Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S.

By Nikolas Kozloff

Book Overview

Audacious, provocative, and bombastic, few world politicians are as colorful as Hugo Ch vez, now making international news for his plans to nationalize U.S. owned businesses and his bold opposition to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403973156
• ISBN13: 9781403973153
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 1.1" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

You will be better informed

If mainstream news leaves you with more questions than answers, read this book. It's accurate and informative. Latin America is not full of crazy, misguided people as many of us here believe. If your a fan of right wing radio, you will no doubt hate this book, but anyone with a desire to learn will appreciate it.

Challenging neoliberalism

With all the criticism of neoconservativism (which is appropriate), it's good that Chavez and this book bring up the issue of neoliberalism. Chavez accomplished quite a bit to educate the world on the issue when he held up Chomsky's book Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (American Empire Project) during his famous "el diablo" speech at the United Nations. Kozloff does a great job of laying out how the current regime in Washington tried to overthrow Chavez. There's actually an incredible documentary about that event called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" that can be found at a British Venezuelan Solidarity site. There are several books that are sympathetic to what Chavez and his supporters are trying to achieve. Our corporate media tends to ignore their socialist movement, or to misrepresent it. If his proposals were honestly portrayed, like his recent move to shorten the workday from 8 to 6 hours, Chavez would be inspiring people here to change the system of wage slavery we've accepted. Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure It's interesting to read the one-star reviews pro-Chavez books get. While I appreciate their perspective, my guess is that many anti-chavistas come from the wealthier classes who may not have the same advantages with Bolivarian socialism. They may even own the food stores that Chavez is saying the poor should not be punished for stealing from. That's a quandary, and maybe they could somehow be subsidized/insured for their losses. That would beat investing in a massive prison system as we have here in the United States. We have 2.3 million people behind bars, and the number of prisoners and the costs are rising. The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits from Crime As a little act of solidarity, I hope to spend some tourism dollars in Venezuela in the not-too-distant future Lonely Planet Venezuela ; and to share extra copies of subtitled progressive films with the people of South America. The Corporation In an era of transnational corporate tyranny, we need transnational labor, environmental, peace and justice efforts. "Full opportunity for full development is the unalienable right of all. He who denies it is a tyrant; he who does not demand it is a coward; he who is indifferent to it is a slave; he who does not desire it is dead. The earth for all the people. That is the demand." -Eugene V. Debs

Honest Writings

Most books involving such notorious figures are often disgustingly bias. This book is written by a leftist who does not allow his stance impact his writing much. To saying anything is completely unbiased is ridiculous. The title really explains the book. Oil is such an important aspect, and it ties right into American politics. He also gives some background about the history of many important figures. The book is well written, and is a good read. Since I'm a poor student, I normally sell my books, but this is a keeper!

a good antidote to the lies

This book is an excellent primer on Chavez, warts and all. The challenge to the US Kozloff delineates fully and articulately, not least by spending ample time revealing his subject's severe awakening to political and global realities through prison, failure, and a lightning quick mind. The first three chapters patiently define the origins of Chavez's political consciousness, and make the rest of the book more important and substantial. Chapter 3 - 'TINA - There Is No Alternative' - is especially helpful in getting to the root of who Chavez is, and who he might become, and why his appears to be a success with unlimited possibilities in terms of resisting the hegemony of American foreign policy. True, Kozloff is an admirer of sorts, but he pulls no punches. There is much to be admired in Hugo Chavez, as the world witnessed during his recent no-nonsense address to the UN, where he clearly distinguished himself as a determined, even poetic, global thinker. Chapter 4 takes its time outlining the nefarious meddling of Gustavo Cisneros, documenting along the way Cisneros' cozying up to George Herbert Liquor Bush. This is one of the few books around casting a clear-headed overview of the IMF, the disastrous effects of NAFTA, and the early White House plots against Chavez involving Otto Reich (Lockheed Martin), Pedro Carmona, and the CIA. These ideas are fully documented throughout the book with 65 pages of scrupulously detailed notes. One of the most interesting findings in the pages of this book is the struggle against racism represented by Hugo Chavez. His grasp of world affairs and his love for Venezuela come to be seen as inseparable from that honorable struggle. An excellent antidote to the prevailing American government line, it's also an essential look at the aiding and abetting committed by American corporate media in conformist manipulation. A must read.

Good Review of Chavez's Struggle with Imperialism

This is a well written study of Chavez's rise and battle with American inspired/directed/financed efforts to destabilize his regime. Clearly, the author is sympathetic with the global efforts to resist IMF (i.e., US) hegemony and sees Chavez as a prime leader. Of course, most Americans blindly believe the lies that routinely emerge from our corrupt governement sources, but Kozloff paints a picture, perhaps sometimes too rosey, of Chavez's efforts to socialize his deeply-divided country. Maybe a little more discussion of Chavez's sometimes repressive methods (completely justified in my view when one considers how insidious American subversive efforts have been and still are) would have been warranted also. Though I despise Bush as much as any red-blooded American patriot should, I found Kozloff's constant references to how scared/terrified/concerned Bush and his gang would be by such and such an action of Chavez's to be off-putting and tediously redundant. I thought Kozloff should have devoted more space to Venezuela's dealings with OPEC since oil is part of the title and would have liked more on Chavez's foreign policy maneuverings outside Latin America, but obviously he decided to limit the size of the book. All in all, a sound and somewhat personal recounting.