Chavez: a divisive political survivor

CARACAS – Hugo Chavez has travelled a bumpy road since he was first elected a decade ago, inspiring love and loathing in Venezuela and abroad, and blamed by critics for splitting the population in two.

His latest victory, in a referendum to change the constitution and scrap term limits for elected officials, paves the way for him to seek re-election in 2012 and beyond.The leftist leader is popular with the long-neglected poor for his oil-funded healthcare and education programmes, and blamed vocal opposition for rising crime, corruption and inflation.The weekend win could prompt him to expand his socialist drive, which has included nationalisations and greater state control over the economy in recent years.But it also comes amid warnings that his social programmes could be hard hit by tumbling oil prices.Chavez is omnipresent on lengthy broadcasts on national TV, including a weekly presidential address during which he often breaks into song and endless political campaigns to extend his self-styled 21st century socialism.Inspired by Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Chavez is a self-sufficient revolutionary, controlling the western hemisphere’s largest oil reserves and one of the most important foreign sources of crude for the United States.But the fierce anti-liberal has embraced many US enemies, including former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Iran. He famously called President George W Bush ‘the devil’.Chavez congratulated Barack Obama on his election, however, and said on Saturday that Venezuela was ready to ‘start a process of rapprochement’ with the United States.He also again denied US accusations of supporting Colombia’s FARC rebels.At home, a string of social programmes have maintained a support base for his ‘Bolivarian’ revolution – named after the South American liberator, Simon Bolivar.Nationalisations have been popular among his supporters, while business leaders fear they are driving away foreign investment and threatening Venezuelan private companies.Critics also charge that Chavez has too much power, with large sway over the courts, lawmakers and the election council.Despite his social programmes, the former paratrooper – who led a failed military coup in 1992 – has failed to bridge the yawning gap between rich and poor.But the 54-year-old proved once again on Sunday that he is a survivor: he has also won two consecutive terms, survived a recall referendum after the opposition led a crippling two-month strike of the oil industry in early 2003 and emerged unscathed from a coup that ousted him for two days in April 2002.Chavez was first elected on December 6 1998, on a wave of discontent with the two traditional parties which had run the country for 40 years.He says he began planning his revolution during two years spent in prison for leading the failed military coup in 1992.In recent years, Chavez has reduced weapons sourcing and military ties with the United States and increased arms purchases from alternative sources, such Russia, Belarus and China.A leader among Latin American leftists, including Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia, Chavez has slammed the workings of neo-liberal globalisation for years.He promotes his own trade alternative, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, set up with Cuba in 2004.Born of school teacher parents in the southwestern town of Sabaneta on July 28 1954, Chavez studied at the Military Academy of Venezuela in Caracas. Twice divorced, he has four children. – Nampa-AFP