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52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very informative, November 5, 2005
The events of this weekend in Mar Del Plata, Argentina have again shown that Hugo Chavez is a man to be reckoned with on the world stage. Adored by many, vilified by others, he has arrived on the scene of Venezuelan politics in a manner that has raised the ire of many in the world, especially the yellow regime that currently holds the reigns of power in Washington, D.C. Readers who are curious about Chavez will get a fairly detailed overview of his life in this book. The author is clearly biased towards Chavez, but given the nature of the western press these days, one can view this bias as a kind of historical countervailing power, an alternative to the diluted treatment of Venezuelan history that one is often confronted with. The author has spent much time in Venezuela, and has interviewed Chavez personally, and so readers can gain at least some confidence that the author knows what he is talking about.
It is readily apparent when reading the book that the author feels that the policies and politics of Hugo Chavez should be understood in the context of the life and works of Simon Bolivar, the popular revolutionary of the early nineteenth century who was attempting to liberate some areas of South America from Spanish rule. The `Bolivarian revolution', as it is now called, is one in which Chavez definitely wants to be identified with, and one that involves uniting the peoples of Latin America in order to counter the "imperial power of the north." A community of nations and states will form this alliance, with priority given to the three areas that surround Venezuela, namely the Caribbean, the Amazon, and the Andes. This would also involve creating a military alliance, which Chavez viewed as a kind of `Latin American Nato' (but not including the United States).
The author describes in great detail the coup attempt on February 4, 1992 that was instigated and carried out by Chavez with the assistance of five army units. The coup was doomed from the start, for the government of President Carlos Andres Perez had found out about it a day earlier. Certainly a daring move by Chavez, and one that sheds considerable light on his personality, which is described by the author as extroverted, confrontational, and argumentative. Chavez apparently wanted to overthrow the Venezuelan government as far back as 1982, at which time he began organizing a group called the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement. This group, called a "study circle" by the author, was supposed to be based on the teachings and philosophy of Ezequiel Zamora, Simon Bolivar, and Simon Rodriguez. Even with its emphasis on social and political philosophy, it is still difficult to view Chavez and other members of the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement as being intellectuals. If they were, they were certainly of the Sartrian type, and believed that thoughts must be translated into action.
One organization that is often mentioned in the western press these days is the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), which is usually characterized as a Marxist guerilla army, financed by drug money, and that is participating in the current civil war in Columbia. The author characterizes FARC as being an organization that is sympathetic with the Bolivarian views of Chavez, and that Chavez feels the same towards FARC, since Chavez wants to re-create the "Gran Columbia" of Bolivar: an alliance of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. FARC has become apparently become a formidable force in Columbia, and its support by the Chavez government has antagonized the Columbian government. FARC is now considered to be a "terrorist organization" by the government of Alvaro Uribe Velez, which receives heavy support from the U.S. government (quoted as $3.9 billion dollars by the author). The author writes of the U.S. support of the attack against FARC in 1964 by the Columbian army, but does not give detailed evidence for this.
And what of current U.S. involvement in the affairs of Venezuela? The author discusses in fair detail this involvement, but not as much as needed to make objective assessments as to the intentions of the U.S. government. The US does have access to the airports in the Dutch Antilles, which is offshore from Venezuela, and made requests (the author describes this as "putting pressure") on the Chavez government to allow flights over Venezuela as part of their "war on drugs" against Columbia. Chavez did not permit these flights, resulting in further antagonism between him and the US. As far as the coup attempt in 2002 against the Chavez government, the author cites a CIA intelligence brief as evidence that the US had prior knowledge of it. The author further claims that the coup leaders had the explicit consent from the US (the leaders having visited Washington several times), but he does not cite the detailed evidence for these claims. Apparently Miguel Angel Cortes, the Spanish minister for Ibero-American cooperation, revealed that as many as six phone calls were made to Otto Reich at the US State Department (who is a former US ambassador to Caracas), and that Reich was definitely supporting the coup plotters. The author also claims that the bishops of the Catholic Church in Venezuela were involved in the planning of the coup, but he does not cite evidence for this claim either. The author though gives the minute details of the coup as it unfolded, and how Chavez managed to regain control of the Venezuelan government.
