Hugo Chavez

Personal life
Date and place of birth  |  July 28, 1954
Sabaneta, Venezuela
Parents  |  Hugo de los Reyes Chávez
Elena Frías de Chávez
Claimed religion  |  Roman Catholic
Education  |  Daniel Florencio O'Leary High School, Barinas
Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences, Caracas
Spouse  |  Nancy Colmenares (div.)
Marisabel Rodríguez (div.)
Children  |  Rosa Virginia
María Gabriela
Hugo Rafael
Rosinés (with Marisabel)
Date & Place of Death  |  circa Dec. 11, 2012 (denied by Venezuelan state media and the lamestream media until Mar. 5, 2013)
Manner of Death  |  illness in a Cuban hospital
Place of burial  |  The museum of the Bolivarian Revolution in Caracas
Dictatorial career
Country  |  Venezuela
Military service  |  Venezuelan army
Highest rank attained  |  Lieutenant colonel
Political beliefs  |  Socialism
Political party  |  Fifth Republic Movement
United Socialist Party
Date of dictatorship  |  November 2000
Wars started  |  n/a
Number of deaths attributed  |  n/a

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (b. July 28, 1954 – d. circa Dec. 11, 2012) [1] was the leftist President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from 1999 to 2012. Chavez was not seen in public since he entered a Cuban hospital near death on December 11, 2012. Venezuela's socialist regime engaged in liberal denial about his death for nearly three months, even releasing a photo of an ostensibly fit and smiling Chavez. But on March 5, 2013, likely due to pressure from other nations that already knew Chavez had died, Venezuelan state media finally admitted Chavez was dead.[2][3]

A self-proclaimed socialist and collectivist, his disastrous economic policies led to food shortages, quotas, and rationing in his oil-rich country, causing thousands to flee.[4] After a campaign full of the promise of "esperanza y cambio" (hope and change),[5] Chávez assumed power as President in 1999 and pledged to aid Venezuela's poor majority. Fraudulent elections were held in 2000 and in 2006, allowing Chavez to retain his authoritarian power. As such it would be accurate to describe him as a dictator.

* "For almost five years, Chavez has enjoyed near total control of Venezuela's National Assembly thanks to a strategic blunder by his foes, who boycotted 2005 elections."[6]

Due to an illness, in early April 2012 Hugo Chavez asked God to spare his life.[7]

## Contents

* 1 Ideology
* 2 Election fraud
* 2.1 Chavez Revolution
* 3 Human rights concerns
* 3.1 Trafficking in Persons
* 4 Relations with the United States
* 4.1 Terrorism
* 5 Expropriation
* 5.1 Foreign
* 5.2 Domestic
* 6 Anti-Semitism
* 7 Drug problem in Venezuela
* 8 Religious views
* 9 2011–2012 Health Crisis and subsequent cover-up and Constitutional Crisis
* 10 Personal Wealth
* 11 Quotes from Hugo Chavez
* 12 See also
* 13 References
* 14 Further reading

## Ideology[edit]

The ideology of Hugo Chavez was notably influenced by Jorge Antonio Giordani Cordero, a Venezuelan Marxist, who Chavez later tapped as a close advisor and planning minister.[8] Giordani was Chavez's economics tutor, who later would visit Chavez while he was in prison.[9][10] Chavez frequently lauded a book titled "Beyond Capital" written by István Mészáros as a key text in his outlook.[11] The book was supplied to him by Giordani.[12]

## Election fraud[edit]

Steven F. Hayward wrote: "While exit polls conducted by the very reliable American firm of Penn, Schoen, and Berland showed Chavez losing by a large margin (41 to 59), the official results put Chavez free and clear by a vote of 58 to 41 percent."[13]

An eyewitness testified in a sworn affidavit:

> "President Chavez instructed me to make arrangements for him to meet with Jorge Rodriguez, then President of the National Electoral Council, and three executives from Smartmatic. Among the three Smartmatic representatives were [redacted]. President Chavez had multiple meetings with Rodriguez and the Smartmatic team at which I was present. In the first of four meetings, Jorge Rodriguez promoted the idea to create software that would manipulate elections. Chavez was very excited and made it clear that he would provide whatever Smartmatic needed. He wanted them immediately to create a voting system which would ensure that any time anything was going to be voted on the voting system would guarantee results that Chavez wanted. Chavez offered Smartmatic many inducements, including large sums of money, for Smartmatic to create or modify the voting system so that it would guarantee Chavez would win every election cycle. Smartmatic’s team agreed to create such a system and did so.

