Back to Venezuela index

 

BBC Timeline

to June 2004

 

1998 - Hugo Chavez elected president.

2000 - Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel discloses plot to kill Chavez. Chavez wins another six years in office and a mandate to pursue political reforms.

Chavez becomes the first foreign head of state to visit Iraq since the 1991 Gulf war, in defiance of strong opposition from the US.

2001 November - President Chavez appears on TV to hail 49 reform laws which his government has introduced in the past year. The laws - including land and oil industry reforms - were passed under powers which did not require them to be approved by the National Assembly. Chavez says the laws will help the nation's poor; critics say they will put jobs and the economy at risk.

2001 11 December - Venezuela's main business association calls one-day strike in protest against Chavez's controversial economic reforms, especially a new land law that gives the government the power to expropriate estates and agricultural land deemed to be unproductive.

2002 14 February - Venezuela's national currency, the bolivar, plummets 25% against the US dollar after the government scraps five-year-old exchange rate controls.

2002 25 February - Chavez appoints new board of directors to state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela in move opposed by executives.

2002 9 April - Trade unions and the Fedecamaras business association declare general strike to support Petroleos de Venezuela dissidents. Chavez vows to crush strike.

2002 11 April - Some 150,000 people rally in support of strike and oil protest. National Guard and pro-Chavez gunmen clash with protesters - more than 10 are killed and 110 injured. Chavez shuts down coverage of violence by TV stations. Military high command rebels, demands Chavez resign.

2002 April 12 - Armed forces head announces Chavez has resigned, a claim later denied by Chavez. Chavez is taken into military custody. Military names Pedro Carmona, one of the strike organisers, as head of transitional government.

2002 April 14 - Chavez returns to office after the collapse of the interim government.

2002 October - Chavez says security agents foil another plot to topple his government.

Workers stage national strike to press Chavez to step down or call early elections.

Group of senior officers goes on TV calling for civil disobedience, alleging government is corrupt and has impoverished the nation.

2002 December - Opposition strike cripples the oil industry. Organisers demand that Chavez resign. The weeks-long stoppage leads to fuel shortages.

2003 February - Shops, factories and universities re-open after nine-week general strike.

Referendum petitions

2003 May - Government, opposition sign deal brokered by Organisation of American States (OAS) which sets out framework for referendum on Hugo Chavez's rule.

2003 August/September - Opposition delivers petition with more than three million signatures demanding referendum on Chavez's rule. Electoral body rejects petition saying it fails to meet technical requirements.

2003 December - Second petition demanding referendum on rule of Hugo Chavez is delivered. Opposition says it contains 3.4 million signatures.

2004 March - Several people are killed and many are injured in clashes between opponents and supporters of President Chavez.

2004 June - Election officials say opponents of President Chavez have gathered more than enough petition signatures to trigger a referendum, set for 15 August, on his term in office.