Hugo Chavez: Venezuela’s Revolutionary Master of Mimesis

Venezuela’s 54-year-old President Hugo Chavez, Bolivarian Revolution leader supremo, is an enigma to many people, but not to sociologist-philosopher and revolution expert Pitirim Sorokin. (1-3) Leaders of revolutions throughout history, Sorokin says, have been of only three psychological types. We argue here that Chavez is not only one, but also all three types, that is, he draws on all three types to maximize his effectiveness according to the situation. Herein lays his brilliance and cunning, and is the reason Marcano and Tyszka call him the “mastermind of mimesis”. (2)

One of Hugo Chavez’s multiple personas. Source: http://www.causapopular.com.ar/article454.html; accessed October 18, 2007.	Map of South America. Venezuela is in red at the top. Source: http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/living/living_abroad/living_in_south_america.shtml; accessed October 18, 2007.

Chavez’s Improbable Rise to Power in Venezuela

Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born poor on July 28, 1954, in Sabaneta, located on the vast flat plains called Los Llanos, in the state of Barinas, Venezuela, in a house with a dirt floor and a roof made of palm leaves. He was the second of six brothers. His parents were schoolteachers who dispatched him and his older brother to his paternal grandmother’s house for their upbringing when Hugo’s mother Elena bore yet a third son. Elena has said that she “didn’t want to have children…I don’t know, I didn’t like them, it didn’t seem appealing, but since God told me, ‘That is what you are going to do,’ I got married and a month later I was pregnant.” (4) Hugo has said that he “didn’t love his mother”, but “respected her”. (4)

Hugo sold his grandmother’s homemade sweetened fruits on the street. Even so, she did not have enough money to buy Hugo shoes, which barred him from attending school until she found something to cover his feet. Hugo was a reluctant altar boy for one year because his mother wanted him to become a Catholic priest. While an altar boy, he developed a deep distrust of religious hierarchy as he polished religious figurines, including one of Jesus, whom he viewed “a rebel”, like himself.   

Map showing location of state of Barinas in Los llanos (the plains regions) of Venezuela. Source: http://www.monografias.com/trabajos13/llanos/Image292.gif; accessed October 18, 2007.	Sabaneta, Venezuela, Hugo Chavez’s birthplace. Source:  http://php.mci.gob.ve/fotos_c_genetico/sabaneta(2).jpg; accessed October 18, 2007.

When Chavez was around twelve years old (around 1964 or 1965), he came under the wing of the long-bearded old-school Communist Jose Esteban Ruiz Guevara, who had two sons the age of Hugo and who owned a large library filled with Marxist and other revolutionary material. Ruiz proselytized Hugo in Barinas, the state capital where Hugo and his older brother moved with his grandmother to study at a large secondary school (education in Sabaneta ended with primary school). Hugo’s relationship with Ruiz was the first of a long series of associations with old school Communists that continues today with Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who is 28 years senior to Chavez. In addition to Communism, Chavez worshipped his idol, the Venezuelan revolutionary Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) after whom he named his own revolution (the Bolivarian Revolution).

While Chavez received his political indoctrination from the Ruiz family and his secular education from the secondary school, he pursued a muted social life. “As a young man, Chavez had two girlfriends, who were considered by other students as unattractive. Chavez too was widely considered unattractive, and these girlfriends were more interested in two of Chavez’s best friends, the Ruiz brothers, than in Chavez himself. Chavez also had his share of social upsets; for example, when a young woman whom he considered attractive refused to pay any attention to him, Chavez found a rotting donkey head on the side of the road and left it in front of her door.” (5)

Hugo chose the oldest military academy in Latin America, the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences (founded 1810) for his post-secondary-school education because, he said, the army had good baseball coaches and he was a good left-handed pitcher. “The Venezuelan Army has always been made up of a strong working- and lower-class component, its barracks filled with men from humble backgrounds drawn by the real possibility of ascending to the highest ranks,” note Marcano and Tyszka. (6) Chavez quickly acquired a taste for life in the military. He liked being a soldier and soon believed that the military order was so good that it should always prevail over the civil experience. He continued to spend time with his Communist friends every time he visited Barinas. Soon the group of friends participated in the creation of the left-wing party known as Causa Radical, which supported the labor struggle in Venezuela.

