Bolivarian Revolution

The Bolivarian Revolution (Spanish: Revolución bolivariana) is a social revolution and ongoing political process in Venezuela that was started by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) and later the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and his successors Nicolás Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez. The Bolivarian Revolution is named after Simón Bolívar, an early 19th-century Venezuelan revolutionary leader, prominent in the Spanish American wars of independence in achieving the independence of most of northern South America from Spanish rule. According to Chávez and other supporters, the Bolivarian Revolution seeks to build an inter-American coalition to implement Bolivarianism, nationalism, and a state-led economy.

Chávez and MVR won the 1998 Venezuelan presidential election and initiated the constituent process that resulted in the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999. On his 57th birthday in 2011, while announcing that he was being treated for cancer, Chávez announced that he had changed the slogan of the Bolivarian Revolution from "Motherland, socialism, or death" to "Motherland and socialism. We will live, and we will come out victorious". Following the death of Chávez in 2013, the movement declined, and the political and economic situation in Venezuela has rapidly deteriorated, resulting in the Venezuelan crisis.

As of 2018, the vast majority of mayoral and gubernatorial offices are held by PSUV candidates, while the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition won two thirds of parliamentary seats in 2015. Political hostility between the PSUV and MUD has led to several incidents where both pro-government and opposition demonstrations have turned violent, with an estimated 150 dead as a result in 2017. Several opposition figures have been subject to politically motivated detentions.