Chavez Born: Venezuela's Revolutionary Populist Leader
He led a failed coup in 1992 and went on television to announce it had failed. That concession speech — taking responsibility, promising 'for now' the struggle was over — made him a folk hero. Hugo Chávez was born in Sabaneta, Venezuela in 1954, the son of schoolteachers, and spent fourteen years in the army before politics. He won the presidency in 1998 promising to use oil wealth for the poor. He did, and poverty fell sharply. He also concentrated power, silenced critics, and left behind an economy that collapsed within years of his death from cancer in 2013.
July 28, 1954
72 years ago
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