Abstract
Since 1998, voters have elected Hugo Chavez to the presidency three times with increasing margin each time and on August 15, 2004, voters returned to polls to decide whether to remove him from office or not. 59% of voters confirmed the President's mandate and defeated the recall initiative. First Hugo Chavez's victory in the 1998 presidential elections surprised political predictions and academics alike. In fact, the political scientist Luis Gomez asserted that, despite the widespread recognition of the existence of a political crisis, very few thought that the force capable of displacing Accion Democratica (AD) and COPEI, the traditionally dominant political parties, would be the Chavismo.
The increasingly decisive victories of the Chavez presidency raise many issues. No one doubts that President Chavez is determined to lead his country, Venezuela, toward socialism. Fidel Castro constantly repeated the name, ideals and teachings of Jose Marti. He attributed to his "Revolution" the spirit of Marti and expressed the desire to finish Marti's planned integration of Latin America. As far as Hugo Chavez is concerned, he invokes the name of Simon Bolivar with the same reverence, respect and intention as Fidel Castro did with Marti. He professes that nowadays Venezuela is reigniting the Bolivarian Revolution, and says he has been passed the torch and the mission from Marti, Bolivar and Castro. Hugo Chavez, through his Bolivarian Revolution, has resigned himself to act in the sense of what those men called for: the unification of Latin America and the Caribbean as a counterbalance to the United States hegemony. Part of the historical and cultural significance of the Chavismo comes from its appropriation of the figure of Simon Bolivar.
