Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez celebrated 10 years in power on February 2. It was a day of celebrations across Venezuela, a feat that the political opposition calls as massive propaganda. It was a day of joy for the government and distaste for the opposition. Faced with a polarized Venezuela, Chavez said that the revolution is the government and the people become the power. While the opposition has denounced the authoritarianism prevailing in Venezuela, Chavez stresses that the revival of the spirit embodied in Bolivarian socialism is the only redemption for the human being.
Chavez’s political enemies see the social achievements earned through the boom in oil prices as a warlord’s efforts to bulldozer a democratic regime. But Chavez is proud of what his leadership has attained for his country. “We have done what no one wanted to do in a century,” proclaimed the president of Venezuela. Chavez’s presidency has been turbulent, to say the least.
He has revised the constitution, filled the courts with his appointees, and incarcerated political opponents. After all, he is president of oil-rich Venezuela, one of the largest oil reserves in the world and the fourth largest oil supplier to the US. He has also decided that US is his enemy and that he has to beef up his armed forces while incorporating it with the Cuban army. Billions in oil revenues are used to buy advanced Russian fighter planes and helicopters.
Via venezuelanalysis
