By Daniel Nardini
Like current U.S. President Donald Trump, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was popularly elected because people in Venezuela were tired of the party system in that country. The Venezuelan people elected Chavez because people wanted an outsider who was not part of the political elites who ruled the country. Does this sound familiar? Before Chavez, there were problems in Venezuela. Crime had become a serious issue, as had inflation. Before Chavez, there was the Caracazo which was a massacre of an estimated 277 innocent people by the government who were protesting the steep price increases in food and gas and services. Yes, all of the problems that had beset Venezuela helped to bring Hugo Chavez to power.
Similar to Trump, Chavez led a military coup against the legitimately elected government in 1993. The coup was unsuccessful, and he was imprisoned only to eventually be released and pardoned. Trump led an insurrection in 2021 which failed, but the Republican senators refused to find him guilty of this, and so he was acquitted of these actions. The parallels between Trump and Chavez are just uncanny. Like Trump, Chavez developed a cult of personality where hundreds of thousands of people fanatically followed everything he said and did without question. These “Chavistas” had no problem threatening real or perceived enemies of Chavez, using violence against government officials and judges, and attacking whole rallies and protests against Chavez. Sounds familiar?
Almost from the beginning, Chavez tore out the machinery of government. He destroyed the court system, he totally reorganized the Venezuelan Congress putting in Chavez loyalists, and he created militias who answered only to him. He purged the armed forces and put in generals loyal only to him and not the constitution, and took away the independence of corporations that ran parts of the economy and put them under total government control—like the oil company PDVSA. While he was able to use the oil money for his “revolutionary socialist” programs, he also stole money from this oil revenue and his government’s misuse of the company’s levers of operations eventually destroyed the company itself. In the end, Chavez tanked the economy. Sounds familiar?
When Chavez died in 2013, he left his country bankrupt, with an authoritarian form of government, and a collapsing economy that has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee. Trump seems to be heading in the same direction. We can only hope that the U.S. judiciary is able to stop him, that the Democratic state governments are able to keep their autonomy, and that Americans wake up to the destruction Trump is doing to the U.S. economy. In the case of Chavez, we know where his reign went because it is now part of history. We have yet to see what happens with America under Trump.
America’s Hugo Chavez
By Daniel Nardini
Similar to Trump, Chavez led a military coup against the legitimately elected government in 1993. The coup was unsuccessful, and he was imprisoned only to eventually be released and pardoned. Trump led an insurrection in 2021 which failed, but the Republican senators refused to find him guilty of this, and so he was acquitted of these actions. The parallels between Trump and Chavez are just uncanny. Like Trump, Chavez developed a cult of personality where hundreds of thousands of people fanatically followed everything he said and did without question. These “Chavistas” had no problem threatening real or perceived enemies of Chavez, using violence against government officials and judges, and attacking whole rallies and protests against Chavez. Sounds familiar?
Almost from the beginning, Chavez tore out the machinery of government. He destroyed the court system, he totally reorganized the Venezuelan Congress putting in Chavez loyalists, and he created militias who answered only to him. He purged the armed forces and put in generals loyal only to him and not the constitution, and took away the independence of corporations that ran parts of the economy and put them under total government control—like the oil company PDVSA. While he was able to use the oil money for his “revolutionary socialist” programs, he also stole money from this oil revenue and his government’s misuse of the company’s levers of operations eventually destroyed the company itself. In the end, Chavez tanked the economy. Sounds familiar?
When Chavez died in 2013, he left his country bankrupt, with an authoritarian form of government, and a collapsing economy that has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee. Trump seems to be heading in the same direction. We can only hope that the U.S. judiciary is able to stop him, that the Democratic state governments are able to keep their autonomy, and that Americans wake up to the destruction Trump is doing to the U.S. economy. In the case of Chavez, we know where his reign went because it is now part of history. We have yet to see what happens with America under Trump.