Hugo Chávez sin uniforme

Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka

2 ideas

1. The 'por ahora' broadcast of 1992

   On 4 February 1992 Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez's coup against President Carlos Andrés Pérez failed, and he was allowed a short live television appearance to tell his rebels to lay down their arms. In under two minutes he took personal responsibility for the failure and said the objectives had not been achieved 'por ahora' (for now). In a political culture where leaders rarely admitted fault, that phrase turned a jailed, defeated officer into a national figure, and it became the seed of his 1998 presidential victory.

2. Decade-long conspiracy inside the army

   In 1982 Chávez and fellow officers swore an oath beneath the Samán de Güere tree and founded the clandestine Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement (MBR-200). For ten years they recruited cells of junior officers while Chávez kept earning regular promotions and teaching at the military academy. Loyal service and slow-building subversion ran side by side, so the institution trained and advanced the people preparing to overthrow the government it served.

Save and mark ideas in the app