Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S. [Paperback]

Nikolas Kozloff (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 7, 2007

Audacious, provocative, and bombastic, few world politicians are as colorful as Hugo Chávez, now making international news for his plans to nationalize U.S. owned businesses and his bold opposition to Washington's economic and trade policies.  As Venezuela gains importance as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world, this firebrand leader is quickly moving to the public spotlight by uniting much of South America against the Bush administration and wielding oil as a "geopolitical weapon." To create this rich and objective portrait, Nikolas Kozloff--one of the few American journalists who has spent years in the Andean region--has profiled Chávez's  top advisors, leaders of his movement, and other key figures in both Venezuela and the U.S. The result is a timely, exhaustive analysis of Chávez as a political leader, and a nuanced examination of the president moving to the center of the global stage. Includes a new afterword by the author, with insights into Chávez's reelection in relation to wider hemispheric politics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hugo Chavez has put Latin America back on the U.S. radar with his outspoken attacks on American imperialism and his leadership in forming economic ties among Latin American nations outside U.S. influence. To many in the southern hemisphere, he represents a welcome alternative to the U.S., whose efforts to heal the region's economic woes through the World Bank and the IMF have largely failed. In the northern hemisphere, he is often seen as a threat to free-trade agreements and democracy in the Americas. Kozloff, a senior research fellow for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, tries to neutralize the latter image as he recounts recent Venezuelan history and analyzes Chavez's rise to power. Paying equal attention to Chavez as a man and as a political phenomenon, he inserts slow-moving anecdotes among dense historical details, making for an uneven read. Kozloff's use of sources like the Nation, the New Left Review and the International Socialist Review, as well as his participation in the antiglobalization movement, also reveal a leftist bias toward Chavez. He offers little criticism of Chavez's policies or the nondemocratic means—a 1992 failed coup—through which he first garnered public favor, before winning office in a 1999 election and 2002 reelection. But while this bias might make for some one-sided storytelling at times, it also makes for a thoughtful, well-researched alternative to the majority of information available on Chavez in the English-speaking world. (Sept. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"A thoughtful, well-researched alternative to the majority of information available on Chávez in the English-speaking world."--Publishers Weekly

"A reasoned, historical presentation of Chávez's rise to power and the social context which produced him."--Political Affairs

“This book is highly recommended reading for those who want to understand Chavez beyond his rhetoric – the real basis of his support and his actual policies.”--Journal of Peace Research

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403984093
• ISBN-13: 978-1403984098
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.8 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,150,496 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #79 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Venezuela

More About the Author

Nikolas Kozloff is a Brooklyn-based writer who focuses on politics and environmental questions. He has spent years living in Latin America and reporting on the wider region. He blogs at the Huffington Post as well as his own personal Web site, http://www.nikolaskozloff.com/

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 57 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars a good antidote to the lies October 10, 2006

By J. Anderson

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is an excellent primer on Chavez, warts and all. The challenge to the US Kozloff delineates fully and articulately, not least by spending ample time revealing his subject's severe awakening to political and global realities through prison, failure, and a lightning quick mind. The first three chapters patiently define the origins of Chavez's political consciousness, and make the rest of the book more important and substantial. Chapter 3 - 'TINA - There Is No Alternative' - is especially helpful in getting to the root of who Chavez is, and who he might become, and why his appears to be a success with unlimited possibilities in terms of resisting the hegemony of American foreign policy. True, Kozloff is an admirer of sorts, but he pulls no punches. There is much to be admired in Hugo Chavez, as the world witnessed during his recent no-nonsense address to the UN, where he clearly distinguished himself as a determined, even poetic, global thinker. Chapter 4 takes its time outlining the nefarious meddling of Gustavo Cisneros, documenting along the way Cisneros' cozying up to George Herbert Liquor Bush. This is one of the few books around casting a clear-headed overview of the IMF, the disastrous effects of NAFTA, and the early White House plots against Chavez involving Otto Reich (Lockheed Martin), Pedro Carmona, and the CIA. These ideas are fully documented throughout the book with 65 pages of scrupulously detailed notes. One of the most interesting findings in the pages of this book is the struggle against racism represented by Hugo Chavez. His grasp of world affairs and his love for Venezuela come to be seen as inseparable from that honorable struggle. An excellent antidote to the prevailing American government line, it's also an essential look at the aiding and abetting committed by American corporate media in conformist manipulation. A must read.

41 of 54 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Review of Chavez's Struggle with Imperialism August 18, 2006

By H. Campbell

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a well written study of Chavez's rise and battle with American inspired/directed/financed efforts to destabilize his regime. Clearly, the author is sympathetic with the global efforts to resist IMF (i.e., US) hegemony and sees Chavez as a prime leader. Of course, most Americans blindly believe the lies that routinely emerge from our corrupt governement sources, but Kozloff paints a picture, perhaps sometimes too rosey, of Chavez's efforts to socialize his deeply-divided country. Maybe a little more discussion of Chavez's sometimes repressive methods (completely justified in my view when one considers how insidious American subversive efforts have been and still are) would have been warranted also. Though I despise Bush as much as any red-blooded American patriot should, I found Kozloff's constant references to how scared/terrified/concerned Bush and his gang would be by such and such an action of Chavez's to be off-putting and tediously redundant. I thought Kozloff should have devoted more space to Venezuela's dealings with OPEC since oil is part of the title and would have liked more on Chavez's foreign policy maneuverings outside Latin America, but obviously he decided to limit the size of the book. All in all, a sound and somewhat personal recounting.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Objective September 29, 2011

By Kenso

Format:Paperback

It is hard to find an objective account of South American politics. It is MUCH harder to find an objective account of Hugo Chavez. This book comes very close.