After graduating from the military academy, Chavez began to lead a double life as a “neutral” soldier while conspiring with others in cells to overthrow the government. In 1983, Chavez grew weary and wanted to retire from the military, but the old-time Communist Ruiz, knowing better than Chavez the latter’s value in the military to a leftist revolution said, “No, stay. You say it’s a load of shit. Well, stay in and get rid of that shit you see in the army!” (7) In other words, he strongly advised Chavez to continue to work in a clandestine manner to find the “breaking point” that would generate anarchy within the military realm. Chavez came around to the old-time Communist’s way of thinking, and proposed to his comrades that they act as a guerrilla group within the armed forces to undertake violent actions, such as blowing up electricity posts. (7) Cooler heads prevailed and delayed the coup d’état and revolution in order to “grow, build strength, and arm themselves…the path of the classic conspiracy.” (7)

In February 1992, at age 37 years, Chavez commanded the failed coup to take out President Carlos Andres Perez. Chavez surrendered himself to Perez when things weren’t going well for the coup and for Chavez. Then, in a stunning lapse, President Perez approved Chavez’s going on television, in a live, unedited speech, to exhort his fellow insurgents still out in the field to surrender, too. President Perez’s lapse resulted in Chavez’s introduction to television viewers, who before then did not know he existed. It was Chavez’s big breakthrough. Standing erect in his paratrooper’s uniform, including the red beret, thereby maximizing his legitimacy and authority, he exhaled to many millions of Venezuelan television viewers his now famous “For Now” speech (169 words in just over a minute). He was brazen and brilliant and demonstrated an intuitive grasp of the power of television as a revolutionary information tool (propaganda). This is what he said:

Conspirator Chavez giving his “Just Now” speech on television, February 1992. Source: http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/6/6f/Hugo_Chávez_(1992_Coup_Surrender).jpg; accessed October 18, 2007.

“First of all, I want to say good morning to the people of Venezuela. This Bolivarian message is for the brave soldiers who are presently at the Paratroopers’ Regiment in Aragua and the Armored Brigade in Valencia. Companeros: unfortunately, for now [emphasis added], the objectives we established in the capital were not achieved. That means that we, here in Caracas, did not succeed in taking control [of the government]. You did an excellent job out there, but it is now time to avoid more bloodshed, it is now time to reflect. New situations will present themselves. The country must find the definitive path toward a better destiny. Listen to what I say. Listen to Commander Chavez, who sends out this message so that you will please reflect and lay down your weapons, because now, truly, it is impossible for us to meet the objectives we established on a national level. Companeros: listen to this message of solidarity. I thank you for your loyalty, your bravery, your generosity, and as I stand before the nation and all of you, I assume the responsibility for this Bolivarian military movement. Thank you very much.” (8)

Some of his comrades watching television from the field were dumbfounded and furious with Chavez’s surrender. They wondered why he wouldn’t give up his life for the cause of his beloved Bolivarian Revolution to rid the country of corruption and redistribute the country’s oil profits to impoverished Venezuelans. Wily Chavez was thinking far ahead of his comrades. He knew that if he died in this coup, subsequent opportunities for his Bolivarian Revolution would perish for lack of his leadership. Ordinary Venezuelan television viewers watched amazed: “Listen to Commander Chavez,” they murmured. Chavez went to prison for two years where he read books, cogitated, and, some say, allowed his head to swell in his new role as a celebrity/hero/leader to the adoring masses.     

Chavez was obsessed with bringing his dream of a Bolivarian Revolution to Venezuela. A document distributed by Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement during the failed coup d’état claimed, “The homeland shall be cleansed with blood.” When asked to explain this statement, Chavez from jail roiled: “That quote is from Thomas Jefferson. It says, ‘The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.’ With that quote, we meant to tell ourselves [the revolutionaries] as well as the rest of the world that when we decided to take this step [the coup attempt], we knew there would be bloodshed [but not his!] when we emerged with thousands of armed men. It was an obligatory sacrifice, because no other revolution in the world has ever been carried out any differently.” This was the first time he had said the word “revolution” in public. (9)

