Elections

We are in the midst of the election season.  One of those that has already happened is the leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez who has won another six year term.  You can search for more information on him various places in the database including Credo (see below for a brief article).

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1954–, Venezuelan political leader, president of Venezuela (1999–). Educated at the Military Academy of Venezuela (grad. 1975), for two decades he was a career army officer, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1992, Chávez took part in an unsuccessful coup attempt against President Carlos Andrés Pérez and was imprisoned until 1994. A charismatic populist, he became the leader of the leftist Patriotic Pole alliance. Promising a peaceful social revolution, Chávez was elected president in a 1998 landslide. In office he ended the privatization of Venezuela's state holdings, put himself in control of economic matters, and cut oil production to raise oil prices. A constituent assembly mainly made up of his supporters wrote a new constitution that granted the president increased powers and a longer possible term of office and weakened the legislature and judiciary. Chávez's popularity with the country's poor increased as he took measures against rampant corruption, criticized the traditional oligarchy, and made more funds available for social programs. He also attacked his critics in business and the media and expanded the role of the military; closer ties were established with Middle Eastern oil-producing nations and Cuba.