Caracas
—  City  —
Santiago de León de Caracas
Top left: UCV Baseball Stadium; top right: Offices in Parque Cristal; middle: Plaza Venezuela Fountain; bottom left: Los Próceres Monument; bottom right: Libertador Avenue.
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname(s): La Odalisca del Ávila (The Avila's Odalisque) La Sucursal del Cielo (Heaven's Branch on Earth) "La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera"(The City of Eternal Spring)
Motto: Ave María Purísima, sin pecado concebida, en el primer instante de su ser natural
Caracas
Coordinates: 10°30′N 66°55′W / 10.5°N 66.917°W / 10.5; -66.917Coordinates: 10°30′N 66°55′W / 10.5°N 66.917°W / 10.5; -66.917
Country	Venezuela
State	Venezuelan Capital District Miranda
Municipality	Libertador
Founded	25 July 1567
Founder	Diego de Losada
Metropolitan	Municipalities: Libertador, Chacao, Baruta, Sucre, El Hatillo
Government
• Type	Mayor-council
• Body	Government of the Capital District / Mayorship of the Metropolitan District
• Chief of Government / Mayor	Jacqueline Faría / Antonio Ledezma
Area
• City	433 km2 (167 sq mi)
• Metro	344 km2 (133 sq mi)
Elevation	900 m (3,000 ft)
Population (2009)[1]
• City	5.905.463 Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Municipio Libertador)
• Density	1,431.5/km2 (3,708/sq mi)
• Metro	6,474,367 Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Municipio Libertador)
Demonym	caraqueño (m), caraqueña (f)
Time zone	VST (UTC– 04:30)
• Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC– 04:30)
Postal coded	1010-A
Area code	212
ISO 3166 code	VE-A
Website	Capital District Metropolitan District
The area and population figures are the sum of the figures of the five municipalities (listed above) that make up the Distrito Metropolitano.

Caracas (Spanish pronunciation: [kaˈɾakas]), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English (Spanish: Caraqueños).

Caracas is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range (Cordillera de la Costa). Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 910 m (2,493.44 and 2,985.56 ft) above sea level. The valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2200 m (7400 ft) high mountain range, Cerro Ávila; to the south there are more hills and mountains.

El Distrito Metropolitano de Caracas (Metropolitan District of Caracas) includes the Distrito Capital (the capital city proper) and four other municipalities in Miranda State: Chacao, Baruta, Sucre, and El Hatillo. The Distrito Capital had a population of 2,097,350 as of 2009,^[1] while that of Distrito Metropolitano was estimated at 4,196,514 as of (2008).^[2]

History[link]

Conqueror Diego de Losada, founder of Santiago de León de Caracas

At the time of its founding, more than four hundred years ago, the valley of Caracas was populated by indigenous peoples. Francisco Fajardo, the son of a Spanish captain and a Guaiqueri cacica, attempted to establish a plantation in the valley in 1562 after founding a series of coastal towns. Fajardo's settlement did not last long. It was destroyed by natives of the region led by Terepaima and Guaicaipuro. This was the last rebellion on the part of the natives. On 25 July 1567, Captain Diego de Losada laid the foundations of the city of Santiago de León de Caracas.The foundation −1567 – “I take possession of this land in the name of God and the King” This was the words of Don Diego de Losada in founding the city of Caracas on 25 July 1567.

During the 17th century, the coast of Venezuela was frequently raided by pirates. With the coastal mountains as a barrier, Caracas was relatively immune to such attacks – one of the reasons it became the principal city of the region. However, in the 1680s, buccaneers crossed the mountains through a little-used pass while the town's defenders were guarding the more often-used one, and, encountering little resistance, sacked and set fire to the town.^[3]

The cultivation of cocoa under the Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas stimulated the development of the city, which in 1777 became the capital of the Captaincy General of Venezuela.

An attempt at revolution to gain independence organized by José María España and Manuel Gual was put down on 13 July 1797. But the ideas of the French Revolution and the American Wars of Independence inspired the people, and on 5 July 1811, a Declaration of Independence was signed in Caracas. This city was also the birthplace of two of Latin America's most important figures of the Venezuelan War of Independence: Francisco de Miranda and "El Libertador" Simón Bolívar. An earthquake destroyed Caracas on 26 March 1812, which was portrayed by authorities as a divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown. The war continued until 24 June 1821, when Bolívar gained a decisive victory over the royalists at the Battle of Carabobo.^[4]

As the economy of oil-rich Venezuela grew steadily during the first part of the 20th century, Caracas became one of Latin America's economic centers, and is also known as the preferred travel hub between Europe and South America. During the 1950s, Caracas began an intensive modernization program which continued throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. The Universidad Central de Venezuela, designed by modernist architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva and declared World Heritage by UNESCO, was built. New working- and middle-class residential districts sprouted in the valley, extending the urban area towards the east and southeast. Joining El Silencio, also designed by Villanueva, were several workers' housing districts, 23 de Enero and Simon Rodriguez. Middle class developments include Bello Monte, Los Palos Grandes, Chuao, and El Cafetal. On 17 October 2004, one of the Parque Central towers caught fire. The dramatic change in the economic structure of the country, which went from being primarily agricultural to dependent on oil production, stimulated the fast development of Caracas, and made it a magnet for people in rural communities who migrated to the capital city in an unplanned fashion searching for greater economic opportunity. This migration created the rancho (slum) belt of the valley of Caracas

Symbols[link]

Sketch of Caracas in 1812

Colonial painting of Our Lady of Caracas, Patroness of the city

View of Caracas in 1839; once a colonial city of red-tiled roofs, the city now has many skyscrapers

The flag of Caracas consists of a burgundy red field with the version of the Coat of Arms of the City (effective since the 1980s). The red field symbolises the blood spilt by Caraquenian people in favour of independence and the highest ideals of the Venezuelan Nation. Later, in the year 1994, presumably as a result of the change of municipal authorities, it was decided to increase the size of the Caracas coat of arms and move it to the centre of the field. This version of the flag is still in use today.

The coat of arms of the City of Caracas was adopted by the Libertador Municipality to identify itself. Later, the Metropolitan Mayor Office assumed the lion, the scallop and Saint James' Cross for the same purpose.

The anthem of the city is the Marcha a Caracas, written by the composer Tiero Pezzuti de Matteis with the lyrics by José Enrique Sarabia. The lyrics are said to be inspired by the heroism of the Caraquenian people, and the memory of the City of Red Roofs. Incidentally, the National Anthem of Venezuela, Gloria al Bravo Pueblo, includes the lines "...y si el despotismo levanta la voz, seguid el ejemplo que Caracas dio" ("...and if despotism raises its voice, follow the example that Caracas gave"), reflecting the fact that, in addition to generously providing many heroic fighters to the War of Independence, the junta established in Caracas (19 April 1810) served as inspiration for other regions to do the same—as did its declaration of independence a year later.

Local government[link]

Partial view of Libertador municipality

Caracas has five municipalities: Baruta, El Hatillo, Chacao, Libertador and Sucre. The constitution of Venezuela specifies that municipal governments be divided into executive and legislative branches. The executive government of the municipality is governed by the mayor, while the legislative government is managed by the Municipal council. In 8 March 2000, the year after a new constitution was introduced in Venezuela, it was decreed in Gaceta Official N° 36,906 that the Metropolitan District of Caracas would be created, and that some of the powers of these municipalities would be delegated to the Alcaldía Mayor, physically located in the large Libertador municipality, in the center of the city.

