How long was Hugo Chavez in power and is he to blame for Venezuela’s economic collapse?

HUGO Chavez was the 45th president of Venezuela and many credit him for the economic collapse of the South American country.

We explain who he was, what he was like as a leader and how his policies led to Venezuela’s current economic crisis.

Who is Hugo Chavez?

Hugo Chavez was born on July 28, 1954, and died on March 5, 2013.

He was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013.

Chavez was born into a working-class family and became a career military officer after developing a dislike for the governing Venezuelan political coalition called the Puntofijo Pact.

He then founded the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s.

He led an unsuccessful coup d’etat against President Carlos Andres Perez in 1992.

Chavez was imprisoned for two years and after he was released he founded the Fifth Republic Movement political party and elected as president in 1998.

How did Venezuela collapse under Chavez?

Chavez adopted a new constitution in 1999, and enacted a series of social reforms as part of the Bolivarian Revolution.

The Bolivarian Revolution was named after the 19th century Venezuelan revolutionary Simon Bolivar and sought to implement nationalism and a state-led economy across the continent.

Chavez used the oil revenues of the 2000s to nationalise key industries and to implement social programmes known as the Bolivarian missions.

The Bolivarian missions helped to expand access to food, housing, healthcare and education.

He promoted “socialism of the 21st century” in 2005 to encourage economic and political integration among other Latin American countries and to oppose any North American influence.

At the start of the 21 st century Venezuela was the world’s fifth largest exporter of crude oil, with it accounting for 85 per cent of the country’s exports and therefore dominating the economy.

This resulted in temporary improvements to quality of life, literacy rates, poverty rates, and income equality – mainly from 2003 and 2007.

However, and the gains started to reverse in 2012 after government policies failed to address structural inequalities in other areas such as quality of housing, neighbourhoods, education and employment.

The Venezuelan government overspent on social programmes and it led to a rise in inflation.

This coupled with the government’s unfriendliness to privatisation led to a lack of foreign investment.

President Nicolas Maduro took over after Chavez died in 1993, and analysts claim that Venezuela’s economic problems would still have been exasperated if Chavez was still the leader.

What is the situation with Venezuela’s economy today?

Hyperinflation has become one of the biggest problems for Venezuelans in their day-to-day lives.

The costs of goods continue to increase as the value of their currency continues to fall.

Venezuela plans to sell 15 tonnes of gold to the United Arab Emirates in coming days in return for cash to buy basic goods, totalling £560million.

The desperate decision from the crisis-stricken country comes as an attempt to stay afloat after Trump declared anyone transporting Venezuelan gold is subject to US sanctions.

The US, which is backing Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s opposition, warned bankers and traders on Wednesday not to deal in Venezuelan gold.

Republican US Senator Marco Rubio sent a tweet to the UAE embassy in Washington warning those that decide to transport the gold will face consequences.

Venezuela’s plan is to sell 29 tonnes of gold held in Caracas to the UAE by February in order to afford imports of basic goods, according to a source.