Venezuela’s political crisis can only be understood in the context of the rise of fall of Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution.

Here is a timeline of its key events:

Hugo Chavez, a former army colonel who is known primarily for launching a failed coup against President Carlos Andres Perez in 1992, is first elected president in 1999. He comes to power on a relatively centrist platform. At the time, the country’s energy industry is pumping some 3.4 million barrels of oil per day.

President Chavez immediately announces a new constituent assembly – essentially an ad hoc, democratically-elected forum with authority that supersedes the normal apparatus of state. The ensuing election sees a sweeping victory for Chavez’s party, and the new president is given a free hand to re-write the country’s constitution.

• 2002 – Presidential elections are held under the newly-drafted constitution. Hugo Chavez scores a decisive victory with nearly 60% of the popular vote.
• 2002 – President Chavez is targeted in a coup attempt. Though the president’s approval ratings were hovering in the low 30s, allies and citizens rallied to support him and Chavez is reinstated after a few days. Chavez uses the coup to further consolidate his control over state institutions, notably the state-owned oil corporation PDVSA, where over 15,000 workers are summarily fired, many of whom had supported a strike pushing for presidential elections.
• 2004 – President Chavez scores a decisive victory in a referendum on whether he should remain in office.