El Libertador (Venezuela update)

24:44which would bring together a federation of independent republics nevertheless united as one.

24:59More and more people across South America began joining his cause. And with this army, Bolívar began challenging Spanish troops in Venezuela and neighboring Colombia. But it wouldn't be an easy path to independence. The Spanish were a force, unbelievable force. Very, very violent and very organized military structure. But then, in 1819, Bolívar's army marched towards Colombia. And Bolívar knew if they followed a typical route, the Spanish would defeat them again. So instead, he decided to take a less predictable but ridiculously dangerous route through the Andes Mountains. It's cold. It's rocky.

25:41It's mountainous. Horses don't easily, you know, pass through there. It's uncharted terrain. Hoping that the element of surprise would carry them to victory. When these armies traveled, and we need to remember this, it wasn't just soldiers. They traveled with their women, because the women were cooking for the men right on the battlefield. They were bringing their children. So you would have these great long trains and caravans of people going into war, which were like whole populations. For weeks, this caravan of soldiers, women, and children trudged through the mountains. Some people got sick.

26:18Others died. But eventually, the army arrived in Boyaca, a town in central Colombia about 90 miles from the capital, Bogota. They come upon a battalion of Spaniards who did not think that the Bolívar's army, again comprised of these people, would take that route. And Bolívar's army won their first major victory. Bolívar needed a victory at that time to be able to turn the tide and to gain some momentum. And the Spanish finally began to look beatable, no longer an invincible force. And within a couple of years, Gran Colombia was declared a reality as Bolívar set his sights on liberating the rest of Spanish South America.

27:03And Bolívar became the first president of Gran Colombia.

27:26Just seven years after Chavez attempted to overthrow the president of Venezuela, he was being sworn in himself.

27:45I'm sure you're wondering how this could have happened. I mean, this is the same guy who tried to undermine democracy not that long ago. by staging a coup. Well, his evolution from coup stager to candidate really began while he was in jail. During that time, Venezuela was facing some serious problems. The party system that had been held up as solid and strong had now collapsed. Then after that, you know, you had a tremendous banking crisis. Several banks failed when that basically wiped out savings that people had had. But mainly oil prices were dropping. The poverty rate increased from about 25 % to about 65 % in the course of the 1990s.

28:35So it was really a difficult decade for them. Nothing like what we're seeing today, for sure. But at the time, it was significant enough to create the sense that Venezuela can continue in the way that it's going. And so not that Chavez had been prophetic, right? But Chavez seemed to have predicted this economic and political turmoil in that two-minute speech he gave after the coup. And many Venezuelans remembered it, which... Yeah, allowed Chavez's aura to grow. Even while he was in jail. So much so that... That this new president that was elected in 1993, one of his first acts was to pardon Chavez.

29:14So Chavez was freed after two years in jail. But once out of jail, Chavez didn't embrace the spotlight right away. He, you know, tactically kind of retreated from the public eye. Chavez knew that a lot of Venezuelans were still skeptical of his motives, even if they liked his ideas. Do we really trust this guy? Does he actually mean what he says? He comes from the military after all. So Chavez decided to leave Venezuela for a while, a sort of self-imposed exile. He traveled all around Latin America. Going to other countries, meeting other leaders. This is Jennifer McCoy again. And in fact, that's when he met Fidel Castro.

29:51That began a lifelong friendship with Fidel Castro, whom he later used to consider almost like a father. While on these travels, Chavez was taking in new ideas, looking at what was happening in Venezuela. And began to kind of create a vision for what a political project would look like. He talked about a new constitution. He talked about a new form of democracy. He talked about an economy that would benefit, you know, bringing back the oil wealth. And that this would be a great magical trick, that he would just turn the oil wealth into a better life for everybody. So for the next couple of years, Chavez campaigned on that grand vision.

30:36And he appealed especially to the lower and middle classes for support. By 1998, on the eve of the election, the country had two very different options for president. Chavez's opponent, Enrique Salas Romer. This older, you know, white man, clear European descent from this elite background. Or Chavez. You know, a darker-hued, working-class person who had actually, you know, had the gall to follow through on his critiques of government and gone to jail for it after taking responsibility for a failed coup. The differences could not be starker between status quo or radical change. Hugo Chavez's message just galvanized them.

31:25So they were ready for change, and he won with 56 % of the vote. And that sort of began the Chavez era.

31:48After Bolivar was named president of Gran Colombia, he and his army set out fighting battle after battle across South America, losing some, but winning many, first liberating Colombia, then Venezuela. Moves down to Ecuador, liberates Ecuador. Peru was up next. And that was the end. I mean, that was the cutting of the throat of the Spanish colonies at that point. Bolívar was appointed dictator of Peru and went on to liberate Panama and even as a country named after him, Bolivia. So now, the Spanish were gone. South America was free from colonial rule. And Bolívar was victorious. He was looking out on a massive, diverse army of followers, with the world seemingly at his feet.