> 13\. I arranged and attended three more meetings between President Chavez and the representatives from Smartmatic at which details of the new voting system were discussed and agreed upon. For each of these meetings, I communicated directly with [redacted] on details of where and when to meet, where the participants would be picked up and delivered to the meetings, and what was to be accomplished. At these meetings, the participants called their project the “Chavez revolution.” From that point on, Chavez never lost any election. In fact, he was able to ensure wins for himself, his party, Congress persons and mayors from townships.

> 14\. Smartmatic’s electoral technology was called “Sistema de Gestión Electoral” (the “Electoral Management System”). Smartmatic was a pioneer in this area of computing systems. Their system provided for transmission of voting data over the internet to a computerized central tabulating center. The voting machines themselves had a digital display, fingerprint recognition feature to identify the voter, and printed out the voter’s ballot. The voter’s thumbprint was linked to a computerized record of that voter’s identity. Smartmatic created and operated the entire system.

> 15\. Chavez was most insistent that Smartmatic design the system in a way that the system could change the vote of each voter without being detected. He wanted the software itself to function in such a manner that if the voter were to place their thumb print or fingerprint on a scanner, then the thumbprint would be tied to a record of the voter’s name and identity as having voted, but that voter would not tracked to the changed vote. He made it clear that the system would have to be setup to not leave any evidence of the changed vote for a specific voter and that there would be no evidence to show and nothing to contradict that the name or the fingerprint or thumb print was going with a changed vote. Smartmatic agreed to create such a system and produced the software and hardwarethat accomplished that result for President Chavez.

> 16\. After the Smartmatic Electoral Management System was put in place, I closely observed several elections where the results were manipulated

> using Smartmatic software. One such election was in December 2006 when Chavez was running against Rosales. Chavez won with a landslide over Manuel Rosales - a margin of nearly 6 million votes for Chavez versus 3.7 million for Rosales."[14]

### Chavez Revolution[edit]

A February 26, 2003 report by Robert Tracinski obliterates the left-wing mythology around Chavez:

>      Step one: Chavez has initiated formal proceedings to revoke the licenses of independent, privately owned television and radio stations. Meanwhile, his political militias, the Bolivarian Circles, have staged violent attacks on independent media outlets. After all, elections don't mean much if all people watch is propaganda on state-run television.

>      Step two: Chavez has used a moratorium on currency conversion--needed to pay for imported goods--to punish his opponents. Vowing "no dollars for coup-mongers," he has used this power, for example, to prevent opposition newspapers from importing ink. After all, elections don't mean much if your opponents are too busy worrying where their next meal is coming from.

>      Step three: Venezuelan police acting on Chavez's orders have arrested Carlos Fernandez, the head of Venezuela's largest business federation and a leader of the recent anti-Chavez strike, charging him with rebellion and sabotage. Another strike leader, Carlos Ortega, head of Venezuela's largest labor union, has gone into hiding. In one move, Chavez has neutralized two potential rivals for the presidency. After all, elections don't mean much if all of the other candidates are in jail.

>      Step four: Last week, four protesters were kidnapped while returning from an anti-Chavez rally. They were blindfolded, tortured, and shot execution-style. Some of the victims were witnesses to a previous pro-Chavez political killing, and they had planned to testify against the shooter. Consider the message sent to the opposition when the mutilated bodies of their friends start showing up in the city streets. After all, elections don't mean much if your opponents are afraid to leave their houses and walk to the polls.

