Hugo Chavez
Was Hugo Chavez the villain or hero of Venezuela?
Chavez in a Nut Shell
Hugo Chavez grew up in a middle class working family and later joined the military. He became the president of Venezuela on February 2, 1999 starting his reign over Venezuela. He followed his own political ideology of Bolivarianism and Socialism, he implemented socialist reforms in the country as part of his project known as the Bolivarian Revolution. He nationalized many key industries greatly benefitting Venezuela as a whole. He increased government funding of health care and education, and reduced poverty in the country with oil revenues. He did help Venezuela immensely in some aspects of life, but he also became corrupt very quickly. He started to make laws that would essentially give him all the power that congress held, giving him complete control over the country. Eventually, people started to protest against his rule over the country, and in some of the protests the protesters were massacred in 2002 when Chavez started to show his true colors.
Welcome To Chavezuela
In the cartoon Hugo Chavez is greeting people as they enter Venezuela and putting stickers over their mouths. The stickers symbolize how he forces the words into your mouth, and covers up your opinion. Chavez would not tolerate any opposition to his reign so the public opinion was forced to be pro-Chavez. Chavez also made himself appear like a god-like figure just as many dictators before him have also done. Essentially, if you entered Venezuela during the time of Hugo Chavez's reign you were either a Chavez fan or dead.
A Letter to Castro
Dear Castro,
Ruling Venezuela is going pretty well and I'm thinking about invading a small communist island off the coast of Venezuela. I'd like to request your help in taking them over, I know how much you despise communism and you always have men ready to fight. Recently most of my men have been occupying the streets of Venezuela to help rebuild our nation. It would be great if you could help me out with this, and I would like to interest you in some land or money to further your goals as payment for this favor.
Sincerely,
Hugo Chavez