Economy[link]

Alejandro Otero´s Abra Solar

Businesses located here include service companies, banks, and malls, among others. Most economic activity is in services, except some industries established in its metropolitan area.^[5] The Caracas Stock Exchange and Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) are headquartered here. The PDVSA is the largest company in Venezuela,^[6] and negotiates all the international agreements for the distribution and export of petroleum.^[7] When the company existed, the airline Viasa had its headquarters in the Torre Viasa.^[8][9]

Caracas' central business district is Milla de Oro, located in the north of the Baruta municipality and the south of the Chacao municipality, it's one of largest finnancial districts of Latin America, it's home to many companies and is dominated by numerous high-rises. Other important bussines districts include Plaza Venezuela, Parque Central Complex and El Recreo.

Small and medium-size industry contributes to the Caracas economy. The city provides communication and transportation infrastructure between the metropolitan area and the rest of the country. Important industries in Caracas include chemicals, textiles, leather, food, iron and wood products. There are also rubber and cement factories.^[10]

Cost of living[link]

Millennium Mall at night

A 2009 United Nations survey reported that the cost of living in Caracas was 89% of that of its baseline city: New York.^[11] However, this statistic is based upon a fixed currency-exchange-rate of 2003 and might not be completely realistic, due to the elevated inflation rates of the last several years.^{[original research?]}

Geography[link]

Caracas is contained entirely within a valley of the Venezuelan central range, and separated from the Caribbean coast by a roughly 15 km expanse of El Ávila National Park. The valley is relatively small and quite irregular, the altitude with respect to sea level varies from between 870 and 1,043 meters (2,854–3,422 ft), with 900 meters (2,953 ft) in the historic zone. This, along with the rapid population growth, has profoundly influenced the urban development of the city. The most elevated point of the Capital District, wherein the city is located, is the Pico El Ávila, which rises to 2,159 meters (7,083 ft). The main body of water in Caracas is the Guaire river, which flows across the city and empties into the Tuy river, which is also fed by the El Valle and San Pedro rivers, in addition to numerous streams which descend from El Ávila. The La Mariposa and Camatagua reservoirs provide water to the city.

Climate[link]

Aerial view toward Caracas downtown.

Under the Köppen climate classification, Caracas has a Tropical savanna climate. Caracas is also intertropical, with precipitation that varies between 900 and 1,300 millimeters (35–51 in) (annual), in the city proper, and up to 2,000 millimeters (79 in) in some parts of the Mountain range. While Caracas is within the tropics, due to its altitude temperatures are generally not nearly as high as other tropical locations at sea level. The annual average temperature is approximately 23.1 °C (74 °F), with the average of the coldest month (January) 21.1 °C (70 °F) and the average of the warmest month (May) 25.0 °C (77 °F), which gives a small annual thermal amplitude of 3.9 °C (7.02 °F). In the months of December and January abundant fog may appear, in addition to a sudden nightly drop in temperature, until reaching 7 °C (45 °F) ^[12] or less. This peculiar weather is known by the natives of Caracas as the Pacheco. In addition, nightly temperatures at any time of the year are much (12 to 16 °C) lower than daytime highs and usually do not remain above 20 °C (68 °F), resulting in very pleasant evening temperatures. Hail storms appear in Caracas, although only on rare occasions. Electrical storms are much more frequent, especially between June and October, due to the city being in a closed valley and the orographic action of Cerro El Ávila.

Demographics[link]

The population of Caracas proper (Distrito Capital) is estimated to be 5,994,002 as of 2010,^[1] while that of the Metropolitan District of Caracas is estimated at 7,001,874 as of 2011.^[2] The conurbation including the surrounding suburbs has an estimated population of 8.3 million as of 2012.^[15]

Caracas is often named in the alleged megalopolis of northern Venezuela including cities such as Valencia, Maracay, Miranda, Los Teques, San Antonio de los Altos, Petare, Guarenas, Puerto Cabello, with an estimated population of 18.2 million, representing about 64% of the country's population

Crime[link]

Venezuela and its capital, Caracas, are reported to both have among the highest per capita murder rates in the world. Most murders and other violent crimes go unsolved. Armed criminal gangs often operate with impunity throughout the urban areas. The poor neighborhoods that cover the hills around Caracas are extremely dangerous. U.S. travelers have reported robberies and other crimes committed against them by individuals wearing uniforms and purporting to be police officers or National Guard members. Police investigations into kidnappings have revealed that police officers are often involved.^[16] Caracas tops list of murder capitals of the world.^[17]

Landmarks[link]

East Park

Casa del Libertador (Simón Bolívar's birthplace house)

National Pantheon of Venezuela

Caracas Cathedral

Las Mercedes commercial district

Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex

Bolivarian museum

Federal Capitol[link]

Located at the southwest corner of Plaza Bolívar is the edifice that belonged from 1637 to 1874 to the Conceptions Nuns monastery, and that from 19 April 1810 was the seat of the first congress. The southern part is the present seat of the National Assembly, and the northern part was formerly the Elliptic room, Triptic room and Shields room. It was built during the government of Antonio Guzmán Blanco.

East Park[link]

The Caracas East Park (Parque del Este, now officially Parque Generalísimo Francisco de Miranda) was designed by Brazilian architect Roberto Burle Marx. It is a green paradise in the middle of the city, and it contains a small zoo. A replica of the ship led by Francisco de Miranda, the Leander, is being built in the southern part of the park. Before there used to exist a replica of the Santa Maria ship, used by Christopher Colombus in his voyages to America.

Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex[link]

The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex (Complejo Cultural Teresa Carreño), or more commonly the Teresa Carreño Theatre (Teatro Teresa Carreño), is by far the most important theater of Caracas and Venezuela, where symphonic and popular concerts imagine frequently, operas, ballet and theatre. It is the second largest theater in South America, after the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Simon Bolivar birthplace house[link]

Skyscrapers may loom overhead, but there is more than a hint of original colonial flavor in this neatly proportioned reconstruction of the house where Simon Bolivar was born on 24 July 1783. The museum's exhibits include period weapons, banners and uniforms.

Much of the original colonial interior has been replaced by monumental paintings of battle scenes, but more personal relics can be seen in the nearby Bolivian museum. Pride of place goes to the coffin in which Bolivar's remains were brought from Colombia; his ashes now rest in the National Pantheon. by ally n. thank you :)

National Pantheon[link]

Venezuela's most venerated building is five blocks north of Plaza Bolívar, on the northern edge of the old town. Formerly a church, the building was given its new purpose as the final resting place for eminent Venezuelans by Antonio Guzmán Blanco in 1874.

Parque Central Complex[link]

At a short distance east of Plaza Bolívar is Parque Central, a concrete complex of five high-rise residential slabs of somewhat apocalyptic-appearing architecture, crowned by two 56-storey octagonal towers, one of them is under repair due to the fire which burnt the building on 17 October 2004.

Parque Central is Caracas' art and culture hub, with museums, cinemas and the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex. The West Tower balcony, on the 52nd floor, gives a 360° bird's-eye view of Caracas.

Public squares[link]

• Plaza Bolívar is the focus of the old town with the monument to El Libertador, Simon Bolívar, at its heart. Modern high-rise buildings have overpowered much of the colonial flavor of Caracas' founding neighbourhood.
• Plaza Venezuela is the geographic center of Caracas. It is a large urban plaza at the entrance of the Central University of Venezuela. Kinetic artists have displayed their works there, including Carlos Cruz-Diez, Alejandro Otero and Jesus Soto. East of the Plaza is the Plaza Venezuela Fountain, a large computerized display of water, music and colored light refurbished in 2009 to include the latest available technology.^[18]
• Plaza Caracas was constructed in 1983. It is in the Simón Bolívar Center, at the foot of the 30-story towers, dominating El Silencio District and forming a unique testimony to the early days of the modernization of the city. It has various levels for pedestrian and motorised traffic, and contains the business, shops, restaurants, services of a zone in which are concentrated public and private institutions.
• Plaza San Jacinto is situated among the San Jacinto, San Pablo, El Chorro and Trapos's corners. Its history dates from 1603 and there used to be the market of the city. In the middle of the square, there was an Antonio Leocadio Guzmán statue and after which this place is called now "The Venezuelan". In the northwest part of the square is found the Sun's clock, made by Alexander Humboldt when he was in Caracas. In 1983, as part of the bycentenarial anniversary of Simón Bolívar, was built a black chambre. In 2010, as part of the celebration of the Bicentenary of the events of 19 April 1810, was inaugurated a steel obelisk.

