Hugo Chávez
Venezuelan Dictator
Profile
Hugo Chávez was the leader of Venezuela from 1999-2013. Hugo was mainly known for his success in reducing poverty in Venezuela and using the countries abundant oil revenues to build needed infrastructure and invest in social services. Hugo has been able to help the country increase social spending by almost 61% and poverty has reduced from 71% to 21%. Even though Hugo Chávez helped the country in many ways he ended up hurting it in the long term. Hugo was very popular by the poor and was known for taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Because of this Hugo in a way almost destroyed Democracy in the Country of Venezuela. He would do anything to help the poor even if it ment hurting the upper and middle class. It is also debated if he caused the economy to grow at a slower by trying to keep all the oil in Venezuela in Venezuela.
Audio
Mini Bio: Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chávez was loved and idolized by the lower class, but was seen a terrible leader who destroyed Venezuela's economy to the middle and upper class. One of his big goals was to redistribute the oil wealth in Venezuela into social programs. Hugo also helped his campaign to get to power by criticizing and blaming the United States for a lot of South America's problems. The U.S was a sort of scapegoat for the U.S because has been known to keeping South America down for a lot of years. Hugo Chávez appealed to the majority which was the poor and used propaganda and other countries weaknesses to stay and power and gain followers.
Political Cartoon
This political cartoon demonstrates how the middle and upper class view Hugo Chávez. The middle and upper class were frustrated with Chávez because he was waisting Venezuela's oil gift by redistributing the oil wealth to social programs. Many people believe that if Chávez took his approach to Venezuelan's oil industry in a different direction that Venezuela's economy would be moving at a much higher rate than it is now. The people in the background are the poor who supported Chávez through his whole time as president because he would always give and donate to the poor and do whatever he could to make poor peoples lives better.