32:38And even though the continent was scarred by years of fighting, it was a hopeful moment. Gran Colombia could now be fully realized, in theory. The vision that he had going into the revolution was not the reality that he had coming out. So yes, his moment of triumph happens, but it's very short-lived. He was all about the rights of man, liberty, number one, equality, very close thereupon. But then when he actually got into the reality of that hierarchy that Spain had built so carefully and had kept this little crust on top, it was a mess. It turns out, while Bolivar was busy liberating all those countries, that little crust on top, the criollo elite, the group he himself was a part of, had grown more and more angry with him.

33:32Not only in Venezuela, but throughout South America, resentful of what the independence movement had become and concerned about what their positions would be in this new order. Plus, Bolivar faced another challenge. He had brought together all these different people, former slaves, cowboys from the plains, indigenous people. And now he had to figure out how to get them all to follow the same rules. He would ride from town to town, from city to city, setting up institutions, establishing universities once the revolution was over. And what would happen is the moment he rode away, things would fall apart.

34:06So he became more and more convinced that the only way you were going to be able to rule these unruly people was to really have a strong iron hand. Cracks were forming in Bolivar's dream of a democratic, pan-South American state. And he decided the only way to achieve his ultimate goal, to make sure things got done the way he envisioned, was to consolidate power in his own hands. Famously, Bolivar said, if nature stands against us, we will defeat her as well. Destiny is in our hands against any force, real, imagined, or ethereal.

34:49Day one of Hugo Chavez's presidency. He had like 85 % popularity. He had business owners supporting him all the way down to the poor. So it was quite widespread. Again, Jennifer McCoy. And I think that was largely because people could make what they wanted to out of his promises. With all this public support, Chavez hit the ground running. He went all in on his Bolivar fandom. He cultivated himself as a 21st century Simon Bolivar. He even renamed the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. And he started changing the rules of the game. The most immediate one was to get rid of the old constitution.

35:31The new constitution was really a mix of progressive human rights and at the same time giving more power to the president. It extended the term to six years. Eliminated the bicameral Congress and created a national assembly. People didn't pay too much attention to the new constitution. But then Chavez started talking about oil. Talked about that the nation's resources would be the primary source of revenue and wealth for the nation to rebuild itself. And people did take notice. For Chavez, oil was the key to establishing Bolivar's vision for Venezuela. But the more he talked about redistributing the oil wealth and shaking up the oil industry, the more enemies he made.

36:18That was the primary and initial battle that Venezuelan society split on in the early years of the Chavez era. What is the oil industry? Who does it serve? And how is it going to be controlled? Pretty soon, the widespread support Chavez started out with began to fade. Sure, he still had support among the lower class, but the upper class, the people who profited off of the old system, were nervous about what this new setup would mean for them. Chavez continued to consolidate more and more power, especially over the country's oil. And in April of 2002, he faced a dramatic coup attempt. Violence broke out, the military tried to get rid of him, and another guy was installed as president.

37:11But then Chavez supporters took to the streets and within two days, Chavez was back in power. When he comes back though, he is very shaken by this because he didn't know what was going to happen to him. He didn't know if he was going to be killed or put in jail the rest of his life or what was going to happen. Despite that fear, Chavez didn't try to win over the people who had just attempted to get rid of him, the opposition, or even to extend an olive branch. Quite the opposite. Now is a sense of, you know, okay, it's on. Over the course of the next few years, Chavez would seek to consolidate more and more power.

37:53From now on, like Bolivar, he would rule with a strong iron hand.

38:20Part 3. Allo Presidente.

38:29It's August 2007, Sunday, and Hugo Chavez is getting ready to host his weekly talk show, Allo Presidente. And I should say, this show was a defining feature of Chávez's presidency. He would get on TV every Sunday, and it was like this variety show. He'd talk, interview people, sing songs. There were dancers sometimes. It was kind of weird. And he could go on for hours. His guest this week? Journalist Rory Carroll. It was actually on a beach way out in the sticks. On a really hot day. He had his desk plonked in the sand. And as the show opens, Chavez invites Rory to ask him anything. And so I asked him, why was he preparing to have a referendum to get rid of limits on presidential terms, which would basically open the door to him being potentially rooting for life.

39:27You know, this course is on live television and his eyes narrowed in a kind of rather theatrical way. And then he turned to the audience and said, did you hear that? Did you hear what he said? Then Chávez goes on a tirade. A tirade about me being an embodiment of European colonialism, of European hypocrisy. And he tied this to first, you know, the sins committed by Columbus and then the Spaniards and then the British and the Royal Navy. and I'm sitting there sweating because it's a hot day and I'm having Chavez pouring a bucket of rhetorical excrement over my head and turning me into rhetorical football.

