Hugos Presidency in Venezuela - Essay Example

Hugo embarked on a nationwide campaign for the presidency on a platform of Bolivarianism. His beliefs included Venezuelan sovereignty, anti-imperialism, populist democracy, mass participation in the government, strong nationalism and economic self sufficiency. Hugo strongly believed that the revenues from oil sales had to be distributed equally in Venezuela. He later won the election becoming Venezuela’s fifty third president. In 2006, Hugo was re-elected as Venezuela’s president upon which he made an announcement that he will make radical changes within the country.

Some of his radical changes were characteristic of authoritarianism and dictatorship. Chavez withdrew from the IMF, cracked down on all television stations that were critical on him and nationalized electrical companies. He closed 32 radio stations that were privately owned. He went ahead to propose a law that would punish media crimes. Chavez was clearly moving to silence all of his critics. He accused the stations of supporting the 2002 coup against his government. He even denied a certain broadcaster a chance to renew its license claiming that the broadcaster was supporting the opposition (CNN World).

Worse still, he proposed a referendum that would see introduction of certain constitutional changes that remove term limits and centralized power in the presidency (New York Times). Despite the problems of electricity shortages and a recessing economy, Chavez still uses certain tactics to consolidate power. He makes use of tactics like expropriation of his supporters’ businesses and conducting secret police raids. He makes use of military loyalists to execute his orders. His allies had successfully controlled the National Assembly since the year 2005 after the opposition boycotted legislative elections in the same year (New York Times).

Despite these actions, Chavez continues to enjoy great support from the poor who feel that they are better of with Chavez as the president. Chavez distributed the revenues from oil equitably across the nation thereby improving the poor Venezuelans quality of life. Chavez, upon becoming the president in 1998 fired the management of the oil company (state owned) something that angered the middleclass. This resulted in an attempted coup in 2002 that failed (New York Times). Hugo has been the focus of criticism by the West for his action to support the Syrian president (Mr. Assad) by supplying him with oil. Mr. Assad had taken action against an uprising in Syria.

This resulted in mass murders and multiple violations of human rights. The UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) had widely condemned President Assad for violating human rights, mass murders of children women and torture. Chavez’s choice to support Assad was widely viewed as supporting terrorist activities and was highly controversial (New York Times). Chavez had earlier supported Iran’s President (Mr. Mahmoud) who had ridiculed claims by the West that his country (Iran) was seeking to acquire the ability to make nuclear weapons.

Despite the wide condemnation that Muammar president of Libya faced due to his strike back against an uprising in his country, Chavez went ahead and forged close economic and political ties with Libya. Chavez overtime according to a 2009 poll that consisted of a large number of Arab countries, he was the most popular and famous leader both by margin and fear. Chavez had courted almost any