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Rating: 
Summary: A good view of Venezuela's politics today
Review: After more than 50 years of extremely corrupt leaders, Venezuelans finally got tired, and elected this former paratroop officer/attempted coup leader as their president. This book portrays the reason for his election, and the way in which he was brought to power quite accurately, if not totally unbiased. However, this book is not just some attempt from Chavez to hire a biographer to change his image (as some readers suggested), but an attempt to show that perhaps president Chavez isn't a spawn of satan, like the opposition claims. Taxing, anti-corruption campaigns, and communicating with the people who elected him (the true average Venezuelan) on TV every Sunday are just a few things that have led him to be called everything from a Fascist (in the pre-election era) to a Communist (in the post-election era). Definitely a good book.
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY FAIR PRESS!!!
Review: I FIND THIS BOOK REFRESHING. IT NOT ONLY TELLS THE TRUE STORY OF HUGO CHAVEZ BUT IT COVERS THE HISTORY OF VENEZUELAN POLITICS SO THAT THE READER CAN PUT IT ALL INTO PERSPECTIVE. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE WHO REALLY WANTS TO KNOW WHAT...IS GOING ON DOWN HERE.
Rating: 
Summary: Fool yourself at your own risk.
Review: It is hard to talk about Chavez without emotion, without passion for me. I left Venezuela over three years ago because I decided I didn't want my family to be raised in what was to come (and I don't regret having left), so I will not deny that I am an open anti-chavista. Now, on to this author and his views...First of all, the period covered in the book (before 2000) could be a pretext for the author's views, since (like he did in his book), many intellectuals, leftwing and not-so-leftwing too, were supportive of the Lieutenant Colonel back until 2001 even: after all and although I did not like him from the start, Chavez could have been a true alternative to decades of corruption and traditional politics in Venezuela. Also many, many middle-class, educated people (to my dismay, some still to this day) supported him. I emphasize the word "educated", because it is no surprise that his demagogical approach results appealing to the lower-income strata of Venezuela, much like it was the case with previous Presidents. On a side note, I saw the reaction that a figure like Castro provoked in the media in Venezuela (in case you're wondering, I am from Venezuela) during the visit for the ceremony where Carlos Andres Perez took on the presidency for the second time: they were running around Castro like puppies, fascinated my the "comandante". Therefore, it doesn't surprise me that Gott acknowledges that "reporters have always been susceptible to the charms of Latin America's radical strongmen, and I am no exception". What's my point here? Gott's views cannot be excused as being accidentally biased in this book, simply because Chavez had not taken his mask off by the time he wrote his book, allowing the unaccounted deaths of dozens of his opposers, the looting of the country's main industry (PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil company), and the gradual shut-down of the economy leading to shortages in basic foods and medicines. Gott's views (is it coincidence that his last name means "God" in German?) had not changed much by early 2003.... This book is just another leftist manifesto, supportive of the barbaric attrocities of a regime who is perfectly willing to say with a straight face that the country cannot be in better shape and blame the opposition for everything, while inflation, unemployment and several other macroeconomic indicators are at their worse levels in over a century, in spite of the fact that the country has over $16 billion in international reserves. Sadly, I can't say that I entirely support the work of the opposition either, one that has come out of the struggle against Chavez as a fragmented block, and one that doesn't show enough signs of acknowledgement that politics-as-we-know-it will no longer work in Venezuela after this past few years of political and social nightmare. Knowledge of a country or expertise about a region doesn't give the author's opinion any more credibility than the opinion of any of the government's spokespersons.
Rating: 
Summary: Not only bias but published too soon
Review: Mr. Gott is shameless in his defense of an undemocratic, narcissistic, mildly insane autocrat. This book is mistaken in many levels. It is baffling that a president who was elected on a progressive agenda gets favourable press from leftists when all he is doing is increasing poverty and widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. Mr. Gott also gets it wrong when he frames much of the issue in racial terms. Venezuelan society is not defined by race, although it might be a factor. If the Venezuelan middle class is racist, why did they massively vote for Chavez in the first place? Go elsewhere for a fair depiction of Venezuelan politics.
Rating:
Summary: Vicious, subjective report. Irresponsible, it dents reality
Review: The author shows a fascination with Latin America on the surface, but his real motivation seems to be a deep-seeded hatred for the United States. It's a vicious report because it's not journalism: the author simply compiled a number of historical facts which he liberally linked to the Chavez and Castro regimes, highlighting irrelevant coincidences and omitting any questioning whatsoever on what the Chavez "plan" (or lack of it) is really capable of doing for the country. Gott shares a fascination for development based on domestic self-sufficiency, which totally ignores the fact that models like that have failed in all the countries that have tried to implement them (the fall of the Soviet Bloc is a clear and obvious example). There's no basis for the Chavez plan, as it contradicts itself by pledging to be open to trade with China, for instance...How could Venezuela ever compete with the Chinese in the manufacturing industry? Only by becoming the most inefficient country in the world and trying to produce everything in which it lacks comparative advantage (basic economics is not a subject Chavez enjoys, according to Gott's own account). The "plan" makes no sense, and Gott is good (without his own knowledge, of course) at letting the reader see it. The evolution of the Chavez regime leading to the crisis pre and post April 11, 2002, is clear testimony of the ill-conceived nature of the corrupt Chavez government, as all the priorities have been centered on protecting the regime, even at the expense of the country and its impoverished people. Chavez has wasted Venezuelans' money and abused his powers as president to advance a totalitarian regime with no positive goals, but instead destructive objectives pointed at the economically privileged population of the country and the United States in an ugly sort of personal vendetta. The plan named "Bolivar 2000", which Gott compliments and embraces profusely, turned out to be a nest of corruption and waste that contributed to the bankrupt government that Chavez now leads...nothing worth mentioning was accomplished from the multi-million dollar Plan Bolivar 2000: a total fiasco. Finally, Gott would have done well at hiring an editing service to place the accents on Spanish names and other words. He really didn't have to try to do it himself since in English is OK to skip the accents. Instead, not only did he miss many accents, but what's worse is that he placed most of his accents on the wrong letters; I emphasize, MOST OF THE ACCENTS. Deservedly a Chavista propaganda publication. In the end, history will tell (and it's already telling) all the truths about the Chavez government. So far those truths are nothing like the rosy mood of Gott's book.