>      Step five: A few days ago, Chavez delivered a speech denouncing Spain, Colombia, and the US for interfering in Venezuela. This morning in Caracas, the diplomatic missions of Spain and Colombia were bombed. Credit was claimed by a splinter pro-Chavez group--but this was not a bunch of kids cooking up homemade bombs in their basement. The bombs were powerful plastic explosives, the kind of weapons that are difficult to obtain without government complicity.[15]

$4 billion was spent paying paramilitary groups to attack unarmed protestors and other dissidents during and after the elections.[16]

The European Union condemned the conditions placed on election monitors as unacceptable and declined to attend. The Carter Center was shut out for three days. Experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have identified signs of fraud based on statistical analysis.[17][18]

## Human rights concerns[edit]

Hugo Chávez was a great friend of the tyrannical Cuban despot Fidel Castro and is said to have drawn his political style through influences such as Che Guevara, Karl Marx and Simon Bolivar. The U.S. State Department Report on Global Anti-Semitism cited Chavez in August 2004 warning citizens against following the lead of Jewish citizens in the effort to overturn his referendum victory.[19] Chavez also embraced a number of world leaders that have hostile relations with the United States, including Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the then-President of Iran, who Chavez has referred to as "my brother".[20] U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said of Chavez, "Hugo Chavez fancies himself a modern-day Simon Bolivar, but all he is is an everyday thug."[21] He was also considered to be an ally of leftist Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, Bolivian president Evo Morales and the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega ... all radical leftists.[22]

In May 2007, Chavez silenced the privately owned RCTV, the only remaining opposition television station critical of his regime and its repression, by revoking its licence and seizing its studios and infrastructure for the use of his newly formed state-run propaganda channel TVes.[23] Crowds of students demonstrated saying they feared for the future of human rights in Venezuela. National Guard troops were ordered to fire tear gas and rubber bullets. Two students were injured, a third was hit with a tear gas canister, and about 20 people needed emergency medical attention for inhaling tear gas.[24] Chavez employed discrimination against migrant workers in the country.[25]

Chavez said, "I am going to go after those who resist the revolution and eliminate them one by one."[26]

### Trafficking in Persons[edit]

Venezuela under Chavez was on the U.S. State Department's Tier 3 list for trafficking in persons since 2004, which means that the government was categorized as one that has failed to make significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in persons. The State Department's June 2007 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report maintains that Venezuela is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor.[27]

## Relations with the United States[edit]

At the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

Foreign relations between the United States of America and Venezuela are presently unstable. Chavez often hypocritically criticized the United States for its "imperialism" on his radio segment Alo Presidente, and alleged the United States supported a 2002 coup in Venezuela which toppled Chávez momentarily and later removed by Chávez supporters, also known as "Chávistas". Venezuela is heavily dependent upon trade revenue from oil sales to the United States. Chavez has founded ALBA an international organization of leftist countries on the Caribics and Southern America. Chavez said that the ALCA is a "instrument of imperialism".

### Terrorism[edit]

In May 2006, the State Department determined that, pursuant to Section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act, Venezuela was not fully cooperating with U.S. antiterrorism efforts. This triggered a prohibition on the sale or license of defense articles and services to Venezuela. Other countries on the Section 40A list include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria, not to be confused with the "state sponsors of terrorism" list under Section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act of 1979, which currently includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. The State Department asserted that the Section 40A determination was based on Venezuela's near lack of antiterrorism cooperation over the last year, citing its support for Iraqi insurgents and Iran's development of nuclear capabilities, the country's status as a safe haven for Colombian and Basque terrorist groups, and its effort to derail hemispheric efforts to advance counter-terrorism policies in the OAS. In May 2007, the State Department again included Venezuela in its annual Section 40A determination that it was not cooperating fully with U.S. antiterrorism efforts.

