Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

Another of my social innovation heroes: Commander Hugo Chavez



Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the President of Venezuela. As the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation. He is also a critic of neoliberalism, globalization, and United States foreign policy.


Domestically, Chávez has maintained nationwide Bolivarian Missions,

whose goals are to combat disease, illiteracy, malnutrition, poverty,

and other social ills. Abroad, Chávez has acted against the Washington Consensus

by supporting alternative models of economic development, and has advocated

cooperation among the world's poor nations, especially those in Latin America.

His political influence in South America and his adversarial relationship with the
United States have given him a comparatively high geopolitical profile,
leading Time magazine to include him among their list of the world's

100 most influential people in 2005 and 2006.


Chávez was born on July 28, 1954 in Sabaneta, Barinas to schoolteachers

Hugo de los Reyes Chavez and Elena Frias de Chavez. The Chávez family

is of mixed Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish descent. Chávez

was born in a mud hut near Sabaneta. Due to the Chávez family's

impoverished conditions, Hugo Chávez was sent to Sabaneta with his older

brother Adán to live with his paternal grandmother, Rosa Inés Chávez,

where he pursued hobbies such as painting, singing, and baseball while

attending elementary school at the Julián Pino School. He was later forced

to relocate to the town of Barinas to attend high school at the

Daniel Florencio O'Leary School.



At age seventeen, Chávez enrolled at the Venezuelan Academy of Military

Sciences. After graduating in 1975 as a sub-lieutenant with a degree in

Military Arts and Science, Chávez entered military service for several months.

He was then allowed to pursue graduate studies in political science at the

Simon Bolivar University. Over the course of his college years, Chávez and

fellow students developed a left wing nationalist doctrine that they termed

"Bolivarianism" inspired by the Pan-American philosophy of 19th century

Venezuelan revolutionary Simon Bolivar, the influence of former Peruvian

President Juan Velasco and the thought of various socialist and communist

leaders including Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.
Chávez engaged in sporting events and cultural activities during these
years as well. He played both baseball and softball with the Criollitos
de Venezuela
, progressing with them to the Venezuelan National Baseball

Championships in 1969. Chávez also wrote numerous poems, stories and

theatrical pieces. Upon completing his studies, Chávez initially entered

active-duty military service as a member of a counter-insurgency battalion

stationed in Barinas.

Chavez's military carrer lasted 17 years, during which time he held

a variety of posts including command and staff positions, eventually

rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Chávez also held a series

of teaching and staffing positions at the Academy of Military Sciences,

where he was first acknowledged by his peers for his fiery lecturing style

and radical critique of Venezuelan government and society.


He just got a Twitter account so I'm gonna shadow him and try to contact him there.



Views: 689

Comment by Josh Judkins on May 2, 2010 at 1:27am
fascinating summary Sarah! I look forward to the Oliver Stone movie. =)
Comment by Sarah O.Connor Panamericana on May 2, 2010 at 1:32am
Thank you Mr. Judkins!!!
Comment by Gabriel Martin on May 2, 2010 at 1:32am
Ah! I see, and I cant wait, its really cool how you manage to educate someonel like me, though I am so far away... Thank you
Comment by cameron michael keys on May 9, 2010 at 9:22am
an acquaintance of mine did a thesis project comparing the speeches of george bush with the speeches of trotsky, finding significant parallels. american congressional representative Ron Paul characterizes the existing american regime as trotskyite conservative. i always think its weird when people sympathetic to marx's work don't understand that a good communist would be the harshest corporatist you could encounter. i think the venezualans' nationalization of petroleum stores is a good idea that america should consider -- we have refineries in the south and lots of oil off the coasts and in alaska, but we export the oil we manufacture and then import from other places, which probably stupid. anyway, from reading the communist manifesto it is pretty clear that a dedicated socialist would not hesitate to join the ranks of the most elite financial parasite networks to accelerate the historical progression to a socialist power structure. strange, in that case, that the people you hate might be more in tune with your own convictions than you realize.

the people i know in america who talk about che guevera point out that he coordinated the death squads in cuba during the revolution. i never understood why the cuban government banned the saxophone, claiming it is an instrument of exploitation. W.T.F.?

i thought the two part movie CHE starring benicio del toro was pretty well done. i find the cuban form of the spanish language very precise and easiest to model for those of us who are trying to learn spanish but can't understand when people talk too fast.

so Sarah do you think it is a good idea to join the military? my father was in the u.s. marine corps, but i've always hesitated since i don't trust their use of my body and my labor. it seems like all my favorite poets and novelists joined the military, and certainly a great many world leaders. e.e. c**mings, for example. amazing poetry -- military service.

but yeah, remember that there's nothing contradictory in a marxist historiography about socialists being predatory capitalists.
Comment by Wintermute on May 9, 2010 at 9:24am
Cameron? When did you get back, I am happy to see that you have returned :) I missed hearing your voice on the network
Comment by cameron michael keys on May 9, 2010 at 9:32am
i got an email that someone had responded to my ACT2 post about zimbabwe, so i returned to read the response. well, one thing led to another and now i'm excited about some of these blogs y'all been posting.

i came to evoke originally after reading a blogspot posting from a harvard divinity school student.
http://spectacleofsoul.blogspot.com/2010/02/hls-professor-roberto-u...

tonight i saw a new doc**entary about The Doors called People are Strange. it was good. then i went to my favorite bar, had a couple pints of ale, and drove home listening to Thomas Mapfumo & the Blacks. i checked my email and saw Sarah had posted something. so here i am. but i haven't returned to evoke, really. i'm just browsing.
Comment by A.V.Koshy on May 9, 2010 at 4:07pm
we miss you michael
Comment by Sarah O.Connor Panamericana on May 9, 2010 at 5:05pm
I do not think its a good idea Michael, especially not in your country.
Comment by cameron michael keys on May 9, 2010 at 5:58pm
a-greed.
Comment by A.V.Koshy on May 9, 2010 at 6:01pm
lol :)

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