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This Happened

This Happened—December 6: A Venezuela Military Man Is The New Face Of Latin America's Left

Founder of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200) in the early 1980s, Hugo Chavez went on to be elected president of Venezuela in late 1998, serving until his death in 2013.

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How did Hugo Chavez rise to power?

Chávez led the MBR-200 in an unsuccessful coup against the Democratic Action Government of then President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992, for which he was imprisoned. After serving two years, he founded the Fifth Republic Movement political party and was eventually elected president of Venezuela on Dec. 6 1998, receiving 56.2% of the vote.

What is Chavismo?

Hugo Chávez considered himself the leader of the so-called “Bolivarian Revolution,” with a socialist economic program for much of Latin America, named after Simón Bolívar, the South American independence hero. Beyond the programs of helping the country's poor, Chávez's leadership was based on nationalism and a strong military. His ideology became widely known as simply Chavismo.

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Geopolitics

U.S., France, Israel: How Three Model Democracies Are Coming Unglued

France, Israel, United States: these three democracies all face their own distinct problems. But these problems are revealing disturbing cracks in society that pose a real danger to hard-earned progress that won't be easily regained.

Image of a crowd of protestors holding Israeli flags and a woman speaking into a megaphone

Israeli anti-government protesters take to the streets in Tel-Aviv, after Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Galant.

Dominique Moïsi

"I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat," reads the t-shirt of a Republican Party supporter in the U.S.

"We need to bring the French economy to its knees," announces the leader of the French union Confédération Générale du Travail.

"Let's end the power of the Supreme Court filled with leftist and pro-Palestinian Ashkenazis," say Israeli government cabinet ministers pushing extreme judicial reforms

The United States, France, Israel: three countries, three continents, three situations that have nothing to do with each other. But each country appears to be on the edge of a nervous breakdown of what seemed like solid democracies.

How can we explain these political excesses, irrational proclamations, even suicidal tendencies?

The answer seems simple: in the United States, in France, in Israel — far from an exhaustive list — democracy is facing the challenge of society's ever-greater polarization. We can manage the competition of ideas and opposing interests. But how to respond to rage, even hatred, borne of a sense of injustice and humiliation?

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