In late April 2007, the State Department issued its annual Country Reports on Terrorism, which asserted that President Chávez "persisted in public criticism of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, deepened Venezuelan relationships with Iran and Cuba, and was unwilling to prevent Venezuelan territory from being used as a safe haven" by Colombian terrorist groups.

There have been long-held suspicions that Chávez has supported leftist Colombian guerrillas, although Chávez denies such support. The State Department's terrorism report maintains that units of Colombia's two leftist terrorist groups — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) — often crossed into Venezuela "to rest and regroup with relative impunity."

In addition, according to the report, splinter groups of the FARC and a rightist terrorist group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) reportedly operate in various parts of the country and are involved in drug trafficking. The report maintained, however, that "it remained unclear to what extent the Venezuelan Government provided material support to Colombian terrorists."

In addition, according to the report, Venezuelan citizenship, identity, and travel documents remained easy to obtain, making the country a potentially attractive waystation for terrorists. In July 13, 2006, congressional testimony, the State Department's Principal Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Frank Urbancic, asserted that the United States was detaining increasing numbers of third-country aliens at its borders carrying falsified or fraudulently issued Venezuelan documents. U.S. officials also have expressed concerns about President Chávez's close relationship with Cuba's Fidel Castro, but Chávez defends his relationship with Cuba. Overall Venezuelan support to Cuba is estimated to be more than $2 billion a year.[28] Venezuela supplies some 90,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba on a concessionary basis under PetroCaribe. In return, Venezuela has received support from thousands of Cuban health care workers and sports instructors in the country.

During an April 2005 trip to Cuba, Presidents Chávez and Castro announced commercial deals worth over $400 million, including a joint shipyard to build small navy ships and a joint housing construction company. In January 2007, a delegation of Cuban officials visited Caracas and signed a number of agreements to increase economic linkages, including an agreement for joint oil exploration in both countries.

PdVSA is also involved in refurbishing an unfinished oil refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba. Beyond Latin America, the Bush Administration has expressed concerns with Venezuela's growing relations with Iran. In February 2006, Secretary of State Rice referred to Venezuela, along with Cuba, as "sidekicks" of Iran in reference to those countries’ votes in the International Atomic Energy Agency against reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its uranium enrichment program.[29] In testimony before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee in February 2006, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte expressed concern that President Chávez "is seeking closer economic, military, and diplomatic ties with Iran and North Korea."[30] ran and Venezuela signed an agreement for a $200 million fund to finance joint investment and social projects, and commercial agreements in the early stages include plans for a cement factory, oil exploration in the Orinoco River belt, and a joint operation to build oil and liquid natural gas tankers.[31] During a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Venezuela in mid-January 2007, the two countries announced they would use a $2 billion investment fund to finance projects in both countries and other countries as well.[32]

Some Members of Congress have expressed concerns about relations between Venezuela and Iran. In the 110th Congress, H.Res. 435 (Klein) would, among its provisions, express concern over national security implications of the relationship between the leaders of Iran and Venezuela.

According to the Washington Post Chavez was accused of supplying weapons to Colombian rebels, of financing Bolivian and Ecuadorian groups seeking to establish "Marxist" states, and of being, with Cuban leader Fidel Castro's guidance, a "subversive" everywhere else in the region.[33]

Infamous longtime international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, converted to Islam in 2003 and published a book promoting his strategy for "the destruction of the United States through an orchestrated and persistent campaign of terror." The book calls on "all revolutionaries, including those of the left, even atheists," to follow the leadership of lslamist terrorists such as Osama bin Laden to turn Afghanistan and Iraq into "graveyards of American imperialism."

Chavez, speaking to a gathering of worldwide socialist politicians in November 2009, called Carlos an important revolutionary fighter who supported the Palestinian cause. Chávez said during his televised speech that Carlos had been unfairly convicted and added, "They accuse him of being a terrorist, but Carlos really was a revolutionary fighter."