The reading of this book, the viewing of the political speeches of Chavez, and the perusal of the many blogs discussing Venezuelan politics certainly sheds light on the politics and ethical standards of Chavez. Even if one agrees with his political opinions, or even with his stand against the yellow regime of Washington DC, it must be remembered that he at one time did not hesitate to initiate the use of force. Extreme skepticism must therefore be applied to Chavez, as it must to every other living politician.
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37 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Towards a revolutionary and united South America, December 20, 2005
"Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution" by veteran journalist Richard Gott introduces us to the important struggle against neoliberalism being waged by the people of Venezuela and its charismatic leader, Hugo Chavez. This underreported story is told with skill, verve and clarity by Gott, whose first-hand reporting and intelligent historical analysis have combined to produce an engaging and fascinating book that should appeal to a wide audience.
We learn that Chavez' roots in the Venezuelan countryside and his family's support of populist causes helped to shape his core values, including the belief that military power might be used to secure social and economic justice. Gott describes how the neoliberal policies of the 1980s and early 1990s first led to social unrest and then emboldened Chavez, whose first coup attempt while serving in the Venezuelan armed forces in 1992 proved to be unsuccessful. However, the phrase "por ahora" (for now) that Chavez uttered at his arrest thrust Chavez into the spotlight and captured the public's imagination. Eventually, the ongoing and widespread disgust with Venezuela's notoriously incompetent and corrupt government helped Chavez easily win election to the Presidency in 1998.
At first glance, Chavez' Bolivarian Revolution resembles nothing more than a strong social/democratic state, wherein revenues from the national oil company allows the government to shower benefits onto its citizens. However, the Chavez administration's recognition of indigenous and minority rights and its substantive economic reforms belies a much more progressive agenda when compared with, say, the so-called social welfare governments of North America and Europe. Domestically, Chavez is seeking to improve the standard of living through an uniquely empowered form of citizenship; internationally, Chavez wants to create a political and military consortium that is dedicated to protecting the people and resources of South America from continuing exploitation by multinational corporations.
Gott also compares and contrasts Chavez with his political ally Fidel Castro in order to differentiate the Venezuelan revolutionary experience with Cuba's. Whereas Castro had looked to the independence-minded Jose Marti for inspiration, Chavez draws upon Simon Bolivar to imagine an united South America. Interestingly, the Chavez/Castro relationship appears to be mutually reinforcing, so that while socialistic Cuba is striving to become more democratic, democratic Venezuela is working to become more socialistic.
The analysis presented by Gott helps us understand that Chavez' challenge to U.S. hegemony in the hemisphere is very real, and in fact the election in December, 2005 of a socialist government in Bolivia suggests that the political dynamics may well have been permanently altered. Little wonder, then, why small-minded reactionaries such as Pat Robertson have no response to the Bolivarian Revolution than to call for its most outspoken leader's assassination. But if you are interested in getting the real story and in forming your own opinions, you are encouraged to read this timely and enlightening book. Highly recommended!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very accessible, pleasant read, January 2, 2007
Gott is a veteran leftist British journalist, a Latin American specialist, who writes in a very clear and not ungraceful journalese style which I must say is very refreshing to read after just finishing a semester trying to read through dreadfully dull authors in grad school classes. The read is relatively quick.
Perhaps the biggest point in the book is the insight provided about the opposition to Chavez, the people the American media portray as great heroes for democracy struggling against Chavez. This opposition almost exclusively comes from the remnants of the old discredited elites that had run the country into the ground before Chavez's election. After the overthrow of the military dictator General Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958, the so-called Social Democratic party, Democratic Action(Spanish acronym AD) and the Christian Democrats (COPEI) agreed to set up a political system where they would share the spoils of the bureaucracy and effectively prevent any third parties from running for president.
