Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S. - Hardcover

Kozloff, Nikolas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1403973156 ISBN 13: 9781403973153

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2006

Synopsis

This is the riveting and frightening story of ambitious, tempestuous and avowed anti-American Hugo Chávez, who is making waves through South America and being widely compared to Fidel Castro. Ex-paratrooper, outspoken socialist, and brash personality, Chávez is known for his stance against big business, fearless threats to the Bush administration, social reforms that have violently polarized his country, and claims that he will soon unite South America. As gas prices rise to unprecedented highs, Venezuela's importance surges as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world. Nikolas Kozloff's access to top advisors, members of the opposition, and leaders of Chávez's own political movement allow him to present a comprehensive portrait of Chávez as he runs for re-election and moves into the global spotlight.

About this title

About the Author:

Nikolas Kozloff is an expert on South America and a former fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, D.C. He contributes articles to Counterpunch, buzzflash.com, venezuelanalysis.com, Z Net, and blogs on senorchichero.blogspot.com. He has appeared on PBS World Focus, C-SPAN Washington Journal and The Daily Show and is the author of Revolution! He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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)
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About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1403973156
• ISBN 13: 9781403973153
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272