In addition, Chávez called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe his "brothers" and had stated that the late Ugandan dictator cannibal Idi Amin wasn't that bad either.[34]

## Expropriation[edit]

### Foreign[edit]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with Fidel Castro.

In typical socialist rhetoric, Chavez made wild claims to fund the government by nationalizing foreign assets. Typical reasons included accusing companies of environmental damage and exploiting its workers. In 2010 alone, Chavez seized 195 companies.[35] Spanish-owned farm supply and U.S.-based Ohio bottle company were recently taken over. Other recognized multi-national companies such ExxonMobil, steel maker Sidor, cement company CEMEX fell to the same fate.[36] Venezuela is supposed to compensate the companies but nobody expects Chavez to provide other than peanuts for assets he steals.

Through Venezuela's state-owned petroleum industry and membership in OPEC, Chávez used powers granted to him by Parliament to increase oil prices, adding revenue for the Bolivarianist projects. Countries such as the United States have criticized Chávez for the increase in cost for crude oil. Chavez was at the forefront of wanting to set crude oil prices at $60 a barrel minimum, according to the Asia Times[37] The state-owned oil company PDVSA is estimated to have spent in excess of $120 million sponsoring the Formula 1 team, Williams F1, so that they would give the Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado a seat.

### Domestic[edit]

In addition to foreign assets, the Chavez government also nationalized domestic assets as well as implemented schemes of Price fixing. The organization SUNDDE, or National Superintendence for the Defense of Socioeconomic Rights, was established in 2014 to oversee Price controls. In 2007, Chavez nationalized CANTV, the largest communications provider in Venezuela. Electricidad de Caracas was also nationalized in 2007 and incorporated into PDVSA. In 2010, Agropatria was nationalized and farming has not since recovered. In 2011, the transportation company Conferry was nationalized, and since that time most of their ships have become useless.

## Anti-Semitism[edit]

Hugo Chavez and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Chavez was known to be fiercely anti-Semitic,[38] which was the likely reason for his friendship and political alliance with Iranian dictator and Holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.[39] As a result of the anti-Semitic policies of the Chavez regime and the wave of violent attacks on Venezuelan Jews that it caused, the Jewish population of Venezuela decreased by more than 50 percent within a decade of Chavez coming to power.[40]

## Drug problem in Venezuela[edit]

The Associated Press reported in July 2007 that since Chavez's ascension to power, illegal narcotics passing through Venezuela from Colombia has risen by as much as 30 tons a year and now accounts for roughly a third of the world's supply of cocaine. Mildred Camero who was in charge of Venezuela's anti-drug efforts stated, "Caracas is replacing Bogota as a center of everything related to drug operations." Camero was fired in 2005 after reporting high-level corruption.[41]

In 2008 Chavez revealed that he himself regularly chews coca leafs, the leafs from which cocaine is made. This is a common custom in that area of South America.[42]

## Religious views[edit]

Though Chavez claimed to be a devout Catholic, he has had public disputes with the Church before. Chavez demanded that Pope Benedict apologize for saying the Roman Catholic Church purified Indians in Latin America. Chavez called the treatment of Indians after Christopher Columbus landed in 1492 a "holocaust".[43] In addition, he denounced Catholic leaders, claiming they "cared more about the rich than the poor". After his condition continued to deteriorate due to cancer, Chavez became more overtly religious, calling on God to help him.[44]

## 2011–2012 Health Crisis and subsequent cover-up and Constitutional Crisis[edit]

On June 30, 2011, the 56-year-old President admitted, in a televised speech, to having cancer.[45] He sought treatment, to no avail, in Brazil.[46]

Despite being aware of his condition, Chavez chose to run again for President. On October 7, 2012, a terminally ill Chávez won election as president for a fourth time, defeating Henrique Capriles.[47]

Chavez was not seen since December 11, 2012, the last time he appeared in public, when he was admitted to a hospital in Cuba. He may have died on this date or shortly afterward. However, the Cuban and Venezuelan Communists attempted to keep his death secret, and pretended he was alive for another two and a half months, going as far as using his Twitter account to post fake messages from a supposedly recovering Chavez.

