Hugo Chávez
El Comandante! El Comandante! If you scream that in the streets of Venezuela, there is only one person you could possibly be referring to – Hugo Chávez. The current president of the South American country, Venezuela, has been in power for the past four years. His time in office has been criticized by most and glorified by some. He has had the backing of other countries such as Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Libya and Iraq. On the other hand, the United States has had a continuous growth of confusion for Chávez’s actions. The leader’s intentions have been surrounded by a circle of uncertainty. Chávez’s life as president or even before those days has been far from interesting. Hugo Chávez has been a leader, a commander and a revolutionist.
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was born in Sabaneta de Barinas, a small town in the lightly populated savannah. His young life was simple. He grew up selling bananas and sowing corn. He enjoyed the academics and had a thirst for knowledge. Chávez excelled in baseball, the country’s national pastime. José López, Chávez’s baseball coach, described the youngster as, “A tough little kid, mischievous, a real talker and dreamer, but as tenacious as hell” (Rother). As he grew up he had a growing curiosity towards the military and those with power. He was assigned to many regions where he performed different duties. He also had the opportunity to meet numerous people. A former classmate and friend of Chávez, Jesús Hernández recalled,
“We were a group of four or five captains who used to jog together in the afternoons, and one day in 1983 Chávez suggested we swear an oath to fight against corruption and for the welfare of our country…from that moment on, we began to study the pr...
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.... Is this the president we have been waiting for??
Works Cited
Buxton, Julian. Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela. Aldershot, New Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, 2001.
Ellner, Steve, and Daniel Hellinger, eds. Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era. Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2003.
Rother, Larry. “Chávez Shaping Country to His Vision.” The New York Times. On-line. Internet. 28 July 2000. Available WWW: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas
Schemo, Diana Jean. “Renegade Officer Favored in Venezuelan Election.” The New York Times. On-line. Internet. 6 December 1998. Available WWW: http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/americas
“Venezuela’s Chávez plans to rule until 2013.” CNN Presents. CNN. 14 July 2002.
Wilson, Scott. “Political Deadlock Bolsters Chávez.” The Washington Post 20 January 2003: A15.
Crassweller, Robert D. Trujillo: The life and times of a Caribbean dictator. New York: Macmillan.1966.
Miguel Melendez’s book, “We Took the Streets” provides the reader with an insightful account into the activities of the Young Lords movement established in the latter years of the 1960s and remained active up until the early seventies. The book’s, which is essentially Melendez’s memoir, a recollection of the events, activities, and achievements of the Young Lords. The author effectively presents to the reader a fascinating account of the formation of the Young Lords which was a group of college students from Puerto Rico who came together in a bid to fight for some of the basic rights. As Melendez sums it up, “You either claim your history or lose authority over your future” (Melendez 23). The quote is in itself indicative of the book’s overall
Walker, Thomas W and Armony, Ariel C. Repression, Resistance, and Democratic Transition in Latin America. Scholarly Resources Incorporated, 2000. Wilmington, Delaware.
...otagonist of a strong centralized government and as a promoter of Spanish-American cooperation. His disillusion with both political radicalism and democracy has been stressed by many of his biographers. Recently, however, a revisionist work (Salcedo-Bastardo, 1957) suggests that Bolivar was a liberal and realistic democrat as well as a farsighted reformer who had sought social and economic reforms such as abolition of slavery, administrative reorganization, and (on unconvincing evidence) redistribution of land. [1] There is abundant evidence that Bolivar labored to create a system that would preserve unity and stability through a powerful, centralized government while retaining as much individual liberty as possible; but his efforts were exhausting and fruitless. However, his contribution had been to promote the idea of independence among Spanish-American leaders.
"The Cambridge History of Latin America." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2014. <http://books.google.com/books?id=3NiCQFfSGIkC&pg=PA313&lpg=PA313&dq=carlos+chavez+obertura+republicana&source=bl&ots=Jp3wnnLfmu&sig=Aa-BUEPyHXZhKj67mkSB5UsHylE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=N9R2U-fsBoK_oQSWr4D4AQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwADge#v=onepage&q=carlos%20chavez%20obertura%20republicana&f=false>.
Hugo Chavez was the president of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013. He had an interesting way of running the country during his presidency. His political position or ideology could be best defined as Bolivarianism for many reasons. Bolivarianism can be described as a set of doctrines that was popular in South America. It is named after the famous liberator Simon Bolivar. Hugo Chavez’s ideology involved ideas from others he had come to admire. Of course one of those that he admired was Simon Bolivar. The ideas for his ideology all began at a young age when he fell in love with history (Jones 23). During this age Hugo Chavez would often times read about a general named Ezequiel Zamora whom his great great grandfather had served (Marcano, Tyszka 11). Ezequiel Zamora will become a major influence in his ideology later on in his life. Besides Zamora, Chavez would also read about many other theorists. Hugo Chavez not only lived in poverty but also witnessed how bad the poverty around him was (Jones 25-26). Chavez did not like this poverty and wanted to change that any way he could. As he grew up he continued reading about the different theorists and ideologies that they made up (Jones 40). So since a young age Chavez had always been a leftist. As mentioned earlier it continued throughout his life and it intensified during his days at the military academy (Wilpert 07) Eventually Chavez became the president and his political position progressed further left (Wilpert 07). In other words he rejected both far left ideologies such as communism or Marxism-Leninism and moderate ideologies such as social democracy or the third way. However Chavez was aware of these different ideologies but did not consider being part of it. Hugo Chavez instead began t...
