I am a Socialist, a worker, a petrolist, a chavist

"Landep News"

I am a Socialist, a worker, a petrolist, a chavist

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned from the chemotherapy treatment in Cuba, and announced that the doctors in the Communist country found no malignant cell in his body.

Chavez announced on Thursday that he had no intention of renouncing the presidential tasks and that he intends to run for another term in office when the presidential election comes in 2012.

He is celebrating on Thursday his 57th birthday, and has been the president of Venezuela since 1999, when he first came to power.

During that time his rule was deemed as “chavismo,” and was characterized by centralization of power, and a Socialist-inspired ideology. He is considered a skilled and charismatic leader, underwent two attempts of assassinations, and blamed them on his Colombian foe Alvaro Uribe, whom he called a “mafioso,” and who left office last year, in August, and a thwarted coup, which he blamed on the Americans and of course on Uribe.

He holds endless speeches, and a television show on national television, as part of his program to keep in touch with the needs of the people.

President Chavez

The way he rules the country is deemed by many as eccentric, by most as highly undemocratic, and by few ideological leaders and companeros in Latin America as visionary.

He rules over a country very rich in oil, attempted during the Bush regime to use the oil as a political weapon, and fell short of becoming a target for the American war on terror.

He often refers to his country as the “Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” and is considered a follower of the Bolivarian political and ideological doctrine that emphasizes a few points like: economic and political sovereignty for the countries in Latin America, and consequently an anti-imperialist doctrine directed especially towards the United States; participatory democracy, which means involvement of the people in the welfare of the commonwealth, which he realizes by the TV shows he runs; economic self-sufficiency; an ethic of patriotic service instilled in the hearts of the people; equitable distribution of the natural resources of the Latin America to all the people; fight against corruption.

Chavez is trying to abide by these rules, although judging by the parodies on Spanish-speaking televisions across America he has some problems with fostering fight against corruption.

Chavez and Arch-enemy Alvaro Uribe

Experts believe however that he combines Bolivarianism with other political doctrines in South America, such as the ones advocated by Fidel Castro, Che Guevarra, Federico Brito Figueroa, and many others.

His interpretation of Bolivarism, also known as chavism, or chavezism, was rejected by other leaders in Latin America, such as former president of Brazil, Ignacio Lula da Silva, a charismatic and skilled man in his own terms, who slammed it by saying Brazil was not Venezuela, because it had strong institutional traditions.

On April 11, 2002, Hugo Chavez was removed from power for 47 hours by an attempted coup that triggered huge demonstrations of support from the people of Venezuela, and a very determined military action.

During the coup, he was detained by the military and the chairman of the Venezuela Federation Chambers of Commerce Pedro Carmona was appointed as interim president, in which capacity he dissolved the National Assembly and the Supreme Court, and declared the Constitution adopted in 1999 void.

Carmona was removed from power as a result of the fact that many factions of the army and many anti-Chavist parties refused to join forces.

The United States and Spain recognized the Carmona government but ended up blaming the coup, after it was defeated.

What is interesting about it is that it was realized, specialists maintain, about the same way as the coup that removed president Ceausescu from power in 1989 in Romania, with the outlet private televisions (national television in the case of Romania) heavily manipulating the masses in support of the coup. The only difference was that while Ceausescu was loathed by his entire nation, Chavez was brought back to power by his.

Chavez often refers to this coup as the revolution of business people who wanted to install the rule of the foreign capitalism in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

In 2007, an amendment to the Constitution removed the number of terms a president could be allowed to serve, thus opening the way for as many terms as he wants.

Chavez and Friends: Fidel Castro and Evo Morales

Chavez made reforms that brought him enthusiasm from the people, reforms that benefited the people who were in destitute positions in the Venezuelan society.

One of the most important reforms was the reform of land distribution, inspired by Latin American doctrine of “co-operativism”, by which poor people were granted the right to farm arable land that had been concentrated into the hands of the wealthy people.

Consistent with that is the reform on the right to fish in the proximity of the shores, which puts food on the table for many people in Venezuela.

In 2005, Chavez declared that oil was a political weapon, deriving this ideology from his friends in Kremlin, Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev, and accused G.W. Bush of assassination attempt over an alleged intention to lockout oil market prices.

On that occasion he warned him who he called “Mister Danger” (“Mister Dangier” in his pronunciation) that should he be assassinated, the United States could “forget about Venezuelan oil.”

On other occasion, dealing with the same president, Chavez proposed American destitute people to give them oil for free, as means to promote Socialism against what he declared a “imperial power.”

In the country, his reforms were aimed at slowing down the process of privatization of the national oil company. They also aimed at giving the state a way to interfere in setting the prices for oil, which was condemned by all major players on that market around the world.

Paesano Chavez

In 2007, he promised the people that he would bring Venezuelans full Socialism, whatever that means, but his detractors believe he is about to feed them with full totalitarianism.

Highly controversial in the Western world, which regards him as no more than a “banana republic leader,” thought of as a savior in the Third World, where his bold reforms are seen as a means to survive, Chavez is in the position to consider relinquishing power, if his condition allows him no more to wield it.

The question is who will step up to take his place with a minimum chance to fit into his shoes, and to meet the expectation threshold he has elevated among the people of Venezuela.

It is considered that the first candidate would be his brother Adan, an university professor that could change the entire perspective on the stature of the president of Venezuela, giving it more academic prestige.

Adan is considered the man who brought his brother into the political circle, and is now serving as a governor of one of the provinces in Venezuela.

His appointment would follow the frame of the Cuban change of generation within the family, not to mention that would meet the approval in Havana, the closest friend Venezuela has in that part of the world.

Dynastic passing of power has become a tradition among the countries with Socialist mentality. It happens in China, where the power is being transferred in a “controlled environment,” or in the more radical North Korea, where father passes on power to perfectly anonymous son.

A second heir apparent could claim to be vice-president Elias Jaua, to whom he formally handed over some powers when he first left for Havana (though in reality he practically ruled the country from abroad).

Constitutionally, in the event something happened to the leader maximo, Jaua would step up and assume provisional power, though it was not the case this time, when the president left the country.

Still, Jaua does not have the charisma that is required to continue in the same framework people would expect next president to act.

Dosdado Caballo, a former army officer that helped him to stage a failed coup in 1992, could be a possible candidate for the job.

Of course, if something were to happen to the president, there is a possibility for the army to decide who will take office in his stead. As he was treating his illness in Cuba, some army officers declared that the next elections could be not recognized, if the enemies of the republic (i.e. democratic opposition) were to win against the chavists, which is in fact very much unlikely to happen.

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