Chavez should have taken the oath of office on January 10, 2013, the necessary step to assume the presidency for his new period. However, Venezuela's Supreme Court ignored the provisions of the Venezuelan Constitution (reformed by Chavez himself in 1999) and allowed Chavez to become president without taking the oath of office, thus doing away with any remaining semblance of constitutional government.

On February 18, it was announced by the Chavez regime that Chavez had returned to Venezuela to finish his recovery.[48] The then-Venezuelan vice-president Nicolás Maduro claimed that Chavez had been flown in secrecy from Havana to Caracas in the early hours of the morning to avoid possible attacks from his enemies. The two top floors of Caracas' military hospital were sealed from the public, with Chavez supposedly recovering on the eighth floor and the seventh floor closed to guarantee his security. On March 5, the Venezuelan de facto government finally ended the charade and announced that Chavez had died, claiming also that his cancer and death had been the result of an assassination plot by "the historical enemies of the Fatherland" (referring to the United States and the Venezuelan democratic opposition). On March 7, Maduro announced that Chavez's body should be embalmed and put on permanent display inside a glass tomb, thus imitating the treatment given to the corpses of other Communist dictators like Lenin, Stalin, Klement Gottwald, Georgi Dimitrov, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.[49] But this was canceled because Chavez's body would otherwise have to be brought for a time to Russia to do the embalming.

## Personal Wealth[edit]

Around the time that Hugo Chavez passed away, reports surfaced that he had amassed a personal wealth of over a billion dollars.[50] Some reports put his personal wealth at $2 billion.[51]

New reports have come out detailing his daughter's wealth. María Gabriela is reported to be a billionaire, worth over $4 billion,[52] which would make her the richest person in Venezuela.[53]

Socialist dictators are known for ransacking the people they claim to support. Muammar al-Gaddafi was one of the richest people in the world when he died. Neither Gaddafi nor Chavez did anything in their lives that would have earned them this kind of wealth.

## Quotes from Hugo Chavez[edit]

* On closure of RCTV, claiming the network's broadcasts amounted to a "permanent attack on public morals" with cartoons that were "poisoned with hatred, violence and even sex."

* "Private banks have to give priority to financing the industrial sectors of Venezuela at low cost...If banks don't agree with this, it's better that they go, that they turn over the banks to me."

## See also[edit]

* Articles about Hugo Chavez from previous "Breaking News"
* Dictatorship
* Dictator
* List of dictators
* Friendly dictator
* Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Chairman Mao, Kim Jong-Il, Pol Pot
* Dictatorship of the proletariat
* List of Communist States
* List of Socialist States
* Death toll of communism
* Coup d'état
* Cult of personality
* Single-party state
* Mobocracy, Social Effects of the Theory of Evolution, Anti-Semitism, Communist Racism, Genocide, Holocaust
* Big government Welfare state leads to Nanny state, leads to Police state: Globalist-Statist-Socialist-Communist
* Liberal totalitarianism