El Hatillo[link]

El Hatillo is a colonial town located at the south-east suburbs of Caracas in the municipal area of the same name. This small town, which is one of Venezuela's few well-preserved typical colonial areas, gives an idea of what Caracas was like in centuries past.

Cerro El Ávila[link]

Cerro El Ávila (Mountain El Ávila) (Indigenous name: Guaraira Repano), is a mountain in the mid-North of Venezuela. It rises next to Caracas and separates the city from the Caribbean Sea. It is considered the lungs of Caracas because there is a lot of vegetation on it.

Las Mercedes[link]

This zone contains restaurants with varied gastronomical specialties, along with pubs, bars, pools and art galleries.

Altamira neighborhood[link]

Altamira is a neighborhood located in the Chacao municipality of Caracas. It has its own Metro Station, many hotels, malls and restaurants, and is an important business and cultural centre. The Francisco de Miranda avenue (a major avenue in Caracas) and the Distibuidor Altamira (a congested highway exit) are both located in Altamira.

Religious buildings[link]

The Iglesia de San Francisco is of historical value. Bolívar's funeral was held here twelve years after his death. Here he was proclaimed Libertador in 1813 by the people of Caracas. The church has gilded baroque altarpieces, and retains much of its original colonial interior, despite being given a treatment in the 19th century under the auspices of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, which was intended to be modernizing.^{[citation needed]} It contains some 17th century masterpieces of art, carvings, sculptures and oil paintings. The Central University of Venezuela, established during the reign of Philip V, was lodged for centuries in the church cloisters next door, which today are the seat of the Language Academy, and the Academies of History, Physics, and Mathematics.

The Caracas Cathedral is seat of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Caracas.

The Mosque of Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim is the second largest mosque in Latin America. For many years it was the biggest.^[19]

The Union Israelita de Caracas is the biggest Synagogue for the Jewish Ashkenazi community in Caracas. Its mission is to host the religious services and preserve the memory of the Jewish heritage in Venezuela. Similarly, Mariperez is the biggest Synagogue for the Jewish Sephardic community in Caracas.

Colleges, universities and international schools[link]

Central University of Venezuela[link]

The Central University of Venezuela (Universidad Central de Venezuela in Spanish) is a public University. Founded in 1721, it is the oldest university in Venezuela and one of the first in Latin America.^{[citation needed]} The university campus was designed by architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva and it was declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 2000. The Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, as the main Campus is also known, is considered a masterpiece of architecture and urban planning and it is the only university campus designed in the 20th century that has received such recognition by UNESCO.^{[citation needed]}

Central University of Venezuela

Aula Magna of Central University of Venezuela

Laberinto Cromovegetal, at the Simón Bolívar University.

UCV Baseball Stadium

UCV Olympic Stadium

Simón Bolívar University[link]

The Simón Bolívar University (Universidad Simón Bolívar, in Spanish, or USB) is a public institution located in Caracas, Venezuela, with scientific and technological orientation. Its motto is "La Universidad de la Excelencia" ("University of Excellence"). Nationally, Simón Bolívar University is a well-known school with a high reputation in scientific and engineering careers^{[citation needed]}.

Other universities[link]

• Universidad Católica Andrés Bello
• Universidad Metropolitana
• Universidad Nacional Experimental Simón Rodríguez
• Universidad Santa Maria
• Universidad José María Vargas
• Universidad Monteavila
• Universidad Nueva Esparta
• Universidad Experimental Politécnica Antonio José de Sucre
• Universidad Pedagógica Experimental Libertador
• Universidad Alejandro de Humboldt
• Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela
• Universidad Nacional Experimental de las Fuerzas Armadas (UNEFA)
• Academia Militar de Venezuela
• Escuela de Formacion de Oficiales de las Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperación

International schools[link]

• International Christian School
• Colegio Internacional de Caracas
• British School of Caracas
• Escuela Campo Alegre

Sports[link]

There are professional Association Football, baseball and several other sports.

Professional teams include Deportivo Italia, Caracas Fútbol Club, SD Centro Italo Venezolano, Estrella Roja FC and Real Esppor Club. The Deportivo Italia has reached the semifinals of international tournaments such as the Copa Libertadores de America, while the Caracas Fútbol Club has reached the quarterfinals.

Baseball teams Tiburones de La Guaira and Leones del Caracas play in the Estadio Universitario de la UCV, of the Central University of Venezuela, with a capacity of 26,000 spectators.

Another baseball team started in Caracas: the Navegantes del Magallanes. It was moved to Valencia, Carabobo in the 1970s.

Association Football stadiums include:

• Estadio Olímpico de la UCV, with capacity of 30 000 spectators is seat of the Deportivo Italia and Caracas Fútbol Club.
• Brígido Iriarte stadium, with a capacity of 12 000 spectators (old seat of the Deportivo Italia and Caracas Fútbol Club, and seat of the Estrella Roja FC). The Caracas Fútbol Club opened its own stadium in 2005, Campo Deportivo Cocodrilos.
• Cocodrilos de Caracas plays in the Venezuelan professional basketball league. They play their games in the "Gimnasio José Beracasa" in the neighbourhood of El Paraíso.

Caracas is the seat of the National Institute of Sports and of the Venezuelan Olympic Committee.

Caracas hosted the 1983 Pan American Games.

Teams[link]

• Association Football: Caracas Fútbol Club, Deportivo Petare, Atletico Venezuela, Estrella Roja Futbol club, Real Esppor Club.
• Baseball: Tiburones de la Guaira, Leones del Caracas.
• Basketball: Cocodrilos de Caracas.

Culture[link]

Cloud Shepherd, by Hans Arp, UCV

National Library of Venezuela

Caracas is Venezuela's cultural capital, with many restaurants, theaters, museums, and shopping centers. The city is home to an array of immigrants from but not limited to: Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Middle East, Germany, China, and Latin American countries.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Museums, libraries and cultural centres[link]

Caracas, has been a city with great cultural aspirations throughout the course of its history. Institutions such as the old Atheneum bear witness to this awareness. The National library holds a great amount of volumes, and affords abundant bibliographic information for the student of the discovery and independence of Venezuela. The museum of Colonial Art has on show an interesting exhibition of Venezuelan art from the periods previous to its independence with fountains, furniture, colonial courtyards etc. In the Fine Arts Museum are kept some archaeological finds with some good examples of precolombine pottery.

Since 1974, Caracas has had a Contemporary Art Museum, containing works representing the most important tendencies in contemporary art, and since 1982, counts with a Children's Museum, a privately managed museum foundation, with the purpose of teaching children about science, technology, culture and arts. The Natural Science Museum, has a rich collection os archaeological pieces from the primitive native cultures, in these collections and in other no less important galleries (Raúl Santana Creole Museum, Transport Museum, the Coin Museum, Bolivarian Museum, Jacobo Borges Museum, Carlos Cruz-Diez Museum, Alejandro Otero Museum, Sacred Museum, etc.) the cultural aspirations of Caracas are more than evident.

Gastronomy[link]

Caracas has a gastronomical heritage due to the influence of immigrants, leading to a choice of regional and international cuisine.^{[citation needed]} There is a variety of international restaurants including American, French, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Indian, Chinese, Peruvian, Japanese, Mediterranean and Mexican. The district of La Candelaria contains Spanish restaurants, resulting from Galician and Canarian immigrants that came to this area in the mid-20th century.