Geoffrey Chaucer was an English Poet whose most famous work was “The Canterbury Tales”. The Canterbury Tales continues to be acknowledged for the beautiful rhythm of Chaucer’s language, and his characteristic use of clever, satirical wit. (A+E Networks) According to Encyclopedia Britannica, satire is a literary form in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule. (“Satire” Encyclopedia Britannica) In this case, when each character of The Canterbury Tales gets up to talk, Chaucer slips in some remarks that may offend the audience to make a point. The three main places where Chaucer’s satire is prominent are in the General Prologue, when the Wife of Bath speaks, and when the Pardoner speaks.
Jorge Chavez is considered in Peru, the country where I was born, a hero for being the first man who attempted to fly across the Alps. Although he didn’t manage to meet his objective because his Blériot XI crashed upon landing, the bravery and courage he exhibited while he was alive were determinants to his career success. Therefore, in the present paper, I intend to highlight Chavez aeronautical achievements and, likewise, explain how he became fascinated in aviation.
In Literature, as in real life, characters are sometimes judged by their appearance. The description of clothing provides detail and comment on those wearing them. Chaucer’s uses of artifice in The Canterbury Tales function as gauges of the social status and economic wealth, and emotional condition of each pilgrim. Artifice effectively provides a badge of humanity, symbolic of each character’s fallibility. Yet clothing simultaneously imposes upon the characters literary stereotypes, which they consequentially adopt. Unable to transcend these ascribed roles, the pilgrims sometimes find themselves bound by literary stereotypes and narrative function, which they tend to fulfill rather than reject. Although Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales transcend a Romantic stereotype, his characters often do not. They find themselves bound to the conventions of Romance, as they are bound by the clothes that define them. Chaucer’s materialistic focus enhances this metaphor and deconstructs the purism of Christianity throughout their physical journey. This aspect of characterization functions to illuminate the meanings inherent in the costumes of the secular pilgrims, revealing the extent of their conformity, through their dress, to 14th century social, political, and religious norms.
The accounts of Ernesto Che Guevara on his nine month long motorcycle journey through Latin America exhibited the necessity for change and prompted him to become involved in the Cuban revolution. At the height of his passion he showed this by stating, “The future belongs to the people, and gradually, or in one strike, they will take power, here and in every country. The terrible thing is the people need to be educated, and this they cannot do before taking power, only after” (Guevara).
Geoffrey Chaucer isn’t just the father of the English language, he’s also the king of satire. His work, The Canterbury Tales, combined sass and rhyme to decimate previously conceived social expectations of the Catholic church. Staunch Fourteenth century England must have gotten a little bit more heated when Chaucer’s jaunty characters first told their opinions of love, money, and war. On Chaucer’s unique style, John Zedolik comments, “The Canterbury Tales contains variety in genre but also variety in its narrative modes and components. It is almost as if Chaucer wrote this work with its multi-layered and multi-faceted structure in order to defy classification.”
Many people think of William Shakespeare as the greatest English writer of all time, and he may be. But the forefather of English literature is Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer wrote many brilliant pieces of literature but Canterbury Tales may be his greatest of them all. Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories that were told by a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage to Canterbury. There is a hidden message of satire throughout the stories of Canterbury Tales that show Chaucer’s displeased attitude towards the church, patriarchy, and the social order of England. Canterbury Tales contains nasty satire that is directed towards issues in England.
Hugo Chavez was a powerful and positive force in addressing social issues, however, his singular focus on social issues at the expense of other matters of the country left the Venezuelan economy in tatters. In 1998, 50.4% of the Venezuelan population was living below the poverty line, where as in 2006 the numbers dropped to 36.3% (Chavez leaves). Although he aggressively confronted the issue of poverty in Venezuela, many other problems were worsened. Some Chavez critics say he used the state oil company like a piggy bank for projects: funding homes, and healthcare while neglecting oil infrastructure and production. Without growth in the oil ind...
Everyone knows what Martin Luther King Jr. did for the rights of African Americans but not everyone is as familiar with Cesar Chavez. Chavez is an unsung hero in American history. He was the leader that started “La Causa”, the Hispanic American civil rights movement. Chavez changed the lives of thousands of people. He left his imprint on the world by dedicating his life to fighting for the rights of migrant farmworkers. Farmworkers had extremely hard lives, so Chavez inspired people to demand change. Even after his passing, his legacy continues on through the Cesar Chavez Foundation which helps improve communities in numerous states.
Wright, Alan. "After Chavez – What Next for Nicaragua?" SosteNica. N.p., 6 Apr. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2014. .