Ramtin Arablouei and Randa Abdel-Fattah

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.

Day one of Hugo Chavez's presidency.

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 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.

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.