When Hugo Chavez, then President of Venezuela, died in 2013, millions across the globe mourned. In an age where most politicians inspire only apathy and cynicism, Chavez’s popularity, radicalism and vibrant personality were truly unique.
Released one year after Chavez’s unexpected death, this dramatic and intimate biography traces Chavez’s life from an impoverished rural family to the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas. Mike Gonzalez shows how Chavez’s ‘Bolivarian revolution’ aimed to complete Simon Bolivar’s promise of a Latin America free from imperialism.
Gonzalez details Chavez’s close connection to the masses and how he enraged wealthy elites by declaring his support for 21st century socialism. He concludes that the struggle for social justice inspired by Chavez can and must continue. This is an ideal guide to Chavez’s inspiring life and legacy.
Table of Content
List of Illustrations
Glossary
Timeline
Introduction: A Man for Difficult Times
1. The Plainsman
2. The Dream of Simón Bolívar
3. From Insurrection to Election
4. Episodes in the Class War
5. The Bolivarian Revolution Advances
6. The Contradictions of Twenty-First-Century Socialism
7. The Legacy of Hugo Chávez
Notes
Index
About the author
Mike Gonzalez is Emeritus Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Glasgow. He is the author of The Ebb of the Pink Tide (Pluto, 2018) The Last Drop: The Politics of Water (Pluto, 2015) and Hugo Chavez: Socialist for the Twenty-first Century (Pluto, 2014). He is co-editor of Arms and the People (Pluto, 2012).
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