40:07And, you know, it went on and on. Hour one turns into two, then three, four, five. Hour six, I think he came back to my question and he did, then he did actually answer it with, by using a metaphor. He said that the revolution was an unfinished work of art, and he was the artist. And he could not, in good conscience, hand the brush over to another artist that he needed to finish it. After eight hours, the show finally comes to an end. And backstage, Chavez goes up to Rory. He was very friendly. I mean, he came up with shook hands. And his tone to me was like, hey, don't sweat the fact that I turned you into an imperialist villain for a while.

40:55You know, it's a show. That was Chavez in a nutshell. A showman. A visionary. And a salesman. Someone who could put a bow on a broken down car and convince you to buy it. By this time, 2007, Chavez had managed to consolidate power in almost every sector of society. The military, the government, and oil. The price per barrel of oil when Uwe Chai was elected in 1998 was$8. At the height of his residency, the price per barrel of oil was$150. He was so fortunate to be in office during this incredible oil boom. Chavez invested a lot of that oil money in social programs for the poor. He decided that the best way to help people was to create the social programs that were parallel to the established government institutions.

41:50Parallel institutions that he could have more control over and kind of squeezing and starving the others that were more independent. So Chavez was spending a ton of money, but not actually strengthening any of the existing infrastructure in Venezuela. Instead, he funneled all of it into these parallel institutions that spanned everything from media to NGOs, universities, healthcare. So there was basically two of everything. It was this mix of socialism and rampant consumerism. Point is, thanks to the oil boom, from 2005 to 2012, Venezuela was in a golden age. People had more to eat, more money in their pockets, better healthcare.

42:31Meanwhile, Chavez became more and more drawn to a Pan-American vision. Like Bolivar, he started to see the endgame as a united South America. He reached out to leaders throughout the region, openly criticized the United States, who he saw as an obstacle because of its tendency to meddle, and stopped internal production in Venezuela, instead importing products from other countries in Latin America to boost their economies. That decision was... An ideological one that derives directly from this Bolivarian vision, but also an economic one that's based on the idea that only united can we forge ahead as an independent Latin America.

43:13And every week when Chavez went on TV and hosted his talk show, he pushed that vision, bringing people on like Rory Carroll, a foreigner, to use as a sort of stand-in for the world order that he hoped to overturn. Plus, he made it seem like the money would never run out, like Venezuela would continue to be in this golden age forever. The problem was that he probably underestimated how quickly corruption and mismanagement can destroy wealth and leave you worse than you were originally. So even as Chavez projected this confident image, the reality was way more complicated. He still faced a lot of opposition, and all that money he was spending was really starting to add up.

44:01The bubble was bound to burst sometime. And that really, in a sense, was the story of Chavez's rule, that he was a brilliant communicator, a master strategist, and a terrible manager. They weren't saving for the rainy day, and when the rainy day hit, they were in very bad shape.

44:32You have been witness to my efforts to establish freedom where tyranny previously reigned. I have worked without the thought of personal gain, sacrificing my fortune and even my peace of mind. I have been the victim of persecutors who have driven me to the very threshold of my grave. After facing years of opposition and stalled progress, Bolivar's vision of a united South America was fading. The cost of the revolution had been really high. All of this blood had been spilled, all of this incredible sacrifice, whole city is wiped off the map. But it turned out picking up the pieces of that revolution was just as hard.

45:11Towards the end of his life, Bolívar contracted tuberculosis. Not only he's getting sicker, but there are whole forces that are against him. Angry about the extremely centralized government Bolívar has put in place, which consolidated all the power in his hands alone, Bolivar was on thin ice across South America, especially in Colombia. And finally, the ice broke. He then is literally run out of Bogota and exiled from Colombia because they've had enough of Bolivar. They don't want him anymore. They want their little pockets of turf. He has no friends and he's penniless. He's a at this point. He's given over all of his wealth.

45:52On December 10, 1830, Bolívar gave his final speech in Santa Marta, Colombia. From there, he planned to take a ship to an island and live out the rest of his life in exile. My final wishes are for the happiness of the country. If my death contributes to the cessation of factions and the consolidation of the Union, I will step peacefully into the grave. One week later, on December 17, 1830, Bolívar died, unceremoniously and alone. No bells are rung particularly. Nobody makes any eulogies. Soon after Bolívar's death in 1830 in Colombia, actually his name was banned. Bolívar was remembered as a disgraced leader, a revolutionary-turned-tyrant.

