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Comandante: Inside Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela 
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Hugo Chávez is a phenomenon. He has been compared to Napoleon, Nasser, Perón and Castro but the truth is there has never been a leader like him. He is democratically elected, reigns like a monarch from a mobile television throne, and provokes adoration and revulsion in equal measure. How did a charismatic autocrat seduce not just a nation but a significant part of world opinion? And how does he continue to stay in power despite the crumbling of Venezuela? When he first came to power in 1999, Chávez became a symbol of hope and freedom for his people. Yet, in his thirteen years as president, Chávez has seized control of the lucrative Venezuelan oil industry, allowed basic government functions to wither, jailed political opponents and courted Castro and Ahmadinejad, all while occupying much of Venezuela’s airwaves with his long-running television show, Aló Presidente!. In Comandante, acclaimed journalist Rory Carroll breaches the walls of Miraflores Palace to tell the inside story of Chávez’s life and his political court in Caracas. Blending the lyricism and strangeness of magical realism with the brutal, ugly truth of authoritarianism – a powerful combination reminiscent of Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Emperor – Rory Carroll has written a cautionary tale for our times.
For links to articles and a film clip related to this event, check HERE on our blog.
As a long serving correspondent for the Guardian, Rory Carroll has covered war zones, survived a kidnapping in Iraq, and reported on the transition to full democracy in South Africa. He was based in Caracas as the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent from 2006 to 2012. His work has been long-listed for the Orwell Prize, the UK’s pre-eminent prize for political writing.
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February 17th, 2013 at 1:34 am
I have lived in Venezuela for 55 years. My sister will be attending the conference. I wish I could be there in person.
I never voted for Chávez, I knew who he was since the first failed coup d’état. Yes, I am an opponent, and when you compare Chávez to “great leaders” in the world, there is one missing: Neron.
Waiting to listen to my sister’s opinions and comments. I hope she speaks out.
Best of lucks!
February 18th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
Strange that the preamble fails to mention the 50% reduction in poverty during Chavez’s presidency. It doesn’t quite fit Carroll’s hugely biased narrative I suppose.
February 19th, 2013 at 12:50 am
AJ: Let’s read the book and find out. Maybe it did not make it to the preamble for no strange reason other than space.
Hopefully, Carroll’s book will inspire a more mature debate about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez’s rule, capable of raising the cheap talk level in which most Chavistas like to keep the discussion, so they can disguise the message (Chavez’s multiple failures) by accusing the messenger of “media bias”, “imperialism”, antipatriotism”, and bringing up the few accomplishments of his rule.
February 24th, 2013 at 2:30 pm
DP: If you’ve read any of Carroll’s reports you’ll know that he’s as incapable of mature debate as any Chavista. He’s firmly situated in the anti-Chavez camp. If you truly want a more nuanced understanding of Chavez and Venezuelan politics you’ll need to look elsewhere. Bart Jone’s “Hugo!: The Hugo Chávez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution” is not a bad place to start.
March 1st, 2013 at 4:07 pm
“reigns like a monarch from a mobile television throne” “Chávez has seized control of the lucrative Venezuelan oil industry” “jailed political opponents”
these three sentences are either false or extremely one-sided, a Monarch is not elected, Chavez is; the oil industry has been nationalised since 1976, the president of the country has a say over how state-owned industries are run; no political opponents are in jail in Venezuela (and those who organised the undemocratic coup of April 2002, either fled justice to Bogotá, Miami or Costa Rica or are the present day leaders of the “democratic” opposition