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Summary: Worthless and outdated. Gott owes an update to his readers
Review: This appears to be just another propaganda pamphlet paid by the Chavez administration. This book omits facts that not even the well paid P.R. machinery have denied such as the wild increment in poverty and misery indexes as well as the index for administrative corruption and crime to levels unheard of during the previous Venezuelan governments.
There are lots of other maladies created or incremented during this tragic (and comedic) regime that one does not expect to read about in a book like this one since they could be construed as subjective, such as the horrendous administration of public funds, the blatant intromission of the Cuban government and its intelligence services in Venezuela's internal affairs, the destruction of the Venezuelan economy while having more oil revenue than in the last 20 years together. But leaving out documented facts as the ones briefly mentioned at the beginning of this review just makes this book worthless of any credibility.
Hugo Chavez bought himself a brand new Airbus 320, which he had repainted because he did not like that paint scheme previously ordered (total tab: over $15 million), while Yanomami (Amazonian native) children starve in the streets of Caracas (so much for the rights of indigenous people) and hospital do not have gauze, syringes or clean water. The Venezuelan Left have distanced its self from Chavez in disbelief. I did not read about any of that either.
Many things have happened since this book was published. Luis Miquelena abandoned Chavez, Chavez was briefly ousted in April 2002 only to return in the wings of the horrible mistakes of the ousters, Marisabel Chavez left the president in a much-publicized public dispute in the best tradition of the cheesiest soap opera, the country is in fact living a much worse disaster (an orgy of corruption and violence) than that imagined before Chavez's rise to power.
For its objectivity and informative value this book is not worth much. For historic value it probably will hold a prominent place with Ignacio Ramonet's articles in Le Monde Diplomatique and others, as the flies that made their party around the stinkiest garbage can in Latin America and got handsomely paid for it. Enjoy Mr. Gott!
Rating:
Summary: Totally Biased
Review: This book is a double edged sword. On the one hand it is the first and only(to my knowledge) account of the Hugo Chavez debacle in Venezuela. This volume documents the rise of Chavez. The failed coup, the army, the prison term and his present role as dictator-in-making of Venezuela. This is a fine account of the life of this controversial leader who embodies the 1970s communist idealism with the standard Latin American coup mentality and obsession with military strongmen. He is a caudillo in every sense of the word, except he is living in modern times when Caudilloism is no longer appreciated because it subverts democracy. This book highlights the present problems in Venezuela. The major flaw here is the authors opinion that Chavez is a romantic communist who is reforming his country. Well this is just not true. Average Bolivians, especially the urban unions hate Mr. Chavez and the oil workers walked off the job to protest his treatment of them. Mr. Chavez is a typical leftist who has used divisive politics to `help' indigenous rural Indians and divide the country along race and wealth lines. In this he has failed, which is why the country came to an economic standstill last year. Chavez suspended the rule of law, arrested his political opponents and pounded his chest in daily 4 hour TV broadcasts. He is a disgusting gutter like gangster and the author doesn't look at this side of him at all. The author in point of fact was a writer on the guerrilla movements of the 60s in Latin America and has apparently been taken under the Chavez spell, because Chavez once met Castro, who is the authors hero. The book is terribly biased and does not tell the whole truth, namely that ordinary proletariat factory workers in Venezuela hate Chavez and his programs. He has systematically crushed the unions in his attempt at dictatorship.
Rating:
Summary: Totally Biased
Review: This book is a double edged sword. On the one hand it is the first and only(to my knowledge) account of the Hugo Chavez debacle in Venezuela. This volume documents the rise of Chavez. The failed coup, the army, the prison term and his present role as dictator-in-making of Venezuela. This is a fine account of the life of this controversial leader who embodies the 1970s communist idealism with the standard Latin American coup mentality and obsession with military strongmen. He is a caudillo in every sense of the word, except he is living in modern times when Caudilloism is no longer appreciated because it subverts democracy. This book highlights the present problems in Venezuela. The major flaw here is the authors opinion that Chavez is a romantic communist who is reforming his country. Well this is just not true. Average Bolivians, especially the urban unions hate Mr. Chavez and the oil workers walked off the job to protest his treatment of them. Mr. Chavez is a typical leftist who has used divisive politics to 'help' indigenous rural Indians and divide the country along race and wealth lines. In this he has failed, which is why the country came to an economic standstill last year. Chavez suspended the rule of law, arrested his political opponents and pounded his chest in daily 4 hour TV broadcasts. He is a disgusting gutter like gangster and the author doesn't look at this side of him at all. The author in point of fact was a writer on the guerrilla movements of the 60s in Latin America and has apparently been taken under the Chavez spell, because Chavez once met Castro, who is the authors hero. The book is terribly biased and does not tell the whole truth, namely that ordinary proletariat factory workers in Venezuela hate Chavez and his programs. He has systematically crushed the unions in his attempt at dictatorship.
Rating:
Summary: What the...
Review: This might be just another of the well paid efforts of the Venezuelan Goverment to improve its international image with the nation's taxpayers money. This country is on the verge of civil war thanks to its communist and authoritarian tendencies. Anyone who likes dictatorship should back this holdum we have as a president.
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