10 Things You Didn't Know About Hugo Chávez
Chávez has been president of Venezuela since 1999
1. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was born July 28, 1954, in Sabaneta, Venezuela.
2. During his youth, Chávez dreamed of becoming a famous baseball player. His hero was Venezuelan pitcher Néstor Isaías "Látigo" Chávez (no relation). He instead enrolled in a military academy to become a soldier.
3. In February 1992, Chávez organized a failed coup against then President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Chávez spent more than two years in prison before being granted a pardon.
4. In December 1998, Chávez won Venezuela's presidential election with 56 percent of the vote.
5. When Chávez visited the United States in June 1999, he threw the opening pitch at a Mets baseball game and rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
6. On April 11, 2002, Chávez was briefly ousted by an attempted coup. He regained the presidency three days later and accused the United States of backing the failed coup.
7. In 2007, a constitutional referendum failed that would have allowed for Chávez to be re-elected infinitely. In 2008, a second referendum vote ending presidential term limits passed.
8. Chávez hosts a weekly live television program called Aló Presidente (Hello President), in which he talks about his political ideas, interviews guests, and makes jokes.
9. His father, Hugo de los Reyes Chávez, served as the governor of the state of Barinas from 1998 to 2008. The elder Chávez was succeeded by his son Adán. His other sons are also politically active.
10. Chávez has been married and divorced twice. He has four children and two grandchildren.
Sources:
- Chicago Tribune
- The Miami Herald
- BBC News
- PBS's Frontline
- New York Times
- Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President
- Chavez, Venezuela and the New Latin America: an interview with Hugo Chávez
Reader Comments
Capishe?
Wow, Ms. Eddie, you bring up some good points. Nepotism is one. When you say that were you thinking of the Bush family? No, wait… The Clintons. Oh no, you meant the Kennedy family. Ohhh, you meant the Rockerfellers. Oh, you were just having a brain fart. Yeah, yeah, that’s what I thought.
You say, “Its sad that Venezuela has become the current village idiot of this continent.” Shouldn’t that be “It” with an apostrophe s? But generally your English good for a Mexican. But you don’t think you live in Mexico—ahhh, a historically retarded Mexican. Alas, that is not the only blunder in that sentence: you are under the misguided notion that Venezuela is on the same continent as Mexico. Now that’s stupid. Did you learn that in the public school system?
Then you make the blunder, “Everything you own, everything you consume and eat is because of Capitalism making it all happen.” Your current form of capitalism, which is largely financed by communist China and Imperial Japan, only bails out the rich and supports corporations; you need look no further than the bank bailout and the interstate highway system. I think it’s really socialism that makes it all happen. Your capitalism can’t even pay its own bills. (Go Gov. Schwallepecker!)
At least you can take pride in your intellect. You blame the deaths of millions on Russia but fail to look into the mirror. You, and scum like you, managed to inspire Hitler in his quest for the extermination of a race. The weird part is that they failed where you succeeded. You killed millions and you celebrate it every year. Your idol, Ronnie Raygun, was convicted in the World Court for crimes against humanity for killing hundreds of thousand in Nicaragua and Central America. (Go Ronnie!) Your other idol, GeeDub, killed more Iraqis that Hussein did during his regime. (But it wasn't for oil, it's just because scum, and scum like you, enjoy killing. Not to mention oil.)
If you want to have a civilized discussion, bring some facts to the table, not just a heapin’ helpin’ of your arse fudge. Man, are you smart. Capishe?
P.S. Your mom says hi, between gagging and licking.
Venezuela is a failed state
"Capitalism is the belief that money is more important than people. I don't believe that philosophy. I support anyone who opposes capitalism"
^^^ And you my friend are an arse. Look around you. Everything you own, everything you consume and eat is because of Capitalism making it all happen. You write in English, the official language of Capitalism.
Thing is, you couldn't survive without Capitalism. Your country would be even more dirt poor if it didn't have a Capitalist-friendly economy for so many decades. The crap will hit the fan for you commies when you realize that no company is going to want to set foot on your soil during the Chavez dictatorship. And you'll end up having to suck up to Argentina, Brazil or some other country in order to receive goods that are no longer produced in your country. Venezuela will become the panhandler of South America.
And what the fudge is so good about following a communist or socialist ideology? Try asking Poland or some other East European country how they fared under the control of the old Soviet Union. Millions of their citizens were killed, exiled or raped for years and years. The people were living in squalor and misery. Living in constant fear of their "leaders", who controlled what they did every day and even what they said in public. Is that your idea of an ideology that is better than Capitalism? No wonder you support Chavez.
And look, even Chavez knows that he depends on the US and its capitalistic ways. Venezuela exports the majority of their products to the US. They need us. Venezuela is NOTHING without us. If it wasn't for the US, Venezuela wouldn't even have an economy.
Its sad that Venezuela has become the current village idiot of this continent. What a craptastic way to begin the 21st Century.... by becoming a regular banana republic with a typical megalomaniac as their leader.
Its pathetic how some of you Venezuelan commies brag about your "superior ways" and yet you're the definition of a backward third world country in every sense of the word. You have in fact NOTHING to feel proud about. You have an idiot for "Presidente". Who currently has SEVERAL FAMILY MEMBERS HOLDING OFFICES, including his sons. Nepotism to the max.
So please, go back to sucking Chavez arse but don't expect anyone with a brain to do the same. Capishe?
Chavez opposition
Hector Alvarez of NY, thanks for taking the time to respond. I could find no source to verify you claim that, "61,5 PC of the population are against the chavez way of governing..."
I don't believe that there is a good vs. evil argument to be made. It's really a people vs. people argument. For centuries the indigenous population has been given the the table scraps of the colonists. I don't see a problem with the poor indigenous getting their fair share of the countries resources.
There is no such thing as free trade. It's more like the rich taking commodities from the poor for less than market value, selling those commodities for more that market value, then taxing the poor for stealing from them.
Capitalism is the belief that money is more important than people. I don't believe that philosophy. I support anyone who opposes capitalism. If the people vote in someone who believes differently that you, that does not mean it's not democracy.
You did answer a question, but it was about Carmona, not Chavez.
Some statistics on crime I found indicate that in Venezuela there are
9.3 crimes for every 1000 people vs 80/1000 in the US
Rape - .11/1000 vs .30/1000 in the US
Robberies - 1.37/1000 vs. 1.38 in the US
Prisoners - 76 per 100,000 vs 715 per 100,000 (nationmaster.com)
Even though the US claims to be fighting a war against terrorism, and has an extradition treaty with Venezuela (since 1923), why is Luis Posada Carriles living as a free man in Miami,Florida?
No offense intended, but it takes a blind man to believe the US is a great country and Venezuela evil.
You claim, "It is imposible to live well in Venezuela beacuse of people like you who have an instruction to destroy what is good, I call it EVIL." (I think you mean to imply that my thinking is evil.) I claim it is impossible to live well in Venezuela because of the meddling of the US government and its desire to control global oil reserves. Imagine if N. Korea had oil... We'd've bombed them back to the stone age years ago. The basic philosophy of oil is something like: If you are brown people whose country sits atop a vast reservoir of oil, your lives are in danger. You don't see us going after Canada, Norway, Russia, or any white nations... What about Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Afghanistan (pipe lines from Iraq)? Next we're going after any nation with a good supply of clean, fresh water.
Who's evil?
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