Notable natives[link]

Federal Capitol

Statue of Simón Bolívar at Los Próceres Monument

Los Conductores del País mural, at the Francisco Fajardo Highway

Caracas has been the birthplace of many politicians and artists that notably shaped the country's history and culture:

• Simón Bolívar
• Magglio Ordoñez
• Simón Rodríguez
• Andrés Bello
• Francisco de Miranda
• Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi
• Fermín Toro
• Teresa Carreño
• Rómulo Gallegos
• Francisco Herrera Luque
• Fernando Paz Castillo
• Carlos Cruz-Diez
• Serge Blanco
• Pedro Gual
• Antonio Guzmán Blanco
• Armando Reverón
• Yucef Merhi
• Martín Tovar y Tovar
• Arturo Uslar-Pietri
• José Ángel Lamas
• Juan Antonio Pérez Bonalde
• Francisco Massiani
• Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino
• Juan Bautista Plaza
• Lorenzo Mendoza
• Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
• Juan Vicente Torrealba
• Aquiles Nazoa
• Alfredo Sadel
• Manuel Caballero
• Oscar D'León
• Baruj Benacerraf
• Isaac J Pardo
• Ali Lenin Aguilera
• Francisco Rodriguez
• Andrés Galarraga
• Cesar Baena, goalkeeper for the Venezuelan national football team
• Jacobo Borges
• Dayana Mendoza
• Majandra Delfino
• Daniel Dhers

Transportation[link]

Inside Plaza Venezuela station of the Caracas Metro

Boyacá Avenue (Cota Mil)

St. Peter´s Church

• The Caracas Metro has been in operation since 27 March 1983. With 4 lines, 47 stations and about 10 more to be constructed. It covers a great part of the city and also has an integrated ticket system that combines the route of the Metro with those offered by the Metrobús, a bus service of the Caracas Metro.
• Buses are the main means of mass transportation. There are two bus systems: the traditional system and the Metrobús. The traditional system runs a variety of bus types, operated by several companies on normal streets and avenues:
  • Autobus; large buses.
  • Camioneta; medium size buses.
  • microbus or camionetica; vans or minivans.
• IFE; train services to and from Tuy Valley cities of Charallave and Cúa.
• Simón Bolívar International Airport, the biggest and most important in the country is located outside the city, roughly 20 miles (32 km) from the downtown area.
• Caracas Aerial Tramway
• In March 2009 four of the five Caracas districts launched Plan Vía Libre to reduce traffic (the pro-Chavez Jorge Rodríguez' Libertador District is currently not cooperating as the other districts are in the hands of the opposition^[24]). On each weekday, cars with certain number plates are banned from entering key parts of the city centre; the numbers rotate so that any particular car is banned one day a week.^[25]

International relations[link]

Caracas is twinned with:

Districts[link]

v t e Caracas Divisions Northwest Catia 23 de Enero Propatria Lomas de Urdaneta Casalta El Atlántico Caño Amarillo Los Magallanes de Catia Alta Vista Ruperto Lugo Lídice Gramoven Manicomio Center El Silencio Capitolio La Hoyada Altagracia La Pastora Cotiza Quinta Crespo Guaicaipuro La Candelaria San Bernardino Southwest Artigas Vista Alegre Bella Vista Colinas de Vista Alegre La Yaguara Zona Industrial de La Yaguara El Algodonal Carapa Antímano Washington Las Fuentes El Paraíso El Pinar La Paz El Paraíso Montalbán Juan Pablo II La Vega Las Adjuntas Caricuao Mamera Centereastern El Conde Parque Central San Agustín del Sur San Agustín del Norte Simón Rodríguez Maripérez La Colina Las Palmas Las Lomas San Rafael Los Caobos Quebrada Honda San Bernardino La Campiña La Florida Alta Florida Chapellín Los Cedros El Bosque Chacaíto Sabana Grande Bello Monte South Cementerio Los Carmenes Los Castaños Prado de Maria La Bandera Las Acacias Colinas de las Acacias Los Rosales Valle Abajo Los Chaguaramos Ciudad Universitaria Santa Mónica Colinas de Santa Mónica Colinas de Bello Monte Cumbres de Curumo El Valle Los Jardines de El Valle Coche Delgado Chalbaud La Rinconada Eastern Country Club El Pedregal San Marino Campo Alegre Chacao Bello Campo El Rosal El Retiro Las Mercedes Tamanaco Chuao Altamira Los Palos Grandes La Castellana La Floresta Santa Eduvigis Sebucán La Carlota Santa Cecilia Campo Claro Los Ruices Montecristo Los Chorros Los Dos Caminos Boleíta Los Cortijos La California Horizonte El Marqués La Urbina Terrazas del Ávila Lomas del Ávila El Llanito Macaracuay La Guairita Caurimare El Cafetal San Román Santa Rosa San Luis Santa Sofía Santa Paula Santa Inés Los Pomelos Palo Verde Petare Southeastern Valle Arriba Santa Fe Los Campitos Prados del Este Alto Prado Manzanares El Peñón Baruta Piedra Azul La Trinidad La Tahona Monterrey Las Minas Los Samanes Cerro Verde Los Naranjos La Boyera Alto Hatillo El Hatillo Los Geranios La Lagunita El Placer El Guayabao El Volcán La Unión Sartanejas

See also[link]

Venezuela portal

• 1967 Caracas earthquake
• Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Caracas

Links to related articles v t e Landmarks of Caracas Museums Alejandro Otero Museum · Bolivarian Museum · Simón Bolívar birthplace house · Simón Bolívar Center · Children's Museum · Fine Arts Museum · La Estancia Art Center · National Gallery of Art · National Pantheon of Venezuela · Science Museum · Soto Sphere Religion Caracas Cathedral · San Francisco church · Saint Chapel · Mosque of Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim Culture and sport Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex · Poliedro de Caracas · Municipal Theater · National Theater · La Rinconada Hippodrome · University City · University Stadium · Brígido Iriarte Stadium Other Parque Central Complex · National Library of Venezuela · Parque del Este · Los Caobos Park · El Silencio · La Pastora · Plaza Bolívar · Plaza Francia · El Calvario · Los Próceres Monument · Plaza Venezuela · Plaza Alfredo Sadel · Humboldt Hotel · Nuevo Circo · Federal Capitol · Miraflores Palace · La Casona · Yellow House · Supreme Tribunal of Justice · Quinta de Anauco · Palace of the Academies · Carmelitas Post Office · Los Conductores del País Mural · Villa Planchart · Caracas Metro · Caracas Aerial Tramway v t e Authorities of Caracas City-wide authority Government of the Capital District (Head: Jacqueline Faría) Metropolitan District (Mayor: Antonio Ledezma) Municipalities Baruta (Mayor: Gerardo Blyde) Chacao (Mayor: Emilio Graterón) El Hatillo (Mayor: Myriam Do Nascimento) Libertador (Mayor: Jorge Rodríguez) Sucre (Mayor: Carlos Ocariz) v t e State capitals of Venezuela Capital, state     Puerto Ayacucho, Amazonas Barcelona, Anzoátegui San Fernando de Apure, Apure Maracay, Aragua Barinas, Barinas Ciudad Bolívar, Bolívar Valencia, Carabobo San Carlos, Cojedes Tucupita, Delta Amacuro Caracas, Distrito Capital Santa Ana de Coro, Falcón San Juan de los Morros, Guárico Barquisimeto, Lara Mérida, Mérida Los Teques, Miranda Maturín, Monagas La Asunción, Nueva Esparta Guanare, Portuguesa Cumaná, Sucre San Cristóbal, Táchira Trujillo, Trujillo La Guaira, Vargas San Felipe, Yaracuy Maracaibo, Zulia Bold indicates national capital. v t e Administrative divisions of Venezuela Capital District Caracas States Amazonas Anzoátegui Apure Aragua Barinas Bolívar Carabobo Cojedes Delta Amacuro Falcón Guárico Lara Mérida Miranda Monagas Nueva Esparta Portuguesa Sucre Táchira Trujillo Vargas Yaracuy Zulia Dependencies Los Monjes Archipelago Las Aves archipelago Isla Aves Los Hermanos Archipelago Islas Los Frailes Los Roques archipelago La Sola Island La Tortuga Island La Orchila Blanquilla Island Los Testigos Islands Isla de Patos Regions Andean Capital Central Central-Western Guayana Insular Llanos North-Eastern South-Western Zulian Claimed Guayana Esequiba v t e Pan American Games host cities     1951: Buenos Aires 1955: Mexico City 1959: Chicago 1963: São Paulo 1967: Winnipeg 1971: Santiago de Cali 1975: Mexico City 1979: San Juan 1983: Caracas 1987: Indianapolis 1991: Havana 1995: Mar del Plata 1999: Winnipeg 2003: Santo Domingo 2007: Rio de Janeiro 2011: Guadalajara 2015: Toronto v t e Capitals of South America     Asunción, Paraguay Bogotá, Colombia Brasília, Brazil Buenos Aires, Argentina Caracas, Venezuela Cayenne, French Guiana Georgetown, Guyana Grytviken, SGSSI La Paz / Sucre, Bolivia Lima, Peru Montevideo, Uruguay Paramaribo, Suriname Quito, Ecuador Santiago, Chile Stanley, Falkland Islands

