Editing Hugo Chávez (section)

==Military career==
===Military academy===
Aged 17, Chávez studied at the [[Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences]] in Caracas, following a curriculum known as the [[Andrés Bello]] Plan, instituted by a group of progressive, nationalistic military officers. This new curriculum encouraged students to learn not only military routines and tactics but also a wide variety of other topics, and to do so civilian professors were brought in from other universities to give lectures to the military cadets.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 30.</ref>
[[File:Hugo Chávez military academy.png|alt=|left|thumb|249x249px|Chávez as a student in the military academy]]
Living in Caracas, he began to get involved in activities outside of the military school, playing baseball and softball with the ''Criollitos de Venezuela'' team, progressing with them to the Venezuelan National Baseball Championships. He also wrote poetry, fiction, and drama, and painted.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 35.</ref> He also became interested in the Marxist revolutionary [[Che Guevara]] (1928–1967) after reading his memoir ''The Diary of Che Guevara''.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 29–30.</ref> In 1974, he was selected to be a representative in the commemorations for the 150th anniversary of the [[Battle of Ayacucho]] in Peru, the conflict in which Simon Bolívar's lieutenant, [[Antonio José de Sucre]], defeated royalist forces during the [[Peruvian War of Independence]]. In Peru, Chávez heard the leftist president, General [[Juan Velasco Alvarado]] (1910–1977), speak, and was inspired by Velasco's ideas that the military should act in the interests of the working classes when the ruling classes were perceived as corrupt.<ref name="Marcano and Tyszka. p. 36">[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 36.</ref>

Befriending the son of Maximum Leader [[Omar Torrijos]], the leftist dictator of Panama, Chávez visited Panama, where he met with Torrijos, and was impressed with his land reform program that was designed to benefit the peasants. Influenced by Torrijos and Velasco he saw the potential for military generals to seize control of a government when the civilian authorities were perceived as serving the interests of only the wealthy elites.<ref name="Marcano and Tyszka. p. 36"/> Chávez later said, "With Torrijos, I became a Torrijist. With Velasco I became a Velasquist. And with Pinochet, I became an anti-Pinochetist".<ref>Chávez quoted in [[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 36–37.</ref> In 1975, Chávez graduated from the military academy as one of the top graduates of the year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cidob.org/en/documentacio/biografias_lideres_politicos/america_del_sur/venezuela/hugo_chavez_frias |title=Hugo Chávez Frías / Venezuela / América del Sur / Biografías Líderes Políticos / Documentation / CIDOB home page |publisher=Cidob.org |date=23 March 2012 |access-date=14 April 2012 |archive-date=6 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406221518/http://www.cidob.org/en/documentacio/biografias_lideres_politicos/america_del_sur/venezuela/hugo_chavez_frias |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 37.</ref>

===Early military career===
{{further|Military career of Hugo Chávez}}

Following his graduation, Chávez was stationed as a communications officer at a [[counterinsurgency]] unit in Barinas.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 38.</ref>

In 1977, Chávez's unit was transferred to [[Anzoátegui]], where they were involved in battling the [[Red Flag Party]], a Marxist–[[Hoxhaist]] insurgency group.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 39.</ref> After intervening to prevent the beating of an alleged insurgent by other soldiers,<ref name="Marcano and Tyszka p.41">[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 41.</ref> Chávez began to have his doubts about the army.<ref name="Chávez p. 59">Chávez, quoted in [[#Jon07|Jones 2007]]. p. 59.</ref>

In 1977, he founded a revolutionary movement within the armed forces, in the hope that he could one day introduce a leftist government to Venezuela: the Venezuelan People's Liberation Army (''{{lang|es|Ejército de Liberación del Pueblo de Venezuela}}'', or ELPV), consisted of him and a handful of his fellow soldiers who had no immediate plans for direct action, though they knew they wanted a middle way between the right-wing policies of the government and the far-left position of the Red Flag.<ref name="Marcano and Tyszka p.41"/> Nevertheless, hoping to gain an alliance with civilian leftist groups in Venezuela, Chávez set up clandestine meetings with various prominent Marxists, including Alfredo Maneiro (the founder of the [[Radical Cause]]) and [[Douglas Bravo]].

===Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200===
[[File:Hugo Chávez military.png|thumb|Chávez while serving in the [[Venezuelan Army]]]]
Five years after his creation of the ELPV, Chávez went on to form a new secretive cell within the military, the [[Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200|Bolivarian Revolutionary Army-200]] (EBR-200), later redesignated the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200).<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 48–49, 56.</ref> He was inspired by [[Simón Bolívar]], [[Simón Rodríguez]] and [[Ezequiel Zamora]], who became known as the "three roots of the tree" of the MBR-200.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 March 2015 |title=Leyendo a Hugo Chávez en el segundo aniversario de su muerte |url=https://www.lamarea.com/2015/03/05/leyendo-a-chavez-en-el-segundo-aniversario-de-su-muerte/ |access-date=26 December 2022 |website=La Marea |language=es}}</ref>

In 1984 he met [[Herma Marksman]], a recently divorced history teacher with whom he had an affair that lasted several years.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 51–53.</ref> During this time [[Francisco Arias Cárdenas]], a soldier interested in [[liberation theology]], also joined MBR-200.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gott |first1=Richard |title=In the shadow of the liberator: Hugo Chávez and the transformation of Venezuela |date=2000 |publisher=Verso |location=London; New York |isbn=9781859847756 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y24Enm_FeZgC |access-date=27 July 2024 |ref=GOTT}}</ref> After some time, some senior military officers became suspicious of Chávez and reassigned him so that he would not be able to gain any more fresh new recruits from the academy. He was sent to take command of the remote barracks at [[Elorza]] in [[Apure State]].<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 50.</ref>