46:43He left much of South America in disarray, with no clear plan for who would follow in his footsteps to lead all those countries he'd ruled over. Then everything changes, because everyone at that point begins to think, oh, by God, the revolution would not have been won except for this man. And he started this revolution. The sort of engagement with the Bolivar legacy begins at that point. So he became basically all things to all people. Leader after leader across South America, but especially in Venezuela, invoked Bolívar, using his legacy as a political tool. I think Chavez understood very well that Bolívar could be deployed very malleably because that was ultimately the legacy of Bolívar for Venezuelan politics, to be this catch-all figure that could stand for many things simultaneously.

47:43You can go from Bolívar the nationalist to, once we have a lot of oil money and can project more broadly, Bolívar the Pan-American. We can go from Bolívar the participatory democrat to Bolívar the, no, there's one leader here and the leader is me. Whether it's tickling babies or slamming opponents, there are few politicians in the world who can match Hugo Chavez. For the past 14 years, the Venezuelan president has been arguably the most charismatic and controversial leader in the world. But this may be his last campaign. In 2012, Chavez was on the campaign trail, running for a third term in office.

48:30His work of art was not yet complete. At one of his final rallies... Upwards of a million and a half, two million people sort of descend on Caracas. And the great question is, is Chavez going to show up? That's because Chavez had been really sick. He's diagnosed with cancer in 2011. The crowd waited. And suddenly... Chavez just kind of materializes. Just at the time that a torrential downpour comes across Caracas. And so Chavez just walks up to the stage and just takes the rein in. Just no umbrella, right? Just as everybody is getting soaked. And he starts to dance and to pretend that he's like Muhammad Ali, throwing some jabs here and there.

49:20It's just like this almost ineffable moment of a man that was otherwise and seemed to be in his deathbed suddenly doing this act where he's not only showing or performing this vitality, but once again saying, I am one of you. Chavez went on to win re-election in October of 2012. But by December of that year, his health had gotten really bad. So he decided to hold a press conference, tells the country he's leaving for Cuba to get treatment, The prognosis is not good. and says if he doesn't return, I tell all of you to follow Nicolás. Nicolás Maduro.

50:11Maduro was in the Chávez government, you know, throughout. First as a deputy, eventually he became foreign minister, then vice president. So he, you know, he had a variety of roles and was always present. Still, Maduro was no Chávez. And the idea of anyone other than Chavez leading the country seemed almost beyond comprehension for a lot of Venezuelans. Among his hardcore supporters, and also among the hardcore opposition, they just couldn't accept almost that he could die. He was such a huge figure in Venezuela. He was a colossus. He sucked up all the oxygen, had done so for two decades. It was this sense of, no.

50:56What are you talking about now? You're going to come back. It's going to be OK. How could we imagine a future Chavez and Chavez at the helm? But a few months later... The provocative and unpredictable strongman of Venezuela has died. Chavez died. The streets are filled with mourners. Now the crowds are stretched over a mile across the Venezuelan capital of Caracas as the country says its final farewell to the man who... Chavez leaves behind a divided nation and a country in the grip of a deepening political crisis. The Venezuela Chavez left behind was about to enter a really dark time. And his economic policies of the previous decade or so were to blame.

51:41This management opened up the door to a huge amount of corruption and also hurt the private sector, mainly the oil sector. He destroyed institutions, but did not do a good job at recreating institutions. And this is what, you know, people often say about revolutionaries. You have a disruptive leader coming in. They can destroy things in the name of change. But the same leader is not the one who can necessarily rebuild. He also left behind an almost mythical legacy, making it hard for anyone to follow in his footsteps. And when we look at what's happening in Venezuela today, we can see the shadow of Chavez looming, just as Bolivar's has loomed over the country for centuries.

52:32One of the great paradoxes that are parallel to Bolivar is that there is no succession. No one can fill Bolivar's shoes, just as no one can fill Chavez's shoes. In the common parlance of Venezuela's popular lingo, Chávez es un portaviones. He's an aircraft carrier. He carries everything within it. And so what happens when the aircraft carrier is no longer there? All those planes collapse to the ocean. And so he's understood by both foes and friends alike as irreplaceable.

53:22That's it for this week's show. I'm Ramtin Arablui. I'm Randa Andifataf. And you've been listening to ThruLine from NPR. This episode was made by me. And me. And Jamie York. Jordana Hochman. Lawrence Wu. Grace Mizing the Summer. Nigeri Eaton. Original music was produced by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric. Thanks also to Anya Grunman, Bryn Winterbottom, Didi Skanky, and Federico Guerre for being the voice of Simon Bolivar. If you liked the episode, please write us at throughlineatnpr.org. Thanks for listening.

54:12You