in Venezuela, that other aspects of the country were ignored – like the economy. In 2014, Venezuela is left with a destroyed economy, angry people, and a government that is trying to fix the many issues the country currently faces; although the government is committed to finding solutions, the people of Venezuela do not feel the government is fixing the problems fast enough.
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