## References[edit]

1. ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21476917 (obviously staged photo)
2. ↑ "Hugo Chavez dead at 58 "How little we know about the manner in which - or when - he died"
3. ↑ Venezuela candidate: Govt exploits Chavez death
4. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/4938993/Venezuelas-Hugo-Chavez-tightens-state-control-of-food-amid-rocketing-inflation-and-food-shortages.html
5. ↑ How's Socialism Doing In Venezuela?
6. ↑ Chavez foes, US condemn plan for decree powers \- Fox News - December 15, 2010
7. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/9189962/Hugo-Chavez-weeps-and-calls-on-God-to-spare-his-life.html
8. ↑ Venezuela becoming 'laughing stock', ex-Chavez economic guru says
9. ↑ Richard Gott writes about Hugo Chávez and the Venezuelan Revolution
10. ↑ Review: Venezuela’s revolutionary leaves chaos behind
11. ↑ Mészáros and Chávez: The Philosopher and the Llanero
12. ↑ Chávez, a Reader of Mészáros
13. ↑ [1]
14. ↑ Case 1:20-cv-04651-SDG - Filed 11/17/20 (PDF)
15. ↑ Robert W Tracinski, Dictatorship by the Numbers in Venezuela, Capitalism Mag., Feb 26, 2003.
16. ↑ Stephen Johnson, Venezuela: A New Junket for a Dictator’s best Friend – Jimmy Carter, Capitalism Mag., July 28, 2003.
17. ↑ Carter's Bungled Observation Hurts Venezuelan Democracy, Heritage, Sep 9, 2004.
18. ↑ The Carter stamp of approval on the Venezuelan election - less than worthless [2] Capitalism Mag.
19. ↑ Report on Global Anti-Semitism U. S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 5, 2005.
20. ↑ Chávez decorated in Iran; initials cooperation pacts
21. ↑ Back to the old days, if only for a minute, Wesley Pruden, Jewish World Review, Sept. 22, 2006.
22. ↑ Correa
23. ↑ Chávez silences critical TV station, Rory Carroll, The Guardian, May 23, 2007.
24. ↑ Troops Fire Upon Protesters in Venezuela, Fabiola Sanchez, Associated Press, 05.28.07. Retrieved from Forbes.com 05/31/07.
25. ↑ http://www.capitalismmagazine.com/world/americas/3924-the-carter-stamp-of-approval-on-the-venueuzlan-election-less-than-worthless.html
26. ↑ Because Freedom Matters, By U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV and Blanquita Cullm, Naples Daily News, July 7, 2007.
27. ↑ U.S. Department of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, June 12, 2007, p. 207.
28. ↑ Frances Robles and Phil Gunson, Cuba Spotlights Chávez Friendship, Miami Herald, January 26, 2007.
29. ↑ Pablo Bachelet, "Rice Bashes Venezuelan Leader, Politics," Miami Herald, February 17, 2006; House International Relations Committee, Hearing on the Fiscal Year 2007 International Affairs Budget, Testimony of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, February 16, 2006.
30. ↑ Senate Select Intelligence Committee, Hearing on World Wide Threats, Testimony of Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, February 2, 2006.
31. ↑ Steven Dudley, "Chávez’s Wooing of Iran Called Troubling," Miami Herald, March 2, 2006.
32. ↑ Simon Romero, Iranian President Visits Venezuela to Strengthen Ties, The New York Times, January 14, 2007.
33. ↑ Dealing With the Good and Bad Hugo Chavez, Marcela Sanchez, The Washington Post 25 August 2005.
34. ↑ Perdue, Jon B.., Johnson, Stephen. The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism. United Kingdom: Potomac Books, 2012. p. 94.

> Another connection that bridges this historical cooperation between the far right and far left into the modern age of terrorism is that between Carlos the Jackal and the Swiss Nazi Francois Genoud. Genoud's life, in fact, spans the history of this collaboration.

> Francois Genoud was an early admirer and proponent of Adolf Hitler's, and a founder of the National Front, a Swiss Nazi party.

> Genoud met and befriended Haj Amin al-Husseini and worked with him to recruit Arabs into the service of the Nazis. He also set up the Banque Commerciale Arabe in Geneva with Syrian money and ran the Banque Populaire Arabe in newly independent Algeria. In the early 1960s Genoud helped fund Eichmann's legal defense and in the 1980s that of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in France. When three PFLP terrorists were arrested after an attack on an El Al plane in Zurich in 1969, Genoud helped pay for their legal defense as well.

> Genoud would say, even in his later life, that Hitler's actions were "proper and in support ofpeace." Evidence has come out since Genoud's death that he was also the financial manager for the Swiss assets of the Nazis after World War. In May 1996 it was announced that bankers in Switzerland had agreed to cooperate with Jewish leaders to delve into the normally secretive Swiss banking system and government files to search for assets of Holocaust victims. Less than a month later, on May 30, Genoud drank a poison cocktail and committed suicide.

