Bolivarian Revolution

Venezuela
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The “Bolivarian Revolution” refers to a leftist social movement and political process in Venezuela led by late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement (joined the United Socialist Party of Venezuela in 2007). The "Bolivarian Revolution" is named after Simón Bolívar, an early 19th-century Venezuelan and Latin American revolutionary leader, prominent in the Spanish American wars of independence in achieving the independence of most of northern South America from Spanish rule. According to Chávez and other supporters, the "Bolivarian Revolution" seeks to build a mass movement to implement Bolivarianism - popular democracy, economic independence, equitable distribution of revenues, and an end to political corruption - in Venezuela. They interpret Bolívar's ideas from a socialist perspective.

On his 57th birthday, while announcing that he was being treated for cancer, Chavez announced that he had changed the slogan of the Bolivarian Revolution from “Motherland, socialism, or death” to “Socialist motherland and victory, we will live, and we will come out victorious.”^[1]

Background: Bolivarianism

Simón Bolívar has cast a long shadow over Venezuela's history. Tamarick Person noted "a spontaneous and enduring popular cult of Bolivar" as early as 1842, and he is venerated in "parades, speeches, ceremonies, competitions, inaugurations, commemorations, unveilings of monuments, official publications, and other formal events".^{[citation needed]}

Chavez as a military cadet was "a celebrant of the Bolivarian passion story".^[2] Chávez relied upon the ideas of Bolívar, and on Bolívar as a popular symbol, later in his military career as he put together his MBR-200 movement which would become a vehicle for his 1992 coup-attempt.

Policies

The Chávez administration deployed national social welfare programs (Misiones or "Missions") called Bolivarian Missions.

Internationalism

The "Bolivarian Revolution" under Chávez also refocused Venezuelan foreign policy on Latin American economic and social integration by enacting bilateral trade and reciprocal aid agreements, including his so-called "oil diplomacy", which provided cheap oil to poor neighbouring nations. Chávez regularly portrayed his movement's objectives as being in intractable conflict with neocolonialism and neoliberalism.

See also

• Socialism of the 21st century
• Bolivarian Continental Movement

References

External links

• Schuyler, George W. (The Policy Studies Organization) Health and Neoliberalism: Venezuela and Cuba. Retrieved 18 Oct 2005.

• (Spanish) Gobierno en Línea: Misiones — Official government website detailing the Bolivarian Missions.
• Richard Gott, The Guardian, 30 May 2005, Chávez leads the way
• Christian Parenti, The Nation, 11 April 2005, "Hugo Chávez and Petro Populism"

• (Spanish) Gobierno en Línea: Misiones — Official government website detailing the Bolivarian Missions.
• (Spanish) Misión Barrio Adentro — Official government Mission Barrio Adentro web portal.
• (Spanish) Instituto Nacional de Estadística — Venezuela's National Institute of Statistics; has web several portals for accessing demographic and economic data related to the impact of Bolivarian Missions.
• (Spanish) Barrio Adentro — Official government dossier on Barrio Adentro (in Spanish)
• (Spanish) Aló Presidente 225 — Video of a July 2005 episode of Hugo Chávez's talkshow Aló Presidente that features an eight-hour tour of a new Barrio Adentro II CDI (Centros de Diagnóstico Integral) in Maturín, Monagas state, Venezuela.
• (Spanish) Programa Nro. 225 - Aló Presidente — Transcript of Aló Presidente 225.
• Venezuela's Cooperative Revolution from Dollars & Sense magazine
• Exploring the Dialectic of the Bolivarian Revolution by Monthly Review
• Gott, Richard. The Guardian, 25 Aug 2005. Two fingers to America.
• Wilpert, Gregory. Venezuelanalysis, 11 Nov 2003. "Venezuela’s Missions to Fight Poverty".
• Jorge Martin, "While Bush prevaricates, Venezuela offers help to US poor". In Defense of Marxism. 2 September 2005

v t e Hugo Chávez 52nd President of Venezuela (1999-2013) Early life and career Early life Military career Coup attempt of 1992 Presidential election of 1998 Death and state funeral Presidency Cabinet 1999 Constitution Presidential election of 2000 Presidential election of 2006 Presidential election of 2012 United Socialist Party of Venezuela Constitutional referendum of 2007 Constitutional referendum of 2009 Political events Coup attempt of 2002 Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003 Recall referendum of 2004 Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2005 Domestic policy Economic policy Bolivarian Revolution Bolivarianism Chavismo Plan Bolívar 2000 Bolivarian Circles Bolivarian Missions Bolivarian propaganda Venezuelan Communal Councils Boliburguesía Foreign policy Bank of the South Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas Petrocaribe Image Media representation of Hugo Chávez Aló Presidente The Revolution Will Not Be Televised X-Ray of a Lie teleSUR ¿¡Revolución!? ¿Por qué no te callas? Venezuelanalysis.com Venezuela Information Office