Hugo!: The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution - Softcover

Bart Jones

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099520524 ISBN 13: 9780099520528

Publisher: Vintage Books USA, 2009

Synopsis

"Hugo!" is the remarkable biography of Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela and leader of the Bolivian Revolution. Ex-paratrooper and outspoken socialist, Chavez is known for his stance against big business, fearless threats to the Bush administration, social reforms that have violently polarized his country, and also for providing a model for new governments and social movements across South America. Bart Jones was eyewitness to Chavez' rise to power, and describes his life in extraordinary detail, creating a comprehensive portrait of a man who has affected the most radical transformation of Venezuela for half a century, and dramatically affected the political debate throughout Latin America.

About this title

About the Author:

Bart Jones is a reporter for Newsday and worked for eight years in Venezuela, mainly a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press. He holds a master's degree in Social Studies from Columbia University. He has also reported for The Atlantic City Press in New Jersey, where he won awards from the Philadelphia Press Association. He lives with his family on Long Island. Hugo! is his first book.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Hugo Chávez and I were sitting alone on the second floor of the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela. It was close to midnight on April 30, 2007. Venezuela was minutes away from making a small bit of history by taking majority control of four multi-billion dollar oil projects in the eastern Orinoco River basin from international companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron Corp, Conoco and Total. Like many of Chávez’s moves, the oil takeover was controversial. His detractors claimed it was another step in creating a totalitarian dictatorship modeled after his mentor in Cuba, Fidel Castro. His supporters responded that he was proudly re-establishing national sovereignty over a strategic natural resource where for years foreign companies had enjoyed a virtual tax holiday. I had a privileged bird's-eye view of Chávez coordinating the takeover. We were alone on the patio from 11:10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. – prime time for the president. It was my second interview with him in two days – a rare opportunity to spend time with a man flooded with interview requests. The conversations that night and the previous one amounted to nearly four hours. We covered a lot of territory, from Chávez’s impoverished childhood to the 2002 coup in which he was almost killed...and at least one sensitive topic he had never spoken about publicly before and I feared might bring the interview to an abrupt end. — From the Preface

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books USA
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0099520524
• ISBN 13: 9780099520528
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 608