Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution
"The only first-hand report on contemporary Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, by veteran correspondent Richard Gott, places the country's controversial and charismatic president in historical perspective, and examines his plans and programs. This new edition has a chapter on the attempted and failed military coup, Venezuela's recent recall election, and discusses US covert intervention against this democratically elected public official. The spectre of Simon Bolivar hovers once again over Latin America as the aims and ambitions of the Liberator are taken up by Chavez. Welcomed by the inhabitants of the teeming shanty towns of Caracas as their potential saviour, and greeted by Washington with considerable alarm, this former golpista-turned-democrat has already begun the most wide-ranging transformation of oil-rich Venezuela for half a century, and dramatically affected the political debate throughout Latin America."--Jacket
315 pages : illustrations, 1 map ; 19 cm
9781844675333, 1844675335
58595123
Introduction
PART ONE: PORTRAIT OF A PRESIDENT: 1. A baseball game in Havana, November 1999 ; 2. The disintegration of the ancien regime ; 3. Provincial origins in Barinas ; 4. From Barinas to Caracas: the irresistible flight from the ; Countryside
PART TWO: PREPARING FOR A BOLIVARIAN REBELLION: 5. The development of a military conspiracy ; 6. Banished to Elorza: experiments in civil-military cooperation ; 7. February 1989 (1): rebellion in Caracas, the Caracazo ; 8. February 1989 (2): the neo-liberal 'package' that destroyed ; the Perez government ; 9. The debate between military and civilian revolutionaries ; 10. The 'military intervention' of Chavez, February 1992 ; 11. The failed coup d'etat of Admiral Gruber, November 1992 ; 12. The Patriotic Front of civilian revolutionaries ; 13. Latin America's experience of radical military rebellion
PART THREE: RECOVERING THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADITIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: 14. The legacy of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator ; 15. Robinson Crusoe and the philosophy of Simon Rodriguez ; 16. Ezequiel Zamora invokes 'horror a la oligarquia'
PART FOUR: ORGANISING THE OVERTHROW OF THE ANCIEN REGIME BY PEACEFUL MEANS, 1992-1998: 17. Yare prison and the search for political allies ; 18. Politics in Guayana and the rise of La Causa R ; 19. Chavez's election victory, December 1998
PART FIVE: CHAVEZ IN POWER: THE EARLY YEARS: 20. The Constitutional Assembly and the new constitution ; 21. When the heavens opened ; 22. Planning for an 'endogenous' agricultural future ; 23. The new politics of oil ; 24. Divisions over the economic programme ; 25. Reforming the judiciary ; 26. Developing a 'Bolivarian' foreign policy ; 27. Colombia: the violent neighbour ; 28. New rights for indigenous peoples ; 29. The changing character of the opposition ; 30. The old trade unions oppose the revolution, October 2001
PART SIX: THE THREE OPPOSITION ATTEMPTS TO OVERTHROW THE BOLIVARIAN REVOLUTION: 31. The revolutionary decrees of November 2001, the resignation of Luis Miquilena, and the mobilisation of the opposition ; 32. The first opposition threat: the coup and counter-coup of April 2002 ;; 33. The atmosphere after the April coup ; 34. 'The four horsemen of the Apocalypse': the media war ; 35. The second opposition threat: the 'economic coup' of December 2002 ; 36. Providing food and education to the people: the development of the 'missions', 2003-2004 ; 37. The third opposition threat: the recall referendum of August 2004
EPILOGUE: THE MILITARY AND CIVIL SOCIETY: Appendix A Chavez and Castro in Havana ; Appendix B The rights of indigenous peoples ; Appendix C Sauce of wonder