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Hugo Chávez
President of Venezuela
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 February 1999
Vice President	Isaías Rodríguez Adina Bastidas Diosdado Cabello José Vicente Rangel Jorge Rodríguez Ramón Carrizales Elias Jaua
Preceded by	Rafael Caldera
Personal details
Born	Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (1954-07-28) 28 July 1954 (age 57) Sabaneta, Venezuela
Nationality	Venezuelan
Political party	United Socialist Party (2008–present)
Other political affiliations	Fifth Republic Movement (1997–2008)
Spouse(s)	Nancy Colmenares (Div.) Marisabel Rodríguez (Div.)
Relations	Adán Chávez, Aníbal José Chávez Frías (brothers)
Occupation	Military officer (to 1992) and politician
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Venezuela
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1971–1992
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈuɣo rafaˈel ˈtʃaβes ˈfɾi.as]; born 28 July 1954) is the current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Following his own political ideology of Bolivarianism and "Socialism for the 21st Century", he has focused on implementing socialist reforms in the country as a part of a social project known as the Bolivarian Revolution, which has seen the implementation of a new constitution, participatory democratic councils and the nationalisation of several key industries.

Born into a working class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military officer, and after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system, he founded the secretive Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s to work towards overthrowing it. Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup d'état against the Democratic Action government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez government in 1992, for which he was imprisoned. Getting out of prison after two years, he founded a social democratic political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He subsequently introduced a new constitution which increased rights for marginalised groups and altered the structure of Venezuelan government, and was re-elected in 2000. During his second presidential term, he introduced a system of Bolivarian Missions, Communal Councils and worker-managed cooperatives, as well as a program of land reform, whilst also nationalising various key industries.

Chavez describes his policies as basically anti-imperialist^[1] and he is a vocal critic of neoliberalism and capitalism more generally, Chávez has been a prominent adversary of the United States' foreign policy.^[2] Allying himself strongly with the Communist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, his presidency is seen as a part of the socialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. He has supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and was instrumental in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the Bank of the South, and the regional television network TeleSur. Chavez is a highly controversial and divisive figure both at home and abroad.

Early life[link]

Childhood: 1954–1970[link]

Sabaneta, Barinas, where Chávez was born and raised.

Hugo Chávez was born on 28 July 1954 in his paternal grandmother Rosa Inéz Chávez's home, a modest three-room house located in the rural village Sabaneta, Barinas State. The Chávez family were of Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan, and Spanish descent.^[3] His parents, Hugo de los Reyes Chávez and Elena Frías de Chávez, were working-lower middle class schoolteachers who lived in the small village of Los Rastrojos. Hugo was born the second of seven children, including their eldest, Adán Chávez.^[4][5] The couple lived in poverty, leading them to send Hugo and Adán to live with their grandmother Rosa,^[6] whom Hugo would later describe as being "a pure human being... pure love, pure kindness."^[7] She was a devout Roman Catholic, and Hugo was an altar boy at a local church.^[8] Hugo described his childhood as "poor...very happy", and experienced "humility, poverty, pain, sometimes not having anything to eat", and "the injustices of this world."^[9]

Attending the Julián Pino Elementary School, Chávez's hobbies included drawing, painting, baseball and history. He was particularly interested in the 19th-century federalist general Ezequiel Zamora, in whose army his own great-great-grandfather had served.^[10][11] In the mid-1960s, Hugo, his brother and their grandmother moved to the city of Barinas so that the boys could attend what was then the only high school in the rural state, the Daniel O'Leary High School.^[12]

Military Academy: 1971–1975[link]

Aged seventeen, Chávez decided to study at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas. At the Academy, he was a member of the first class that was following a restructured curriculum known as the Andrés Bello Plan. This plan had been instituted by a group of progressive, nationalistic military officers who believed that change was needed within the military. This new curriculum encouraged students to learn not only military routines and tactics but also a wide variety of other topics, and to do so civilian professors were brought in from other universities to give lectures to the military cadets.^[13][14][15] Living in Caracas, he saw more of the endemic poverty faced by working class Venezuelans, something that echoed the poverty he had experienced growing up, and he has maintained that this experience only made him further committed to achieving social justice.^[16][17] He also began to get involved in local activities outside of the military school, playing both baseball and softball with the Criollitos de Venezuela team, progressing with them to the Venezuelan National Baseball Championships. Other hobbies that he undertook at the time included writing numerous poems, stories and theatrical pieces, painting^[18] and researching the life and political thought of 19th-century South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar.^[19] He also became interested in the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (1928–1967) after reading his memoir The Diary of Che Guevara, although also read books by a wide variety of other figures, from Karl Marx to Hannibal and Napoleon Bonaparte.^[20]

In 1974 he was selected to be a representative in the commemorations for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho in Peru, the conflict in which Simon Bolívar's lieutenant, Antonio José de Sucre, defeated royalist forces during the Peruvian War of Independence. It was in Peru that Chávez heard the leftist president, General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1910–1977), speak, and inspired by Velasco's ideas that the military should act in the interests of the working classes when the ruling classes were perceived as corrupt,^[21] he "drank up the books [Velasco had written], even memorising some speeches almost completely."^[22] Befriending the son of Panamanian President Omar Torrijos (1929–1981), another leftist military general, Chávez subsequently visited Panama, where he met with Torrijos, and was impressed with his land reform program that was designed to benefit the peasants. Being heavily influenced by both Torrijos and Velasco, he saw the potential for military generals to seize control of a government when the civilian authorities were perceived as only serving the interests of the wealthy elites.^[21][23] In contrast to military presidents like Torrijos and Velasco however, Chávez became highly critical of Augusto Pinochet, the right-wing general who had recently seized control in Chile with the aid of the American CIA.^[24] Chávez would later relate that "With Torrijos, I became a Torrijist. With Velasco I became a Velasquist. And with Pinochet, I became an anti-Pinochetist."^[25] In 1975, Chávez graduated from the military academy, being rated one of the top graduates of the year (eight out of seventy five).^[26][27][28]

Early military career: 1976–1981[link]

Following his graduation, Chávez was stationed as a communications officer at a counterinsurgency unit in Barinas,^[30] although the Marxist-Leninist insurgency which the army was sent to combat had already been eradicated from that state, leaving the unit with much spare time. Chávez himself played in a local baseball team, wrote a column for the local newspaper, organized bingo games and judged at beauty pageants.^[31] At one point he found a stash of Marxist literature that was in an abandoned car riddled with bullet holes. Apparently having belonged to insurgents many years before, he went on to read these books, which included titles by such theoreticians as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, but his favourite was a work entitled The Times of Ezequiel Zamora, written about the 19th-century federalist general whom Chávez had admired as a child.^[32] These books further convinced Chávez of the need for a leftist government in Venezuela, later remarking that "By the time I was 21 or 22, I made myself a man of the left."^[33]