> Though he had been a committed Nazi, Genoud spent his life helping to finance and facilitate the terrorist actions of many left-wing groups and individuals. He also paid for the defense of Carlos the Jackal after he was arrested in France in 1994. Genoud described the left-wing Carlos as being accepting of his extreme-right past: “He knew my past. I never hid it. I was always accepted. Carlos would write to Genoud from prison

> Carlos would write to Genoud from prison in France, "In this period of revolutionary ebb, men of your vision and faith in Victory are more necessary than ever."

> Like Genoud's trail of money, Carlos the Jackal's trail of blood runs throughout the history of terrorism over the last forty years, and his collaborations with fellow terrorists also ran the ideological gamut. In his book Revolutionary Islam, Carlos coalition of Marxists and Islamists can destroy the United States.”

> The book, written in French, announced Carlos's conversion to Islam and promoted his strategy for "the destruction of the United States through an orchestrated and persistent campaign of terror." The book calls on "all revolutionaries, including those of the left, even atheists," to follow the leadership of lslamist terrorists such as Osama bin Laden to turn Afghanistan and Iraq into "graveyards of American imperialism."

> Carlos's book would be little noticed until Hugo Chavez, speaking to a gathering of worldwide socialist politicians in November 2009, called him an important revolutionary fighter who supported the Palestinian cause. Chávez said during his televised speech that Carlos had been unfairly convicted and added, "They accuse him of being a terrorist, but Carlos really was a revolutionary fighter." Chávez punctuated the point by calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe his "brothers" and had stated that the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin wasn't that bad either.

35. ↑ A total of 195 businesses has been seized in 2010, El Universal, October 20, 2010
36. ↑ Chavez takes over Venezuelan plants of OH company, Wellsy's World, October 26, 2010
37. ↑ Bush, OPEC and Chavez of Arabia, Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, 7 December 2006.
38. ↑ Travis Pantin, Hugo Chávez's Jewish Problem, Commentary Magazine, July/August 2008
39. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402428.html
40. ↑ Venezuela’s Jewish Population Down 50 Percent; ‘Hitler Didn’t Finish the Job’ a Common Site, WotldJewishDaily, Apr 7, 2016.
41. ↑ Venezuela Becomes Cocaine Conduit, By Ian James and Frank Bajak, Associated Press, 1 July 2007. Retrieved from Forbes.com 8 July 2007.
42. ↑ Venezuela's Chavez swaps coffee for coca in speech, Reuters
43. ↑ Chavez demands Pope apologize for Indian comments, Reuters, May 19, 2007
44. ↑ http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-significance-of-hugo-chavezs-death-and-faith-91410/
45. ↑ [3]
46. ↑ http://latindispatch.com/2011/07/14/hugo-chavez-to-receive-cancer-treatment-in-brazil/
47. ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/08/venezuela-election-idUSL1E8L70WK20121008
48. ↑ https://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/18/president-chavez-returns-to-venezuela-from-cuba-after-months-medical-treatment/
49. ↑ Chavez's body embalmed, to be permanently on display, Fox News (March 7, 2013)
50. ↑ Was Chavez worth over $1bn when he died? Intelligence analyst claims he amassed huge fortune from country's oil wealth, Daily Mail
51. ↑ Venezuela: the wealth of Chavez family exposed, Daily Telegraph
52. ↑ Iron-Fisted Socialism Benefited Hugo Chavez’s Daughter To The Tune Of BILLIONS, Reports Say Daily Caller
53. ↑ Hugo Chávez daughter is the richest individual in Venezuela, report claims, Fox News

## Further reading[edit]

* [4] An in-depth view on Venezuela under Hugo Chávez.
* [5] An overview of articles on Venezuela's business under Hugo Chávez.
* Why The Left Should Cringe at The Mention of Hugo Chavez, Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Independent Institute, February 24, 2006.
* Bolivar, Dictator or Paladin? Interview: Hugo Chavez talks about Venezuela, Maria Amparo Lasso, Newsweek, Aug 20, 2001.

v • d • e

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* * *

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