Defining Revolution

Revolution is a great tragedy that recurs often in history, says Sorokin. (10) Like a theater play, “the conditions of time and space, scenery and actors, their costumes, monologues, dialogues and the chorus of the crowd, the quantity of the acts and of ‘striking scenes’—all these are variated [sic]. But, nevertheless, in all this dissimilarity a great many similarities are repeated. All these different actors amidst the different scenery act the same play called ‘revolution.’” (10) Sorokin specifies revolution, war, famine and pestilence as the four great calamities to afflict humankind. (2)

Revolution refers to “those periods in which the amount of liberty is increased”, according to one school of thought with which Sorokin differs. Instead, he counters that almost all revolutions “have not only augmented the sum of the freedom of the population but have regularly reduced it. A great increase of murders, sadism, cruelty, bestiality and tortures mark every revolutionary time”, as the Russian, French, English and Hussite Revolutions demonstrate. (10) A scientific definition of revolution offered by Sorokin is “the change of the constitution of society realized by violence”. (10)

Each revolutionary period comprises two phases: the revolution itself whose main task is destruction, and restoration when the society realizes what it has done to itself and tries to avert perdition. The two phases yield up different psychological types of revolutionary leaders, contends Sorokin, i.e., the adventurer, the militarist, and the cynical schemer.

Chavez, the Adventurer

In the first phase of a revolutionary time, the main task—destruction—is led by an energetic individual with dominating destructive impulses, who Sorokin terms an adventurer. This person, according to Sorokin, is narrow-minded and is completely blind to all the calamities that are the predictable outcomes (e.g., civil war, famine, and pestilence) of the destruction. Most of his (or her) activities concentrate on the struggle and intrigues connected with the destruction. (11)

The adventurer psychological type of revolutionary leader is often an unbalanced maniac or fanatic, full of unsatisfied ambitions, hatred and exasperations, says Sorokin. He or she is indifferent to other people’s sufferings, has feebly developed (restraining) habits, and, despite an affinity for the well-turned phrase, is little sociable. (6) Sorokin continues: “General opinion that such persons are sociable is absolutely wrong. Sonorous phrases of such leaders are nothing but a ‘beautification’ and ‘veiling’ of [an exceedingly inferior ego] and—very often—insane nature…With few exceptions we can say the more radical, extreme and ‘pompous’ in his [speech] the man is (“Welfare of Mankind”, “Liberty”, Annihilation of Exploitation”, etc.) the more careless is he in reality about everything excepting himself and his rather rude impulses.” (11)

Sorokin’s description of the maniacal adventurer fits Hugo Chavez well. His Bolivarian Revolution, which he dreamed up as a teenager and young adult in difficult circumstances under Communist tutelage, was an obsession. He wanted to blow everything up, stage a coup, and grab power. His “For Now” speech was astonishing, almost as if he had been waiting in the wings for a long time for the opportunity to deliver it on television. He talked of “destiny” and “definitive paths” and told people to “listen to him”, both his fellow insurgents and the millions of Venezuelans who would subsequently elect him president in 1998. Chavez asserted his will over the people via his television appearance even though he failed in his coup. Twenty people were killed (14 military) and scores wounded in the failed coup. Yet Chavez surrendered and went on television to become a star! His fellow conspirators realized that they did not really know him.

Following the failed coup, in Barinas, all eyes turned to stare down the old-time Communist Jose Esteban Ruiz Guevara. Hugo’s “mother and father went all over Barinas telling everyone that the real guilty part was the ‘guy with the beard’…And they said that his [Chavez’s] brilliant military career was over, all on account of [Jose Esteban Ruiz Guevara].” (12) Jose, for his part, believed that the coup was a catastrophic mistake and that he could not forgive Hugo for what happened. Why did Jose feel this way? The answer, he says, is that “after making it to Miraflores [the presidential palace] and having control of the government in the palm of their hands, to let it all go to shit like that? He should have gone in even if they killed him.” (12) Jose and Chavez’s parents also did not really know him. Chavez was a loner to a degree unrecognized by even those who felt closest to him.   

