Hugo Chávez | |
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Chávez in 2010
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President of Venezuela | |
In office 14 April 2002 – 5 March 2013 |
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Vice Presidents |
See list
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Preceded by | Diosdado Cabello (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Nicolás Maduro |
In office 2 February 1999 – 12 April 2002 |
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Vice Presidents |
See list
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Preceded by | Rafael Caldera |
Succeeded by | Pedro Carmona (Interim) |
De facto President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela | |
In office 24 March 2007 – 5 March 2013 |
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Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Nicolás Maduro |
Personal details | |
Born |
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías 28 July 1954 Sabaneta, Venezuela |
Died | 5 March 2013 Caracas, Venezuela |
(aged 58)
Resting place | Cuartel de la Montaña Caracas, Venezuela |
Political party |
Fifth Republic Movement (1997–2007) United Socialist Party (2007–13) |
Other political affiliations |
Great Patriotic Pole (2011–13) |
Spouse(s) | Nancy Colmenares (divorced) Marisabel Rodríguez (divorced) |
Children | Rosa Virginia María Gabriela Hugo Rafael Rosinés |
Alma mater | Military Academy of Venezuela |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Venezuela |
Service/branch | Venezuelan Army |
Years of service | 1971–1992 |
Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈuɣo rafaˈel ˈtʃaβes ˈfɾi.as]; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who served as the 64th President of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013. He was also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until 2012.
Born into a working-class family in Sabaneta, Barinas, Chávez became a career military officer, and after becoming dissatisfied with the Venezuelan political system based on the Punto Fijo Pact, he founded the clandestine Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s. 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 political party known as the Fifth Republic Movement and was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He was re-elected in 2000 and again in 2006 with over 60% of the votes. After winning his fourth term as president in the October 2012 presidential election, he was to be sworn in on 10 January 2013, but Venezuela's National Assembly postponed the inauguration to allow him time to recover from medical treatment in Cuba. Suffering a return of the cancer originally diagnosed in June 2011, Chávez died in Caracas on 5 March 2013 at the age of 58.