Skip to main content
NEU Senior Regional Support Officer
Remembering Hugo Chavez
Rewriting history when it comes to Hugo Chavez’s role in Venezuela and Latin America’s past is part of the current US offensive for ‘regime change,’ says KEN LIVINGSTONE
INSPIRATIONAL: Hugo Chavez among children [Mision Verdad/Truth Mission]

YOU won’t read about it much in those parts of the media currently arguing for war on Venezuela, but when Hugo Chavez first became president in 1999, Venezuela had endured a wave of economic and social catastrophes in the preceding two decades.

Up to seven in 10 people had been left in poverty. Income per head had collapsed to the levels of the 1950s. Millions were left to live in barrios dangerously clinging to the mountainsides, often without clean water or sanitation. Many had no proper access to healthcare and education

After Chavez’s election in 1998 with a 57 per cent vote, he set about his mission to transform the country.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
SHOWING NO FEAR: Cubans file past the US Embassy on January 16 holding a banner: ‘Listen Rubio, listen Trumpeta (Loudmouth) stop hussling us, our people will be respected’
Features / 23 January 2026
23 January 2026

The US attack on Venezuela raises grave threats to Cuba and the region, writes NATASHA HICKMAN of Cuba Solidarity Campaign

THE RESOLVE UNALTERED: Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez, center, makes a statement flanked by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, right, and National Assembly President, Jorge Rodriguez, at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela on Wednesday
Features / 16 January 2026
16 January 2026

International solidarity can ensure that Trump and his machine cannot prevail without a level of political and economic cost that he will not want to pay, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE

READY TO REPEL ATTACK: People rally in the Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, in support of the enlistment campaign called by the government of President Nicolas Maduro, August 29 2025
Features / 3 September 2025
3 September 2025

US baseless accusations of drug trafficking and the outrageous putting of a bounty on a president of a sovereign country do not bode well, reports PABLO MERIGUET

CHANGING TIMES: Delegates at a South African Communist Party national congress at the University of Johannesburg. Photo: GCIS/Creative Commons
Features / 17 July 2025
17 July 2025

The shared path of the South African Communist Party and the ANC to the ballot box has found itself at a junction. SABINA PRICE reports