Chavez, the Militarist (Military Dictator)

Revolution always means war, observes Sorokin. He continues: It thus cannot help

“thrusting to the foreground professional soldiers. If questions of justice are to be decided by physical force, and the ‘weapons of arbitration’ are to be replaced by the ‘arbitrament of weapons,’ the growth of the influence of the soldiers—be it Caesar or Augustus, Cromwell or Dumouriez, Napoleon, Monk or Wrangel, Zizka or Procopius, MacMahon or Ludendorff—is inevitable. The revolution, which looks so contemptuously upon militarism and soldatesca, is itself militaristic in its essence, and inevitably leads to the rule of militarism. Thrusting forward of the military leaders is an indispensable function of every revolution. When all questions begin to be solved by violence, ‘the interference of people belonging to the military class, and possessing a military force, in the political revolution’ becomes inevitable. Thus it was in Rome, thus it has been ever since. Those men usually end by killing their mother—the revolution—and on her tomb they erect a throne of dictator or emperor for themselves.” (1)

Chavez attended military academy to become a skilled professional soldier, model officer, and a Jose Esteban Ruiz Guevera-coached conspirator to overthrow the Venezuelan government. Chavez and his army co-conspirators planned “to control civil society by placing military officers in jobs normally held by civilians” and to institute a “Public Health Committee” as “the personification of the national public conscience. [It] was created in the image and likeness of the similarly named committee that existed during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution, and was intended to crush the opposition in the style of Lenin.” (13)

Furthermore, the military conspirators aimed to throw out everything old so that nothing of the previous system would remain. “All democratic institutions would be completely dismantled and replaced with a sole authority that would control everything. On the economic front, the new government would freeze prices for goods and services and prohibit ‘the free transfer of capital, in all currencies.’ The privatization process would be halted as well.” (13) Chavez said in jail, “The origins of the movement are eminently military, though the intention was to put together a civilian-military junta with the best of the nation’s goodwill. During the actual military action itself [the failed coup]…there was no civil participation.” Chavez in fact never trusted civilians, notes a comrade. “Civil society could applaud him but not participate—that was an entirely different story…He does not tolerate dissidence of different opinions.” (14)

Chavez retired from the military after discharge from jail, but he always kept his military uniform with him. He said that if a riot were to break out, he would still get out his combat uniform and fight. He also continued to wear his full uniform and even his full-dress uniform for public appearances. (15)

Chavez, the Cynical Schemer

The third psychological type to ascend to leadership positions during revolutions is the cynical schemer, a person “skillful in political maneuvering, scoundrels on a large scale who know whither the wind blows and are ready change their conditions when necessary, for whom there is nothing sacred but their own welfare.” (1) Sorokin notes, “Usually men of this type pass safely through all the periods of revolution and restoration. Once risen to a position of ascendancy they remain there. By adroit maneuvers and changes of opinions, they manage to please all governments and run less risk than the first two types. Usually men of this type, together with the professional soldiers, act as immediate successors and grave-diggers of the revolutionary heroes of the first type [adventurer].” (1) Sorokin opines that “however unpleasant are the men of the third and second type they must be preferred to those of the first—cynical schemers at least know how to live and permit the others to do so [emphasis added], whereas the irreconcilable revolutionary sectarians neither live themselves nor let the others. Revolutionary (and counter-revolutionary) fanaticism is more terrible than any cynicism.” (1)

Hugo Chavez is a cynical schemer. He has had to be one to remain alive and prospering as the president of Venezuela, a position to which he adroitly managed to get himself elected within (rather than toppling) the existing democratic process (a majority of voters elected him in 1998, and again in 2004). No death and martyrdom for him! He romances world leaders continuously, e.g., at the close of 1999, the first full year of his first term as president, he logged 52 days out of the country traveling in an old Boeing 737 that had been in service for 24 years and required four stopovers just to reach Europe. (16) He flatters Fidel Castro whose island he probably would like to rule one day (three hours away by plane). Chavez has dreams beyond governing Venezuela. He wants to forge Latin America countries into a single economic unit to lift the people of the continent out of their terrible poverty and disorganization. He of course would be the leader of this new unit, just like his hero Simon Bolivar wanted to be.

