A former coup leader (1992) who won the presidential elections as a populist in 1998 and ruled until his death in 2013. Under his rule, the separation of powers was undermined and an authoritarian regime established, which his successor Nicolás Maduro hardened into a dictatorship.
I have dealt with his reign from this part of my documentary onwards.
Chávez squandered Venezuela’s oil revenues. Only a (rather small) part of it was used to finance social programmes - so that now they’re directly dependant on the oil price.