In 1977, Chávez's unit was transferred to Anzoátegui, where they were involved in battling the Red Flag Party, a Marxist-Hoxhaist insurgency group.^[34] After intervening to prevent the beating of an alleged insurgent by other soldiers,^[35] Chávez began to have his doubts about the army and their methods in using torture.^[33] At the same time, he was becoming increasingly critical of the corruption in both the army and in the civilian government, coming to believe that despite the wealth being produced by the country's oil reserves, Venezuela's poor masses were not receiving their share, something he felt to be inherently un-democratic. In doing so, he began to sympathise with the Red Flag Party and their cause, if not their violent methods.^[36]

In 1977, he founded a revolutionary movement within the armed forces, in the hope that he could one day introduce a leftist government to Venezuela: the Venezuelan People's Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación del Pueblo de Venezuela, or ELPV), was a secretive cell within the military that consisted of him and a handful of his fellow soldiers. Although they knew that they wanted a middle way between the right wing policies of the government and the far left position of the Red Flag, they did not have any plans of action for the time being.^[35][37][38] Nevertheless, hoping to gain an alliance with civilian leftist groups in Venezuela, Chávez then set about clandestinely meeting various prominent Marxists, including Alfredo Maneiro (the founder of the Radical Cause) and Douglas Bravo, despite having numerous political differences with them.^[39][40] At this time, Chávez married a working class woman named Nancy Colmenares, with whom he would go on to have three children, Rosa Virginia (born September 1978), Maria Gabriela (born March 1980) and Hugo Rafael (born October 1983).^[41]

Revolutionary activity[link]

Later military career and the Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200: 1982–1991[link]

Five years after his creation of the ELPV, Chávez went on to form a new secretive cell within the military, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200 (EBR-200), later redesignated the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200).^[13][42][43] Taking inspiration from three Venezuelans whom Chávez deeply admired, Ezequiel Zamora (1817–1860), Simón Bolívar (1783–1830) and Simón Rodríguez (1769–1854), these historical figures became known as the "three roots of the tree" of the MBR-200.^[44][45] Later describing the group's foundation, Chávez would state that "the Bolivarian movement that was being born did not propose political objectives... Its goals were imminently internal. Its efforts were directed in the first place to studying the military history of Venezuela as a source of a military doctrine of our own, which up to then didn't exist."^[46] However, he always hoped that the Bolivarian Movement would become politically dominant, and on his political ideas at the time, remarked that "This tree [of Bolívar, Zamora and Rodríguez] has to be a circumference, it has to accept all kinds of ideas, from the right, from the left, from the ideological ruins of those old capitalist and communist systems."^[47] Indeed, Irish political analyst Barry Cannon noted that the early Bolivarian ideology was explicitly capitalist, but that it "was a doctrine in construction, a heterogeneous amalgam of thoughts and ideologies, from universal thought, capitalism, Marxism, but rejecting the neoliberal models currently being imposed in Latin America and the discredited socialist and communist models of the old Soviet Bloc."^[48]

In 1981, Chávez, by now a captain, was assigned to teach at the military academy where he had formerly trained. Here he indoctrinated new students in his so-called "Bolivarian" ideals, and recruited those whom he felt would make good members of the MBR-200, as well as organizing sporting and theatrical events for the students. In his recruiting attempts he was relatively successful, for by the time they had graduated, at least thirty out of 133 cadets had joined it.^[49] In 1984 he met a Venezuelan woman of German ancestry named Herma Marksman who was a recently divorced history teacher. Sharing many interests in common, she eventually got involved in Chávez's movement and the two fell in love, having an affair that would last several years.^[50][51] Another figure to get involved with the movement was Francisco Arias Cárdenas, a soldier particularly interested in liberation theology.^[52] Cárdenas rose to a significant position within the group, although came into ideological conflict with Chávez, who believed that they should begin direct military action in order to overthrow the government, something Cárdenas thought was reckless.^[53]

However, some senior military officers became suspicious of Chávez after hearing rumours about the MBR-200. Unable to legally dismiss him without proof, they re-assigned him so that he would not be able to gain any more fresh new recruits from the academy. He was sent to take command of the remote barracks at Elorza in Apure State,^[54] where he got involved in the local community by organizing social events, and contacted the local indigenous tribal peoples, the Cuiva and Yaruro. Although distrustful due to their mistreatment at the hands of the Venezuelan army in previous decades, Chávez gained their trust by joining the expeditions of an anthropologist to meet with them. His experiences with them would later lead him to introduce laws protecting the rights of indigenous tribal peoples when he gained power many years later.^[55] While on holiday, he retraced on foot the route taken by his great-grandfather, the revolutionary Pedro Pérez Delgado (known as Maisanta), to understand his family history; on that trip, he met a woman who told Chávez how Maisanta had become a local hero by rescuing an abducted girl.^[56] In 1988, after being promoted to the rank of major, the high ranking General Rodríguez Ochoa took a liking to Chávez and employed him to be his assistant at his office in Caracas.^[57]

Operation Zamora: 1992[link]

In 1989, Carlos Andrés Pérez (1922–2010), the candidate of the centrist Democratic Action Party, was elected President after promising to oppose the United States government's Washington Consensus and financial policies recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nevertheless, he did neither once he got into office, following instead the neoliberal economic policies supported by the United States and the IMF. He dramatically cut spending, put prominent men in governmental posts. Pérez's policies angered some of the public..^[58][59][60] In an attempt to stop the widespread protests and looting that followed his social spending cuts, Pérez ordered the violent repression and massacre of protesters known as El Caracazo, which "according to official figures ... left a balance of 276 dead, numerous injured, several disappeared and heavy material losses. However, this list was invalidated by the subsequent appearance of mass graves", indicating that the official death count was inadequate.^[61][62][63] Pérez had used both the DISIP political police and the army to orchestrate El Caracazo. Chávez did not participate in the repression because he was then hospitalized with chicken pox, and later condemned the event as "genocide".^[64][65]

Disturbed by the Caracazo, rampant government corruption, the domination of politics by the Venezuelan oligarchy through the Punto Fijo Pact, and what he called "the dictatorship of the IMF", Chávez began preparing for a military coup d'état,^[63][66] known as Operation Zamora.^[67] Initially planned for December, Chávez delayed the MBR-200 coup until the early twilight hours of 4 February 1992. On that date, five army units under Chávez's command moved into urban Caracas with the mission of overwhelming key military and communications installations, including the Miraflores presidential palace, the defense ministry, La Carlota military airport and the Military Museum. Chávez's immediate goal was to intercept and take custody of Pérez, who was returning to Miraflores from an overseas trip. Despite years of planning, the coup quickly encountered trouble. At the time of the coup, Chávez had the loyalty of less than 10% of Venezuela's military forces,^[68] and, because of numerous betrayals, defections, errors, and other unforeseen circumstances, Chávez and a small group of rebels found themselves hiding in the Military Museum, without any means of conveying orders to their network of spies and collaborators spread throughout Venezuela.^[69] Furthermore, Chávez's allies were unable to broadcast their prerecorded tapes on the national airwaves, during which Chávez planned to issue a general call for a mass civilian uprising against the Pérez government. Finally, Chávez's forces were unable to capture Pérez, who managed to escape from them. Fourteen soldiers were killed, and fifty soldiers and some eighty civilians injured during the ensuing violence.^[70][71][72]