Chavez, the Adventurer, Militarist, and Cynical Schemer

Chavez’s trademark as a revolutionary is his ability to draw on each of the three psychological types posited by Sorokin when the situation requires it. Sorokin does not seem to have considered a revolutionary in which all three psychological types dwell. Perhaps this is a post-modern permutation of the revolutionary typology. As noted above Hugo Chavez is a chameleon who, like a tropical Old World lizard, has the ability to change colors to survive to carry out, in his person—no one else’s person—a strong social calling to improve the circumstances of his country and of Latin America.

“Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, displaying a book by Noam Chomsky critical of U.S. foreign policy.” Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/index.html; accessed October 18, 2007.

The U.S. is quite observant of the doings of President Chavez. Venezuela, the largest global producer of oil outside of the Middle East, sells 72% of its oil exports to the U.S. The U.S. is its number one trading partner. (17) U.S. crude oil imports in thousands of barrels per day from January to July 2007 (latest data) are first, Canada (1,847); second, Saudi Arabia (1,477); third, Venezuela (1,120); and fourth, Nigeria (1,025). (18)

Venezuela’s oil rigs in Lake Maracaibo. Source: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/venezuela-petroleum.htm; accessed October 18, 2007.

Venezuela’s President Chavez, however, as part of his seemingly innate rudeness, recently likened U.S. President George W. Bush to “a devil” after the latter gave a speech at the United Nations in September 2006. Chavez said, “As the spokesman of imperialism, he [Bush] came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: ‘The Devil's Recipe’.” Chavez continued in his inimitable theatrical style, “The devil came here yesterday. And it smells of sulfur still today.” Then Chavez crossed himself. (19) Ever colorful, Chavez then held up a book by Noam Chomsky on imperialism and said it encapsulated his arguments: “The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its hegemonistic system of domination, and we cannot allow him [Bush] to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.” (20)

Conclusion

John Maisto, the first U.S. ambassador to Venezuela who interacted with President Chavez understands his revolutionary polymorphism the best. Judge Chavez, Maisto warns, not by his incendiary words but by his actions. “Look at his hands, not his mouth”, advises Maisto. (21) Chavez has so far refrained from going over the line with the U.S., although he has no equals in moving right up to that line’s outer edge and then retreating.

Sources:

1. Pitirim Sorokin: The Sociology of Revolution. J.B. Lippincott, 1925, pp. 280-284.
2. For more information on Pitirim Sorokin, please see SEMP Biot Report #465: “Influence of Catastrophes on Political Organization” (October 11, 2007). Available at http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=467; accessed October 17, 2007.
3. Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka: Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela’s Controversial President. Random House, 2004, 2006, p. 156.
4. Ibid, p. 10.
5. Cristina Marcano, Alberto Barrera Tyszka: Hugo Chavez Sin Uniforme: Una Historia Personal, Random House MondadoriIbid, 2005, p. 47, as cited at “Early life of Hugo Chavez” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_life_of_Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez#CITEREFMarcano2005; accessed October 17, 2007.
6. Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka: Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela’s Controversial President. Random House, 2004, 2006, p. 293.
7. Ibid, p. 47.
8. Ibid, p. 51.
9. Ibid, pp. 74-75.
10. Pitirim Sorokin: The Sociology of Revolution. J.B. Lippincott, 1925, pp. 5-6.
11. Ibid, pp. 280-284.
12. Ibid, pp. 78-79.
13. Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka: Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela’s Controversial President. Random House, 2004, 2006, pp. 82-83.
14. Ibid, p. 86.
15. Ibid, p. 162
16. Ibid, p. 154.
17. Venezuela owns CITGO. Venezuela was the first country to move towards establishing OPEC by approaching the leaders of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 1949.
18. “Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries: August 2007 Import Highlights: Released on October 17, 2007”. Energy Information Administration: Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government. Available online at http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html; accessed October 16, 2007.
19. CNN: “Chavez: Bush ‘devil: U.S. ‘on the way down’. September 21, 2006. Available online at http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/index.html; accessed October 16, 2007.
20. CNN video of part of Chavez’s U.N. speech and of him crossing himself and looking up to the heavens is available at http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2006/09/20/sots.chavez.un.cnn; accessed October 17, 2007.
21. Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka: Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela’s Controversial President. Random House, 2004, 2006, p. 206.