In the Shadow of the Liberator: Hugo Chávez and the Transformation of Venezuela

by Richard Gott

Overview

In a first-hand report from Venezuela, veteran correspondent Richard Gott places the country’s controversial President in historical perspective. Examining Chavez’s plans and programs and the support and opposition these attract, Gott argues that this unique experiment may prove a new way forward for Latin America. ‘Many people thought if I became president it would mean the return of Hitler and Mussolini rolled into one ... the imagined disaster has not taken place.’Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela. The spectre of Simon Bolivar hovers once again over Latin America as the aims and ambitions of the Liberator are taken up by Comandante Hugo Chavez, the charismatic and controversial President of Venezuela. Welcomed by the inhabitants of the teeming shanty towns of Caracas as their potential savior, and greeted by Washington with considerable alarm, this former golpista-turned-democrat has already begun the most wide-ranging transformation of oil-rich Venezuela for half a century, and dramatically affected the political debate throughout Latin America. In a first-hand report from Venezuela, veteran correspondent Richard Gott places the Comandante in historical perspective, and examines his plans and programs. He describes the support and opposition that these attract, and argues that this unique experiment may prove a new way forward for Latin America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859843659
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	10/17/2001
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Richard Gott is a former Latin America correspondent and features editor for the Guardian. A specialist in Latin American affairs, his books include Cuba: A New History, Guerrilla Movements in Latin America, The Appeasers (with Martin Gilbert), Land Without Evil, Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution, and Britain’s Empire. He is currently an honorary research fellow at the institute for the study of the Americas at the University of London.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	v
	Map of Venezuela	viii
	Introduction: the rains fall	1
Part 1	Preparing for Power
1.	November 1999: a game of baseball in Havana	25
2.	The military promotions of Hugo Chavez	34
3.	February 1989 (1): the rebellion in Caracas, the Caracazo	44
4.	February 1989 (2): the economic 'packet' that destroyed the presidency of Carlos Andres Perez	50
5.	Douglas Bravo and the debate between soldiers and civilians	59
6.	4 February 1992: the 'military intervention' of Chavez	66
7.	27 November 1992: the coup by Admiral Hernan Gruber	74
8.	Luis Miquilena and the Patriotic Front of 1989	80
9.	Torrijos, Velasco and the tradition of military rebellion in Latin America	86
Part 2	Recovering the Past
10.	The legacy of Simon Bolivar	97
11.	Robinson Crusoe and the philosophy of Simon Rodriguez	109
12.	Ezequiel Zamora invokes 'horror a la oligarquia'	118
Part 3	Preparing the Overthrow of the Ancien Regime
13.	Yare prison, 1992-1994, and the search for political allies	127
14.	La Causa R, Patria Para Todos and politics in Guayana	133
15.	The presidential election of 1998	143
Part 4	Chavez in Power
16.	The formation of a Constituent Assembly	153
17.	Manuel Quijada and the reform of the judiciary	160
18.	Ali Rodriguez Araque and the new politics of oil	164
19.	The economic programme of the Chavez government	172
20.	A new agricultural future for Venezuela	179
21.	Jose Vicente Rangel and the conduct of foreign affairs	190
22.	Civil war in Colombia: the future of the Bolivarian dream	200
23.	New rights for indigenous peoples	209
24.	Teodoro Petkoff and the opposition to Chavez	216
	Epilogue: The military and civil society	223
Appendix A	The rights of indigenous peoples	230
Appendix B	Sauce of wonder	233
	Bibliography	236
	Index	239

Editorial Reviews

A colourful and readable account of Chavez’s background and beliefs.”—Financial Times

“Chavez, as Richard Gott’s readable profile makes clear, is no ordinary caudillo.”—Time Higher Education Supplement

“Gott is always and interesting, well-informed, and engaging writer. Washington would be wise to pay attention to this account, since Chavez’s radical nationalism ... is presumably raising eyebrows in Foggy Bottom and Langley.”—Foreign Affairs

“Little is known in detail of Chavez’s life, career, and ideas. This study ... begins to fill the gaps.”—Multicultural Review

“This book shows its author back on top form as a supreme interpreter of Latin America.”—The Independent

“This timely book will be eagerly devoured by all those who wish to understand Latin America’s new radicalism.”—New Statesman

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