==== 1992 coup attempt ====
{{Main|February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt}}

In 1989, [[Carlos Andrés Pérez]] was elected president, and though he had promised to oppose the [[International Monetary Fund]]'s policies, once he got into office he enacted economic policies supported by the [[International Monetary Fund|IMF]], angering the public.<ref>[[#Gib06|Gibbs 2006]]. p. 270.</ref> In an attempt to stop widespread lootings and protests that followed his spending cuts, known as ''[[Caracazo|El Caracazo]]'', Pérez initiated [[Plan Ávila]], a military contingency plan by the Venezuelan Army to maintain public order, and an outbreak of violent repression unfolded.<ref>[[#Int99|Inter-American Court of Human Rights 1999]].</ref><ref>[[#Pre05|Pretel 2005]].</ref> Though members of Chávez's MBR-200 movement allegedly participated in the crackdown,<ref name=NELSON>
{{cite book
|last1=Nelson
|first1=Brian A.
|title-link= The Silence and the Scorpion
|title=The silence and the scorpion: the coup against Chávez and the making of modern Venezuela
|date=2009
|publisher=Nation Books
|location=New York
|isbn=978-1568584188
|page=24
|edition=[Online-Ausg.]
}}
</ref> Chávez did not, since he was then hospitalized with [[chicken pox]]. He later condemned the event as "[[genocide]]".<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 55.</ref>
[[File:San Carlos military stockade - Venezuela.jpg|250px|thumbnail|right|The San Carlos military stockade, where Chávez was held following the 1992 coup attempt]]
Chávez began preparing for a military coup d'état known as Operation Zamora.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 64.</ref> The plan involved members of the military overwhelming military locations and communication installations and then establishing [[Rafael Caldera]] in power once Pérez was captured and assassinated.<ref name=ENHfeb2015>
{{cite news
|last1=Maria Delgado
|first1=Antonio
|title=Libro devela sangriento objetivo de la intentona golpista de Hugo Chávez
|trans-title=ook reveals bloody putsch goal of Hugo Chávez
|url=http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/venezuela-es/article10496285.html
|access-date=17 February 2015
|agency=El Nuevo Herald
|date=16 February 2015
}}
</ref> Chávez delayed the MBR-200 coup, initially planned for December, until the early twilight hours of 4 February 1992.<ref name="ENHfeb2015"/>

On that date five army units under Chávez's command moved into urban Caracas. Despite years of planning, the coup quickly encountered trouble since Chávez commanded the loyalty of less than 10% of Venezuela's military. After numerous betrayals, defections, errors, and other unforeseen circumstances, Chávez and a small group of rebels found themselves hiding in the Military Museum, unable to communicate with other members of their team. Pérez managed to escape [[Miraflores Palace]]. Officially, thirty-two civilians, police officers and soldiers were killed,<ref>{{Harvsp|Márquez|Sanabria|2018|p=138}}</ref> and fifty soldiers and some eighty civilians injured during the ensuing violence.<ref name="sylvia66">[[#Syl03|Sylvia and Danopolous 2003]]. p. 66.</ref>

Chávez gave himself up to the government and appeared on television, in uniform, to call on the remaining coup members to lay down their arms. Chávez remarked in his speech that they had failed only "''por ahora''" (for now).<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 75.</ref><ref>[[#Int07|International Crisis Group 2007]]. p. 04.</ref> Venezuelans, particularly poor ones, began seeing him as someone who stood up against government corruption and [[kleptocracy]].<ref>[[#O'K05|O'Keefe 2005]].</ref> The coup "flopped militarily—and dozens died—but made him a media star", noted [[Rory Carroll]] of ''[[The Guardian]]''.<ref name=chavshow>
{{cite news
|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/22/donald-trump-hugo-chavez-political-similarities
|author=Rory Carroll
|title=Insult, provoke, repeat: how Donald Trump became America's Hugo Chávez
|work=[[The Guardian]]
|date=22 June 2016
|access-date=27 June 2016
|language=en
|author-link=Rory Carroll
}}
</ref>

Chávez was arrested and imprisoned at the San Carlos military stockade, wracked with guilt and feeling responsible for the failure of the coup.<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 75–77.
</ref><ref>[[#Int97|International Crisis Group 2007]]. pp. 4–5.
</ref> Pro-Chávez demonstrations outside San Carlos led to his transfer to [[Yare Prison]].<ref>
[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. pp. 91–92.
</ref> [[November 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt|Another unsuccessful coup]] against the government occurred in November,<ref>[[#Mar07|Marcano and Tyszka 2007]]. p. 95.</ref> with the fighting during the coups resulting in the deaths of at least 143 people and perhaps as many as several hundred.<ref name="Uppsala">{{cite web
|title=Venezuela
|website=[[Uppsala Conflict Data Program]] Conflict Encyclopedia
|publisher=Department of Peace and Conflict Research, [[Uppsala University]]
|url=http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=167&regionSelect=5-Southern_Americas#
|access-date=22 April 2014
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115040925/http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=167&regionSelect=5-Southern_Americas
|archive-date=15 January 2014
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> Pérez was impeached a year later, charged with malfeasance and misappropriating funds.<ref>
[[#Tar05|Tarver and Frederick 2005]]. p. 167.
</ref>