Realising that the coup had failed, Chávez gave himself up to the government. On the condition that he called upon the remaining active coup members to cease hostilities, he was allowed to appear on national television, something that he insisted on doing in his military uniform. During this address, he invoked the name of national hero Simón Bolívar and declared to the Venezuelan people that "Comrades: unfortunately, for now, the objectives we had set for ourselves were not achieved in the capital city. That is, those of us here in Caracas did not seize power. Where you are, you have performed very well, but now is the time for a reflect. New opportunities will arise and the country has to head definitively toward a better future."^[73] Many viewers noted that Chávez had remarked that he had only failed "por ahora" (for now),^{[13][74][75][76][77]} and he was immediately catapulted into the national spotlight, with many Venezuelans, particularly those from the poorer sections of society, seeing him as a figure who had stood up against government corruption and kleptocracy.^[78][79][80]

Chávez was arrested and imprisoned at the San Carlos military stockade, where he remained wracked with guilt, feeling responsible for the coup's failure.^[81][82] Indeed, pro-Chávez demonstrations that took place outside of San Carlos led to him being transferred to Yare prison soon after.^[83] The government meanwhile began a temporary crackdown on media supportive of Chávez and the coup.^[84] A further attempted coup against the government occurred in November, which was once more defeated,^[66][85] although Pérez himself was impeached a year later for malfeasance and misappropriation of funds for illegal activities.^[86][87]

Political rise: 1992–1998[link]

Whilst Chávez and the other senior members of the MBR-200 were in prison, his relationship with Herma Marksman broke up in July 1993.^[88] She would subsequently become "a bitter critic of Chávez, whose supporters wondered how much of her anger was stoked by their failed romance."^[89] In 1994, Rafael Caldera (1916–2009) of the centrist National Convergence Party was elected to the presidency, and soon after taking power, freed Chávez and the other imprisoned MBR-200 members as per his pre-election pledge. Caldera had however imposed upon them the condition that they would not return to the military, where they could potentially organise another coup.^[90][91] After being mobbed by adoring crowds following his release, Chávez went on a 100 day tour of the country, promoting his Bolivarian cause of social revolution.^[92] Now living off a small military pension as well as the donations of his supporters, he continued to financially support his three children and their mother despite divorcing Nancy Colmenares around this period. On his tours around the country, he would meet Marisabel Rodríguez, who would give birth to their daughter shortly before becoming his second wife in 1997.^[93][94]

Travelling around Latin America in search of foreign support for his Bolivarian movement, he visited Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and finally Cuba, where the Communist leader Fidel Castro (1926–) arranged to meet him. After spending several days in one another's company, Chávez and Castro became friends with the former describing the Cuban leader as being like a father to him.^[95] Returning to Venezuela, Chávez failed to gain mainstream media attention for his political cause. Instead, he gained publicity from small, local-based newspapers and media outlets.^[96] As a part of his condemnation of the ruling class, Chávez became critical of President Caldera, whose neoliberal economic policies had caused inflation and who had both suspended constitutional guarantees and arrested a number of Chávez's supporters.^[97] According to the United Nations, by 1997 the per capita income for Venezuelan citizens had fallen to US$ 2,858 from US$ 5,192 in 1990, whilst poverty levels had increased by 17.65% since 1980 and homicide and other crime rates had more than doubled since 1986, particularly in Caracas.^[98] Coupled with this drop in the standard of living, widespread dissatisfaction with the representative democratic system in Venezuela had "led to gaps emerging between rulers and ruled which favoured the emergence of a populist leader".^[99]

A debate soon developed in the Bolivarian movement as to whether it should try to take power in elections or whether it should instead continue to believe that military action was the only effective way of bringing about political change. Chávez was a keen proponent of the latter view, believing that the oligarchy would never allow he and his supporters to win an election,^[100] whilst Francisco Arias Cárdenas instead insisted that they take part in the representative democratic process. Cárdenas himself proved his point when, after joining the Radical Cause socialist party, he won the December 1995 election to become governor of the oil-rich Zulia State.^[101] Subsequently changing his opinion on the issue, Chávez and his supporters in the Bolivarian movement decided to found their own political party, the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR—Movimiento Quinta República) in July 1997 in order to support Chávez's candidature in the Venezuelan presidential election, 1998.^{[70][102][103][104]}

1998 election[link]

At the start of the election run-up, most polls gave Irene Sáez, then-mayor of Caracas' richest district, Chacao, the lead. Although an independent candidate, she had the backing of one of Venezuela's two primary political parties, Copei.^[106] In opposition to her right wing and pro-establishment views, Chávez and his followers described their aim as "laying the foundations of a new republic" to replace the existing one, which they cast as "party-dominated"; the current constitution, they argued, was no more than the "legal-political embodiment of puntofijismo", the country's traditional two-party patronage system.^[107] This revolutionary rhetoric gained Chávez and the MVR support from a number of other leftist parties, including the Patria Para Todos (Motherland for All), the Partido Comunist Venezolano (Venezeuelan Communist Party) and the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism), which together fashioned a political union supporting his candidacy called the Polo Patriotic (Patriotic Pole).^[104][108]

Chávez's promises of widespread social and economic reforms won the trust and favor of a primarily poor and working class following. By May 1998, Chávez's support had risen to 30% in polls, and by August he was registering 39%.^[109] Much of his support came from his 'strong man' populist image and charismatic appeal.^[110] This rise in popularity worried Chávez's opponents, with the oligarchy-owned mainstream media proceeding to attack him with a series of allegations, which included the claim – which he dismissed as ridiculous – that he was a cannibal who ate children.^[111] With his support increasing, and Sáez's decreasing, both the main two political parties, Copei and Democratic Action, put their support behind Henrique Salas Römer, a Yale University-educated economist who representated the Project Venezuela party.^[112]

Chávez won the election with 56.20% of the vote. Salas Römer came second, with 39.97%, whilst the other candidates, including Irene Sáez and Alfaro Ucero, only gained tiny proportions of the vote.^[87][113] Academic analysis of the election showed that Chávez's support had come primarily from the country's poor and the "disenchanted middle class", whose standard of living had decreased rapidly in the previous decade,^[114] although at the same time much of the middle and upper class vote had instead gone to Salas Römer.^[115] Following the announcement of his victory, Chávez gave a speech in which he declared that "The resurrection of Venezuela has begun, and nothing and no one can stop it."^[113]

Presidency[link]

First Presidential Term: 1999–2000[link]

A triumphant Hugo Chávez visiting Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2003.

Chávez's presidential inauguration took place on 2 February 1999, and during the usual presidential oath he deviated from the prescribed words to proclaim that "I swear before my people that upon this moribund constitution I will drive forth the necessary democratic transformations so that the new republic will have a Magna Carta befitting these new times."^[116][117] He subsequently set about appointing new figures to a number of government posts, including promoting various leftist allies to key positions; he for instance gave one of the founders of MBR, Jesús Urdaneta, the position in charge of the secret police, and made one of the 1992 coup leaders, Hernán Grüber Ódreman, governor of the Federal District of Caracas.^[118] Chávez also appointed some conservative, centrist and centre-right figures to government positions as well, reappointing Caldera's economy minister Maritza Izaquirre to that same position and also appointing the businessman Roberto Mandini to be president of the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela.^[119] His critics referred to this group of government officials as the "Boliburguesía" or "Bolivarian bourgeoisie",^[120][121] and highlighted the fact that it "included few people with experience in public administration."^[116] He also made several alterations to his presidential privileges, scrapping the presidential limousine, giving away his entire presidential wage of $1,200 a month to a scholarship fund,^[122] and selling off many of the government-owned airplanes, although alternately many of his critics accused him of excessive personal expenses for himself, his family and friends.^[123] The involvement of a number of his immediate family members in Venezuelan politics has also led to accusations of nepotism, something Chávez denies.^[124] Meanwhile, in June 2000 he separated from his wife Marisabel, and their divorce was finalised in January 2004.^[125]

