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Venezuela began to see an upsurge of worker cooperatives after Hugo Chávez' election in 1999. Upon Chávez' election the Venezuelan Constitution was re-written as an extension of his "Bolivarian Revolution" movement. The government saw cooperatives as a way to democratize capital and decentralize the state. The new constitution added terms and conditions which aided the starting of new cooperatives. Particularly tax exemption programs in 2004 incentivized cooperative building and allowed for cooperatives of all shapes and sizes to emerge. These tax exemptions led to many on-paper cooperatives, which were in reality, businesses trying claiming to be cooperatives but instead were just taking advantage of the tax breaks.The cooperative creation process was also simplified in 2001, they were exempt from registration charges and, if qualified, gained access to state contracts and loans.

In Venezuela there are approximately 946,000 members, in 83,769 cooperatives, in all sectors of the economy.