Alejandro Velasco

Of course, we now remember Hugo Chavez as a kind of stridently anti-American figure.

That is not the case, right?

There wasn't kind of this breeding animosity towards the United States.

And that's generally true in Venezuela.

Venezuelans are not, by and large, an anti-American population, in part because of this long history of relationship with the United States.

But...

He joins the military, and a couple of things happen that are really significant.

The first is, as a cadet, he is sent to different countries of Latin America to observe governments and militaries.

He goes to Peru, where the military dictator and no relation, Velasco Alvarado, is experimenting with a different approach to military rule than had been the case elsewhere in Latin America, which had been much more...

tightly wound around elite control of resources and repression.

And more about, well, the institutions of the state are already captured by the elites, and the military is the only one that can project any kind of social benefit.

And so this was more of like a socially conscious military dictatorship.

Yes, exactly.

But then the second thing that happens during that time is that his brother, Adan Chavez's older brother, is a radical Marxist-

He is lining up with the guerrillas.

He is very much, you know, in line with the idea that only armed revolution is going to bring us to paradise.

And so that's what begins this process for Chávez.

And it's in 1982 that he begins this movement called the Movimiento Bolivariano Revolucionario.

What does that mean?

Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement 200.