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Hugo Chavez – a justice fighter, a friend of Vietnam

6/3/14

Hugo Chavez Frias
On the occasion of the 1^st death anniversary of the Venezuelan President – Hugo Chavez, I and my friends visited a book introduction about this man in Hanoi. The book is titled “Hugo Chavez Frias: Political Thoughts on Socialism in the 21 st Century”. This book is a useful source for everyone who want to find out the thoughts, life and career of the late president, as well as his struggle against oppression and injustice and his aspiration for a peaceful South America free from poverty and misery. Today, I want we spent a little time to look back Chavez’s timelife to see how amazing his life is.

Hugo Chavez was born in 1954 in 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 in 1992, for which he was imprisoned. Released from prison after two years, he founded a socialist political party, the Fifth Republic Movement, and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He was re-elected in 2000. During his second presidential term, he introduced the system of Bolivarian Missions, Communal Councils, and worker-managed cooperatives, as well as a program of land reform, while also nationalizing various key industries. He was re-elected in 2006 with over 60% of the vote. On 7 October 2012, Chávez won his country's presidential election for a fourth time, defeating Henrique Capriles, and was elected for another six-year term.

Following Chavismo, his own political ideology of Bolivarianism and Socialism of the 21st Century, he focused on implementing socialist reforms in the country as a part of a social project known as the Bolivarian Revolution. He implemented the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution, participatory democratic councils, the nationalization of several key industries, and increased government funding of health care and education and made significant reductions in poverty with oil revenues. The Bolivarian Missions have entailed the construction of thousands of free medical clinics for the poor, the institution of educational campaigns that have made more than one million adult Venezuelans literate, and the enactment of food and housing subsidies.

Closely aligning himself with the communist governments of Fidel and then Raúl Castro in Cuba and the socialist governments of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, his presidency was seen as a part of the socialist "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. Along with these governments, Chávez described his policies as anti-imperialist, being a prominent adversary of the United States's foreign policy as well as a vocal critic of US-supported neoliberalism and laissez-faire capitalism. He 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. Chávez was a highly controversial and divisive figure both at home and abroad. On occasion he used undiplomatic language towards other world leaders, having compared US president George W. Bush to a donkey and the devil.

Hugo Chavez also had been broadening the relationship between Venezuela and communist countries, including Vietnam. 2014 is an important year for the two nations as they celebrate the 25^th anniversary of their diplomatic ties and 50 years since Venezuelan guerilla arrested a US officer to exchange for the life of Vietnamese hero Nguyen Van Troi.

The Vietnam – Venezuela relationship had been developing beautifully, friendly and closely in Chavez’s president time. President Chavez himself is a “big” friend of Vietnam. He had promoted policies which consolidating the relationship between two nations, especially cooperating in oil and gas area.

Hugo Chavez had been spending his life fighting for freedom and fairness of Venezuelan in particular, working-class people in general. Chavez’s pass-away was a big loss to the international communist movement.

Vietnamese people and international friends never forget Hugo Chavez, a friend a soldier, who had done to inspire everyone to rise against oppression and injustice all over the world.

Chia sẻ bài viết ^^