Title: Analysis: How Hugo Chavez changed Venezuela - BBC News
Headings: Analysis: How Hugo Chavez changed Venezuela
Analysis: How Hugo Chavez changed Venezuela
Hugo Chavez burst onto the national scene in Venezuela in a failed military uprising in 1992.
Radical change
Regional vision
Enduring challenges

Content: Minimum wages were increased sharply and many Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty. Other social indicators, notably literacy, also improved and Mr Chavez and his political movement had little difficulty in defeating an opposition that was deeply divided and unable to adjust to the new Venezuelan realities. Regional vision
In foreign affairs, President Chavez followed an aggressively anti-imperialist policy in which verbal attacks on the US became frequent. image caption
Mr Chavez forged a close alliance with the Castro government in Cuba
He went out of his way to cultivate enemies of the US and deepened the relationship with Cuba. Yet his most important goal was the building of an alliance among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that would fulfil the frustrated dream of his great hero, South American independence leader Simon Bolivar, two centuries before. The first step towards the Bolivarian dream had been Petrocaribe - a scheme to provide cheap oil to the countries of Central America and the Caribbean that depend on imports. It was hugely popular, with only Barbados refusing to take part. This was followed by Alba, a regional integration scheme that would grow to include Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras (until 2009) and Nicaragua, as well as a few small independent Caribbean states. Venezuela under Mr Chavez, along with Brazil under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also promoted a new regional architecture designed to embrace all American states except the US and Canada. This led to Unasur, the Union of South American countries, and a proposed Community of Latin American and Caribbean nations (Celac).