Hugo Chavez is the President of Venezuela. He is also known as the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution and promotes the idea of democratic socialism.

Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born in Sabaneta, Barinas on July 28, 1954. He was raised near Sabaneta and was raised primarily by his grandmother. As a child he enjoyed painting, singing and baseball. He attended high school at the Daniel Florencio O'Leary School in Barinas. When he was 17, Hugo Chavez enrolled in the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences where he graduated with a degree in military arts and science. Post-graduation, he entered military service before being allowed to pursue post-graduate studies in political science at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas. He left the University without his degree. Hugo Chavez became an active duty military enrollee, working with the counter insurgency battalion in Barinas. He remained in the military for 17 years.

In 1983, Hugo Chavez established the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement - 200 and in 1992 organized a failed coup d'etat against then-President Carlos Andres Perez. In 1998, he was elected President of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez was reelected in 2000 and 2006. While in office, he has launched Bolivarian Missions. The goals of the group are to combat disease and malnutrition as well as illiteracy and poverty. He has also advocated cooperation among the world's very poor nations, especially Latin American countries. Venezuelans are split between those who say he has empowered the poor and those who say his leadership is autocratic and that he has mismanaged the country's economy.

In both 2005 and 2006 he was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine.