Social and Political Change Under President Chavez

Social and Political Change Under President Chavez

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela has been in power since 1999. Following the steps of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez is turning into a dictator and Venezuela's future does not seem bright. However, every decision made by the president's decision-making generates a negative impact on the community. Chavez political decisions and poor management of the economy has caused a decrease in quality of living, the downfall of the security system, and the unity of the country's opposition throughout the years.

The 2012 election results were devastating; the message released by the news says: "The president of Venezuela won the past elections this year in October for a new six-year term with 54 percent of the vote"(CNN). This election was incredibly different; the opposition was motivated and had their hopes in a high level. The journalist Tibisay Lucena, president of the National Electoral Council says: "The country saw one of its highest participation rates in decades, with almost 81% of voters going to the polls" (Castillo, Newton). However, families feared violence during this process. Hugo Chavez realized that the country has changed dramatically, after all the campaigns and events to support Enrique Capriles Radonski, the opposition unity has grown stronger than ever. Chavez has taken advantage of soaring oil revenues, which has caused damages to the country and he also made promises to the poor that he could never keep. Trying to benefit the poor was never his major priority while in office; instead he managed to be successful in his attempt to lower high inflation. Venezuela keeps experiencing devaluation in the currency because of the high rates of spending that the President has generated in the past few years when he started building houses for the poor and giving away oil and petroleum to other countries in need. Daniel Cancel states "Venezuela will weaken the official rate to 6.2 bolivars per dollar from 4.3 in the first quarter of 2013" ("P&G Bracing for 'Large' Venezuela Devaluation after Election"). All these things generated a downgrade in people's quality of living; families are no longer able to afford things they could years before, or live in their homes anymore because its maintenance is no longer affordable. Wages went down, taxes went up and the population started to lose faith in the recovery of the country's economy.

The lack of security in the country is another fact to consider very important, the violent crime such as murder, robberies, and kidnappings has never been as high as today. The U.S department of State explains "In 2010, Caracas became the deadliest capital in the world with the highest murder rate of all, averaging one murder every hour" (OSAC). Indeed, this is one of the main reasons why a big part of the population is taking justice into their own hands by obtaining guns and objects that can help them secure themselves and get away from the thieves, which cause homicides rates to increase. Colombia has a big influence in these homicides because of the illegal trades of drugs with Venezuela, the Global Notebook states: "A 2010 study by Roberto Briceño-Leon, a sociologist at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, puts homicide rate in Caracas at 200 for every 100,000, far greater than Bogota's 22.7 and Sao Paulo's 14"(Alex Duran). A lot of the homicides occur in defense of oneself or by protecting others that are innocent but found themselves in danger. However, the Bureau of diplomatic Security states in their Crime and security Report: "President Hugo Chavez bans private gun ownership, so no one can purchase any weapons