Chavez how long in power

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By Kelsey Piper. The chip shortage has a silver lining By Rebecca Heilweil. Other social indicators, notably literacy, also improved and Mr Chavez and his political movement had little difficulty in defeating an opposition that was deeply divided and unable to adjust to the new Venezuelan realities. In foreign affairs, President Chavez followed an aggressively anti-imperialist policy in which verbal attacks on the US became frequent. He went out of his way to cultivate enemies of the US and deepened the relationship with Cuba.

Yet his most important goal was the building of an alliance among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that would fulfil the frustrated dream of his great hero, South American independence leader Simon Bolivar, two centuries before. The first step towards the Bolivarian dream had been Petrocaribe - a scheme to provide cheap oil to the countries of Central America and the Caribbean that depend on imports.

It was hugely popular, with only Barbados refusing to take part. This was followed by Alba, a regional integration scheme that would grow to include Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras until and Nicaragua, as well as a few small independent Caribbean states. It also led to a development bank designed to counter the influence of the IMF.

Mr Chavez's ambitions to join Mercosur the regional integration scheme founded by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay were long blocked by the Paraguayan senate. But political upheaval in Paraguay led to the country being suspended from the bloc, so clearing the way for Venezuela to be admitted in July President Chavez's electoral success he lost only one nationwide vote did not rest, it is safe to say, on his foreign policy. This was very clear in the presidential election in October , which he won despite a strong challenge from the opposition.

It was due to the social policies that won him the enduring loyalty of the country's poorest strata as well as some support from the middle classes. But his government's policies failed to address several problems that increasingly concern all sectors of society.

The first is the high level of common criminality, illustrated most clearly by the exceptionally high homicide rate. Pedro E. Carrillo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Venezuela is a nation rich with natural resources such as oil, gold, diamonds and other minerals.

Yet, it is experiencing a crisis in which most people cannot find food or medicine. In the past several months, there has been great social unrest in Venezuela. Venezuelans are going out on the streets demanding their basic needs, and storming delivery trucks and stores to get their hands on supplies. Their daily activities are disrupted by water rationing and electricity cuts, which have resulted from long-term neglect of basic infrastructure.

Most people would take this as a sign that the government has simply failed. Why else would they not able to provide the people with the basic necessities like water, electricity, security and opportunity? As a Venezuelan expat having served in the Venezuelan foreign service for two decades and directing a program for the Inter-American Development Bank, I know the crisis is the result of an effort to gain and maintain power, just as the Castro brothers have successfully done in Cuba.

He won by selling the idea of giving power to the people, and ending the corruption of the traditional political parties that had governed Venezuela for the last quarter-century. He won the election by a convincing margin.