Carlos Andres Perez of AD was president of Venezuela during its economic high point, 1974-79. Venezuela nationalized foreign oil companies in 1976 but according to Gott the state run oil company was run as the fiefdom of its directors and its employees who seemed to have been a privileged class among Venezuelan workers. The vast majority of Venezuelans received very little from the abundant petrodollars of the 70's; a lot of the money was invested abroad or redistributed to the managers and employees of the company.. The government spent massively on infrastructure projects and used oil money to place grassroots supporters on the government payroll. The downward spiral of oil prices in the 1980's sent the economy into collapse by 1989. Andres Perez had previously denounced the International Monetary Fund as a genocidal tool against the poor of the third world but he reversed himself in early 1989 and started adopting the policies of that organization. He launched plans to privatize government owned industries, eliminate tariffs to protect small farmers, fire numerous public sector employees, and privatize the state-owned oil company. A hike in bus fares sent the residents of the shanty towns on the hills overlooking central Caracas down the hills to loot and riot. The military responded by moving into poor neighborhoods and often murdering anything that moved. Thousands were killed. This terrible riot/massacre was named the "Caracazo" in popular lingo. It scared to death Venzuela's largely white elite, this terrifying spontaneous uprising of Venezuela's largely dark-skinned poor.
In the years following the Caracazo, the shantytowns in the big cities grew with new members from the country side and the elite kept getting richer and the poor poorer. Nationalist inclined military officers and civilians led by Chavez launched a coup in February 1992 against Perez. The coup failed but, Gott writes, Venezuela's elite was terrified: for one the masses of people appeared to be not unsympathetic to the coup. Gott quotes an interesting speech in Venezuela's congress after the corup by Rafael Caldera of COPEI who had been Venezuela's president from 1969-74 and was to be elected again in December 1994. Caldera seemed to almost endorse the coup: he stated that it was understandable that the masses of people would not rally to the government's defense in this coup attempt because the political system was run by corrupt elites and the masses were becoming more and more impoverished. Caldera, continued the privatization program, with the help of some leftists in his cabinet, Gott writes, such as Teodoro Petkoff, the founder of the party, Movement to Socialism. In 1993, Andres Perez was impeached for corruption and placed under house arrest.
COPEI and AD were so discredited, according to Gott, that otherwise reasonably popular presidential candidates in 1998, such as COPEI's Irene Saez, saw their support in pre-election polls plummet to as low as two percent, when they decided to launch their presidential runs with the backing of COPEI or AD.
Gott points out that Chavez, whatever the shortcomings he may have, is opposed by Venezuela's largely white elites because he has encouraged the country's poor, its marginalized black and brown people, to enter the political process. The Americans since 2001 have opposed him for pretty much the same reasons. The country's main labor confederation, the CTV, has mainly served as a subservient arm of the AD, and never has contained more than 12 percent of the workforce, usually the more elite workers. Chavez has inspired organizing efforts amongst the majority unskilled and informal sector workers, which scared CTV leader Carlos Ortega to such an extent that he collaborated in the April 2002 coup attempt. The protestors against Chavez are made up for the most part, of the country's small upper and middle classes.
It seems that of all the measures which led the elite to conspire to launch the April 2002 coup attempt was Chavez's rollback of plans to sell off Venezuela's oil concerns to foreign companies. Such measures were part of 49 decrees Chavez launched in November 2001, which included a very small land reform. These were extremely mild Social Democratic gestures, but the elite media increased their vulgar screams about impending communist dictatorship to fever pitch. The basic concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthy few was only being slightly affected but Venezuela's elites were quaking in their boots. Under the coordination of the business federation Fedecameras, the elite launched a coup with U.S. backing in April 2002 and an attempt to sabotage the oil industry in December 2002-January 2003.
In Gott's last section he gives an overview of the "Missions," different organizations in local areas, funded by profits from the state oil companies that provide to the masses literacy training, cheap food, health care, etc. .....to a large extent the book is interesting and nuanced and not afraid to portray some things discreditable to Chavez though I think his coverage of the incident with the Pemon Indians is inadquate, especially in covering Chavez's response to it.
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