Photographing the Bolivarian Revolution

These are a handful of my favourite photographs from Chavista rallies in Venezuela from 2012 to 2014. Enjoy!

epic2

Rally in support of Nicolas Maduro during his bid for presidency in April 2013.

IMG_9534

May Day rally in Merida, 2013.

va10

Thousands of Chavistas turned out in Merida to see Nicolas Maduro speak during the April, 2013 presidential race.

IMG_1276

PSUV youth activists march on 12 February, 2014 for Venezuela’s Youth Day.

va7

Rally in support of Nicolas Maduro during his bid for presidency in April 2013.

IMG_1037

A giant Hugo Chavez puppet in Merida’s main square.

Chavez supporters rallying in Caracas in the lead up to the October 2012 presidential elections.

Chavez supporters rallying in Caracas in the lead up to the October 2012 presidential elections.

edit2

Anti-consumerism rally in Merida 26 November, 2013.

IMG_1404

A youth activist takes aim at right-wing opposition figure Henrique Capriles’ face on a donkey’s body.

IMG_1548

Mural being painted by a street art collective to commemorate Hugo Chavez’s birthday in Merida, July 2013.

IMG_2167

Tens of thousands of Chavistas rally in Merida.

IMG_0932

A birthday cake for the late Hugo Chavez in July, 2013.

va6

PSUV supporters in April, 2013.

IMG_1315

Child with beret.

IMG_1337

PSUV youth activists with a transforming mural of Hugo Chavez.

Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez outside a voting booth on 7 October, 2012. Minutes later he cast his vote as incumbent in the last election he would win. He won the 2012 presidential election by a landslide, but two months later he was hospitalised in Cuba, where he underwent cancer surgery. The following March, then vice president Nicolas Maduro delivered a televised address, announcing Chavez had died. During Chavez's 12 years in power, poverty was cut by almost half, and the government implemented a slew of social programmes providing free healthcare, housing, tertiary education, subsidised food and more. As Maduro delivered the announcement, people around me broke down in tears. My working class neighbourhood in Merida came to a grinding halt; some people were just standing in the street, looking utterly bewildered. That night I went down to Merida's main square, where there was a collective outpouring of grief until early the next morning.

Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez outside a voting booth on 7 October, 2012. Minutes later he cast his vote as incumbent in the last election he would win.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: