3rd World Political Thought

Topic: What has been the impact of Third World Political Thought on the political/social development in Venezuela during the Chavez era/ post Chavez era.

Hugo Chavez burst onto the national scene in Venezuela in a failed military uprising in 1992. Sentenced to jail for many years, he was soon pardoned as the Venezuelan government did not consider either him or his movement much of a threat. Yet his uncompromising attacks on political corruption and state incompetence struck a chord in the Venezuelan people and he won the 1998 presidential election. The election of Chávez in December 1998 brought to power a leader determined to oppose neoliberalism at home and global concentration of power abroad. Unlike the case of the Southern Cone and most other parts of Latin America, Venezuelan electoral politics had not been tamed by terror and transition.

Even though two attempted coup d’etats, popular explosions, and declarations of radical populist content initiated Chavismo. From 1998 onward the movement remained within democratic institutional limits, with seven national elections carried out over the course of two years (Parker, 2001). Chávez held onto his office for 14 years, maintaining his grip through a 2002 coup attempt and winning reelection four times. Chávez aroused suspicion among most other leaders, but he also produced hope among popular movements in the hemisphere. With Cuba excluded from participation in hemispheric and multilateral meetings, and given the fact that he came to power through competitive elections, Hugo Chávez has arguably been the most effective national leader espousing resistance to the Washington Consensus.

Chávez believed that underdevelopment and development are interrelated, and that the underdevelopment of the peoples of Latin America, Africa, and Asia is a consequence of colonial domination. Citing Andre Gunder Frank, he asserted that: “Underdevelopment is a characteristic of development. Our underdevelopment is a consequence of...