The Hugo Chavez Show - Recap

Frontline takes an in depth ninety minute look at the rise of Venezuelan dictator Hugh Chavez.

Will Lyman starts by showing footage of Hugo greeting people on his show, Alo Presidente.

Rafael Jimenez former Vice President of Parliament is interviewed. He talks about knowing Chavez. Will tells us that Chavez was a commander for the army. Chavez’s power in the military led him to attempt a coup that was a failure However, the media’s choice to interview Chavez gave him a chance to gain supporters for future.

Lyman tells us after the coup, Chavez decided to go into politics using what’s called the Bolivarian movement named after Simon Bolivar. Chavez tried to pass himself as a leftist who would help the poor people of Venezuela by redirecting the great wealth of the country. We are shown footage of one violent incident in Venezuela from 1989 to show the turmoil the country has gone through.

Then we learn of a communist leader named Luis Miquilena who becomes a supporter of Chavez. Chavez eventually becomes the President of Venezuela in 1999.

Lyman tells us that Venezuela has one of the largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere. He says that despite this a large bulk of the country lives in prosperity.

We are shown an interview of Francia Rivera. Rivera is a social worker who is a supporter of Chavez. We move on to footage of the aftermath of a coup to assassinate Chavez in 2002. Lyman explains many of the reasons behind the coup including Chavez’s passage of laws to double the oil royalties for the government, the appropriation of land, and an overall dissatisfaction with Chavez’s ability to keep promises. We are showing of a large protest of a million people marching up to Chavez’s palace. Lyman briefly mentions the fact that the US might have played a role in the coup, but the episode doesn’t provide any further details.

Chavez survives the coup and resumes his position as President. Chavez decides to use the coup as justification to carry out revenge and heavy-handed tactics as Lyman explains. Chavez and a businessman did a plan where he would control the oil business.
The businessman, Will Reprare, decides to finance the oil production since the leading oil production company Petro Oil shuts down against Chavez’s orders. Chavez then lays off 20,000 workers and replaces them with his own. Many of these workers don’t even have an idea how to run the oil business as episode points out. Chavez’s takeover of oil production would give him vast wealth for his policies and politics.

Lyman points out that over 60 % of the oil is bought and paid for by the U.S., and Chavez has used the oil to subsidize to Central and South Americans Leaders and Dictators like Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro.

Lyman spends the next segment looking at whether or not Chavez has actually followed through with his social promises to help public. Lyman talks about a group of projects or people known as “Cooperatives” which were put in Chavez in order to develop jobs and housing projects. However, the bulk of the Cooperatives are failures. Lyman points out one housing project that is never finished by Chavez in La Suiza. In fact, in this area, the housing was done by master builders themselves who paid for construction of the houses out of their houses. We move on to a cooperative project in Textile industry. However, here the failure is even more apparent. Many of the textile jobs pay very little money at all, and many of the textile jobs are gone. The remaining workers are interviewed, and they say that government gives them nothing in terms of education or business opportunities to rise above their poverty. Lyman points out that the workers have no experience working in business, and they have no marketing experience either. .

Lyman after all these failures asks the question of how with all the wealth in oil how these things can happen? One scholar says it’s the judgment by Chavez in hiring people for the job but doesn’t say the real answer which is that Chavez is using the money for his own purposes and not fulfilling his promises that got him elected.

The next segments by Frontline present this in more detail. They document cases where Chavez’s own supporters have been wronged by Chavez in one fashion or another. We are told of one plan Chavez had to relocate people of Venezuela from one area to another.
One of the supporters Nelson Moya asks Chavez on National Television if Chavez was misled about his plans. Chavez instead of directly answering the question belittles the young man and even accuses him of being an infiltrator.

The next case involve the editor of Venezuela’s most popular newspaper called Ultimos Noticias. Hugo is angered over a story the editor that criticized the poor health care system of Venezuela. Again instead of answer the question, Chavez live on television accuses the news organization of being part of an Oligarchy and possibly being influenced by American forces.

We get interviews from scholars and sociologists saying how this is a common routine by the dictator. In fact, as we are told many ministers are forcibly invited to attend Hugo’s show. The show although it says it serves to serve as communication by the people only serves to show Hugo’s attempts to belittle his critics and put any blame on the government on ministers of country.

Phil Gunsom of The Economist of how he asked one of these same ministers how it felt to be forced to attend Chavez’s show, and he says that he just laughed.

Lyman though tells viewer that one figure did cut ties with Chavez, it was his mentor Miquilena who is interviewed. Miquilena calls Chavez one of the biggest frauds in Venezuela. Lyman explains how following this Chavez became closer with Fidel Castro. Frontline also show footage of Chavez talking about Bush and US, and how they tried to kill him. One of Chavez’s critics tells viewers that despite the tough words Chavez will not cut trading with US because of the massive money in oil.

After this is the last portion of the show which details Chavez’s attempt to secure his presidency for life. He calls it a “reform”. The reform fails, however, angering Chavez. Lyman explain how in a heavy handed way intended to get back at his critics, Chavez revealed the names of the people of opposition who opposed his reform.essentially blacklisting them. For the last minutes, Lyman revisits many areas of Venezuela to show how in ten years Chavez has taken office nothing has really changed


Share this article with your friends