The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions-100 Answers - Softcover

Boudin, Chesa; Gonzalez, Gabriel; Rumbos, Wilmer

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9781560257738: The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions-100 Answers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560257733 ISBN 13: 9781560257738

Publisher: Basic Books, 2006

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There is one country in the Americas that the Bush Administration regards as a significant threat to U.S. interests, and it is not Cuba. Oil-rich Venezuela's democratically-elected government has survived repeated, U.S.-supported attempts to undermine its power, including a short lived military coup. Its leader, President Hugo Ch�vez, is neither communist nor capitalist, and instead claims to be creating an alternative 21st Century socialism that courts international capital. What is the real story behind this leader of Latin America's lurch to the left? Is it a new petro-populism in the tradition of Peron and Fujimori, or is it truly a progressive, home-grown democratic revolution that will address the massive economic and social inequalities plaguing the region for more than three centuries? The curiosity of a North American living in Venezuela and the expertise of two Venezuelans—one an adviser in the Presidential Palace, and the other a journalist with a weekly column in one of Venezuela's leading newspapers—bring insiders' answers to outsiders' questions, such as: Is Ch�vez a dictator? What was the role of the Bush Administration in the 2002 military coup? What is Ch�vez's political platform? Does Ch�vez work with terrorist governments to undermine U.S. interests?

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About the Author:

Chesa Boudin is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale. While at Yale, he studied at the University of Chile for a year. He has since earned a masters degree in forced migration from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. His work has been published in The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, and Salon.com. He lives in Caracas, Venezuela.

Gabriel Gonz�lez has previously published three books in Venezuela and Ecuador. He currently works with President Chavez's team of advisors.

Wilmer Rumbos writes a weekly political column for Las Ultimas Noticias, one of Venezuela's widest circulation daily newspapers.

From Booklist:

Coauthor Boudin--the Rhodes Scholar son of two 1970s activists incarcerated for their role in a high-profile armored car hold-up--traveled to Venezuela to research public policy and explore alternatives to American democracy. Written with the assistance of a Venezuelan journalist and a political analyst for the Chavez government, this book is Boudin's attempt to explain recent Venezuelan political developments to an American audience that knows relatively little about populist president Hugo Chavez, and in doing so, counterweigh the mainstream American media's generally hostile representations of the socialist Venezuelan governments. The questions are generally aimed at the skeptical (#63: Is it true that the media have functioned like political parties?). Their pithy responses demonstrate considerable sympathy for Chavez and his efforts, and are ultimately dedicated to revealing Chavez as a legitimately elected patriot bent on social justice through harnessed oil wealth. More an exuberant catechism than an in-depth academic analysis of Latin America's lurch to the Left, this account will alert readers to media discrepancies surrounding Venezuelan politics and perhaps inspire them to seek out other books on the subject. Brendan Driscoll
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