by Sandi Crain

Created on: October 08, 2009

The Twenty-First Century Socialist Movement in Venezuela

Venezuela is in the midst of a very dynamic period in the history of their nation. It began with the landslide victory of President Hugo Chavez in 1998. His campaign centered on giving the poor majority in Venezuela a larger share of the country's wealth and providing that majority with a larger voice. He calls this the

Bolivarian Revolution after Simon Bolivar, a 19th century revolutionary leader. As an unapologetic socialist, Chavez has worked tirelessly to remove the concentration of wealth and power from the nations few rich landowners and return it to the people from whom it was stolen during the colonial period.

Most people in North America had not heard of Hugo Chavez until 2002 when the elite, angry at having to share their wealth, attempted a coup. It lasted only 47 hours during which time the Venezuelan people took to the streets, marched up to the Miraflores presidential palace and demanded their president back. It is rare when the masses win over the power elite. It is even rarer when we have video record of it. Since then, Hugo Chavez has been even more beholden to the Venezuelan people and the Venezuelan people feel that they finally have some control over their own country.

Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution has not sat well with the United States to the north. The success and popularity of this social democracy threatens the power and profits of the large corporations who have a stake in the region. The Guardian has reported that The U.S. Navy aided in the 2002 coup. The Observer links the Bush team to the coup. Even former U.S. president Jimmy Carter claims that it was likely that the U.S. was behind the coup. This has made Hugo Chavez a very outspoken critic of the U.S. and it's foreign policy.

Socialist Venezuela and the capitalist U.S. are at ideological odds with one another. Whereas the socialists hold that the nation's resources should benefit the entire nation equally the capitalists believe that wealth and power are reserved for those who win the capitalist game. So, when Chavez takes ownership of oil companies or food giants like Cargill and hands them over to the people of Venezuela, the capitalist countries become more determined to fight back.

Since 2001, Hugo Chavez as taken back some 5 million acres of unused farmland and has given it to small local farmers or used it to create public enterprises aimed at growing affordable food. This has angered many large estate

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