Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez is one of the most visible, vocal and controversial leaders in Latin America.

The former army paratrooper first came to prominence as a leader of a failed coup in 1992.
Six years later, he caused a seismic shift in Venezuelan politics, riding a wave of popular outrage at the traditional political elite to win the presidency.
Since then, Mr Chavez has won a series of elections and referendums, including one on changing the constitution to allow unlimited presidential terms.
His supporters say he speaks for the poor; his critics say he has become increasingly autocratic.
Mr Chavez is set to stand again in the December 2012 vote - an election, he forecast in January 2011, he would win.

HUGO CHAVEZ

• Born 28 July 1954 in Sabaneta, Barinas state, the son of schoolteachers

• Graduated from military academy in 1975

• Has four children

• Keen baseball player

"It is written," he told supporters. If he is elected, Mr Chavez would be in office until 2019.

President Chavez argues that he needs more time for Venezuela's socialist revolution to take root.
In February 1992, Mr Chavez led a doomed attempt to overthrow the government of President Carlos Andres Perez amid growing anger at economic austerity measures.
The foundations for that failed coup had been laid a decade earlier, when Mr Chavez and a group of fellow military officers founded a secret movement named after the South American independence leader, Simon Bolivar.
The 1992 revolt by members of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement claimed 18 lives and left 60 injured before Mr Chavez gave himself up.
He was languishing in a military jail when his associates tried again to seize power nine months later.
That second coup attempt, in November 1992, was crushed as well.
Mr Chavez spent two years in prison before being granted a pardon. He then relaunched his party as the Movement of the Fifth Republic and made the transition from soldier to politician.
Oil wealth By the time Mr Chavez was swept into power in the 1998 elections, the old Venezuelan order was falling apart.
Unlike most of its neighbours, the country had enjoyed an unbroken period of democratic government since 1958.
But the two main parties that had alternated in power stood accused of presiding over a corrupt system and squandering the country's vast oil wealth.

Hugo Chavez is a close ally of Cuba's Fidel and Raul Castro

Mr Chavez promised "revolutionary" social policies, and constantly abused the "predatory oligarchs" of the establishment as corrupt servants of international capital.
Never missing an opportunity to address the nation, he once described oil executives as living in "luxury chalets where they perform orgies, drinking whisky".
Mr Chavez has also frequently clashed with church leaders, whom he accuses of neglecting the poor, siding with the opposition, and defending the rich.
"They do not walk in... the path of Christ," said Mr Chavez at one stage.

Hugo Chavez: Key dates

• Feb 1999: Takes office after winning 1998 election
• July 2000: Re-elected under new constitution for a six-year term
• April 2002: Abortive coup. Chavez returns to power after two days
• Aug 2004: Wins recall referendum on whether he should serve out rest of his term
• Dec 2006: Wins another six-year term with 63%
• Dec 2007: Loses constitutional referendum which included proposal to allow the president to run indefinitely for office
• Feb 2009: Wins referendum that lifts term limits on elected officials
• Sep 2010: Chavez party wins majority in National Assembly elections but opposition gets some 40% of seats

Relations with Washington reached a new low when he accused the Bush administration of "fighting terror with terror" during the war in Afghanistan after 11 September 2001.

Mr Chavez accused the US of being behind a short-lived coup that saw him removed from office for a couple of days in 2002.
He survived this episode and emerged strengthened two years later in a referendum on his leadership. He then went on to victory in the 2006 presidential election.
Venezuela's vast oil reserves - the largest in the Americas - have given it a strategic importance, but the US state department denies trying to overthrow the president.
Mr Chavez congratulated US President Barack Obama on his election victory in November 2008, indicating that he was ready to "start a process of rapprochement" with the US.
Ties, however, remain strained.
Mr Chavez's government has implemented a number of "missions" or social programmes, including education and health services for all. But chronic poverty and unemployment are still widespread, despite the country's oil wealth.
The Venezuelan leader had a health scare in mid-2011 when he flew to Cuba to have a cancerous tumour removed, after initially saying he only needed treatment for a pelvic abscess. Looking thinner after surgery, he said he was on the road to full recovery.
The president arrived back in Venezuela after nearly a month's absence just a day before celebrations to mark the country's 200th anniversary of independence from Spain.
Mr Chavez is renowned for his flamboyant public speaking style, which he puts to use in his weekly live TV programme, Alo Presidente (Hello President), in which he talks about his political ideas, interviews guests and sings and dances.

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