Hugo Chavez: Extraordinary Powers Of The Leader

How has a totalitarian dictatorship crippled Venezuela’s economy and completely isolated them from the Western world?
The hallmark that will be most referenced throughout this essay will be Bruce Pauley’s first hallmark: “Extraordinary powers of the Leader”. The leader in question being Hugo Chavez, the previous President of Venezuela, who passed on his methods to his Bolivarian revolution comrade, Nicolas Maduro.
Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2013 as the interim President of Venezuela after Hugo Chavez passed away from Cancer. He then succeeded him officially after the 2013 elections. Hugo Chavez began as a military enthusiast in the Venezuelan Army. Chavez dissatisfied with the Venezuelan politics and formed the Revolutionary Bolivarian
With this power, he was able to rule by decree twice, once in 2000 and again in 2007. Rule by decree is granted by the legislative body, currently The National Assembly. Rule by decree gives the leader absolute authority to create or abolish any law without any opposition. In 1999, the National Assembly voted to give themselves the power to abolish government institutions or to dismiss officials deemed corrupt or operating to their own interests. The assembly also declared a judicial emergency granting itself permission to overhaul the courts. The assembly then voted to elongate the presidential term and eliminating the other two houses of congress, promoting military officers and overseeing financial and military matters, therefore giving him full access to the country’s fairly developed military. This supreme power of the presidency lasted for 15 years until the Venezuelan parliamentary election in 2015. These traits were passed on to his successor Maduro for 2 years until the parliamentary
She instilled a love of history and politics, the favourite subject of Chavez would be the revolution of Simon Bolivar, which would inspire him even more in his political career. Chavez became influenced by a historian named José Esteban Ruiz Guevara, who taught him more about Bolivar and Karl Marx’s communism. The Venezuelan rebel force, the National Liberation Armed Forces (FALN), which was supported by Fidel Castro, was called a muse by many historians, but instead of following the road of Adolph Hitler joining the German Workers Party or Joseph Stalin joining the Bolshevik party, Chavez decided to go to school. He attended the Venezuelan Military Academy, with no intention of becoming a soldier. He wanted to be a professional baseball player and figured the Academy had the best coaches to help get him there. Unfortunately for him, he was not skilled enough to play professionally so he continued his academics graduating at the bottom half of his class. He joined the military as an officer and was assigned to capture the leftist insurgents. Chavez sympathized for the insurgents as he viewed them merely as peasants on a quest for a better life. His brother Adan was found amongst these insurgents. Chavez met with Douglas Bravo, the ex-leader of the FALN and created of the new