Although he publicly used strong revolutionary rhetoric from the beginning of his presidency, the Chávez government's initial policies were moderate, capitalist and centre-left, having much in common with those of contemporary Latin American leftists like Brazil's president Lula da Silva.^[126][127] Chávez initially believed that capitalism was still a valid economic model for Venezuela, but that it would have to be Rhenish capitalism or the Third Way that would be followed rather than the neoliberalism which had been implemented under former governments with the encouragement of the United States.^[128] He followed the economic guidelines recommended by the International Monetary Fund and continued to encourage foreign corporations to invest in Venezuela,^[129] even visiting the New York Stock Exchange in the United States in an attempt to convince wealthy investors to do so.^[130][131] To increase his visibility abroad, Chávez spent fifty-two days of his first year as president outside of Venezuela, travelling the world meeting various national leaders, such as American President Bill Clinton, Governor of Texas George W. Bush and Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin.^[132]

Whilst he was remaining fiscally conservative, he introduced measures in an attempt to alleviate the poverty of the Venezuelan working class. Chávez immediately set into motion a social welfare program called Plan Bolívar 2000, which he organised to begin on 27 February 1999, the tenth anniversary of the Caracazo massacre. Costing $113,000,000, Plan Bolívar 2000 involved 70,000 army officers going out into the streets of Venezuela where they would repair roads and hospitals, offer free medical care and vaccinations, and sell food at cheap prices.^{[133][134][135]} Chávez himself described the Plan by saying that "Ten years ago we came to massacre the people. Now we are going to fill them with love. Go and comb the land, search out and destroy poverty and death. We are going to fill them with love instead of lead."^[136] In order to explain his latest thoughts and plans to the Venezuelan people, in May he also launched his own Sunday morning radio show, Aló Presidente (Hello, President), on the state radio network, as well as a Thursday night television show, De Frente con el Presidente (Face to Face with the President). He followed this with his own newspaper, El Correo del Presidente (The President's Post), founded in July, for which he acted as editor-in-chief, but which was later shut amidst accusations of corruption in its management.^[137] In his television and radio shows, he answered calls from citizens, discussed his latest policies, sung songs and told jokes, making it unique not only in Latin America but the entire world.^[138]

Constitutional reform[link]

Chávez holds a miniature copy of the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution at the 2005 World Social Forum held in Brazil.

Chávez then called for a public referendum – something virtually unknown in Venezuela at the time – which he hoped would support his plans to form a constitutional assembly, composed of representatives from across Venezuela, as well as from indigenous tribal groups, which would be able to rewrite the nation's constitution. The referendum went ahead on 25 April 1999, and was an overwhelming success for Chávez, with 88% of voters supporting the proposal.^[139][140]

Following this, Chávez called for an election to take place on 25 July, in which the members of the constitutional assembly would be voted into power.^[141] Of the 1,171 candidates standing for election to the assembly, over 900 of them were opponents of Chávez, but despite this, his supporters won another overwhelming electoral victory, taking 125 seats (95% of the total), including all of those belonging to indigenous tribal groups, whereas the opposition were voted into only 6 seats.^{[139][142][143]} On 12 August 1999, the new constitutional assembly voted to give themselves the power to abolish government institutions and to dismiss officials who were perceived as being corrupt or operating only in their own interests. Whilst supporters of the move believed that it could force reforms that had been blocked by corrupt politicians and judicial authorities for years, many opponents of the Chávez regime argued that it gave Chávez and the Bolivarians too much power at the expense of their political opponents, and was therefore dictatorial.^[144][145]

The elected members of the constituent assembly put together a new constitution, and a referendum on the issue of whether to adopt it was held in December 1999; the referendum saw an abstention vote of over 50%, although amongst those voting, 72% approved the new constitution's adoption.^{[143][146][147]} The new constitution included increased protections for indigenous peoples and women, and established the rights of the public to education, housing, healthcare and food. It added new environmental protections, and increased requirements for government transparency. It increased the presidential term from five to six years, allowed people to recall presidents by referendum, and added a new presidential two-term limit. It converted the bicameral legislature, a Congress with both a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, into a unicameral one comprising only a National Assembly.^{[148][149][150][151]} The constitution gave greater powers to the president, not only by extending their term but also by giving them the power to legislate on citizen rights as well as the economic and financial matters that they were formerly able to do.^[152] It also gave the military a role in the government by providing them with the mandated role of ensuring public order and aiding national development, something they had been expressely forbidden from doing under the former constitution.^[152] As a part of the new constitution, the country, which was then officially known as the Republic of Venezuela, was renamed the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (República Bolivariana de Venezuela) at Chávez's request, thereby reflecting the government's ideology of Bolivarianism and the influence of Simón Bolívar on the nation as a whole.^[142][143]

Second Presidential Term: 2000–2006[link]

This section requires expansion with: Information on the land reform program and workers' councils.

Under the new constitution, it was legally required that new elections be held in order to relegimatize the government and president. This presidential election in July 2000 would be a part of a greater "megaelection", the first time in the country's history that the president, governors, national and regional congressmen, mayors and councilmen would be voted for on the same day.^{[153][154][155]} For the position of president, Chávez's closest challenger proved to be his former friend and co-conspirator in the 1992 coup, Francisco Arias Cárdenas, who since becoming governor of Zulia state had turned towards the political centre and begun to denounce Chávez as autocratic.^[156] Although some of his supporters feared that he had alienated those in the middle class and the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy who had formerly supported him, Chávez was re-elected with 59.76% of the vote (the equivalent of 3,757,000 people), a larger majority than his 1998 electoral victory,^[157][158] again primarily receiving his support from the poorer sectors of Venezuelan society.^[159]

That year, Chávez helped to further cement his geopolitical and ideological ties with the Cuban government of Fidel Castro by signing an agreement under which Venezuela would supply Cuba with 53,000 barrels of oil per day at preferential rates, in return receiving 20,000 trained Cuban medics and educators. In the ensuing decade, this would be increased to 90,000 barrels a day (in exchange for 40,000 Cuban medics and teachers), dramatically aiding the Caribbean island's economy and standard of living after its "Special Period" of the 1990s.^[160] However, Venezuela's growing alliance with Cuba came at the same time as a deteriorating relationship with the United States: in late 2001, just after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in retaliation for the 11 September attacks against the U.S. by Islamist militants, Chávez showed pictures of Afghan children killed in a bomb attack on his television show. He commented that "They are not to blame for the terrorism of Osama Bin Laden or anyone else", and called on the American government to end "the massacre of the innocents. Terrorism cannot be fought with terrorism." The U.S. government responded negatively to the comments, which were picked up by the media worldwide.^[161]

Chávez's second term in office saw the implementation of social missions, such as this one to eliminate illiteracy in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, the 2000 elections had led to Chávez's supporters gaining 101 out of 165 seats in the Venezuelan National Assembly, and so in November 2001 they voted to allow him to pass 49 social and economic decrees.^[162][163] This move antagonized the opposition movement particularly strongly.^[155]

At the start of the 21st century, Venezuela was the world's fifth largest exporter of crude oil, with oil accounting for 85.3% of the country's exports, therefore dominating the country's economy.^[164][165] Previous administrations had sought to privatise this industry, with U.S. corporations having a significant level of control, but the Chávez administration wished to curb this foreign control over the country's natural resources by nationalising much of it under the state-run oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA). In 2001, the government introduced a new Hydrocarbons Law through which they sought to gain greater state control over the oil industry: they did this by raising royalty taxes on the oil companies and also by introducing the formation of "mixed companies", whereby the PdVSA could have joint control with private companies over industry. By 2006, all of the 32 operating agreements signed with private corporations during the 1990s had been converted from being primarily or solely corporate-run to being at least 51% controlled by PdVSA.^[164]