Venezuela (10/26)

Hugo Chavez's remarks at the United Nations, comparing George W. Bush to Satan, have once again placed the tempestuous Venezuelan president back in the international spotlight, where he has been quite a bit of late. From his plans for a "Bolivarian revolution" to benefit his country's poor, to his adoption of authoritarian measures to consolidate his control; from his ouster and reinstatement in 2002, to his survival of the recall election in 2004; from his criticism of the United States, to his friendships with leaders such as Fidel Castro and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chavez has been stirring up controversy both at home and abroad ever since his election in 1998. Although Venezuela's current bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council appears to have failed, and although candidates he has supported in other Latin American countries recently have fared poorly, his re-election in Venezuela's Presidential election this coming December is a near certainty, and he will surely remain a major player in South American politics, indeed in world politics, for the foreseeable future.

These are just some of the reasons that Hugo Chavez and Venezuela have been chosen as the topic for this Thursday's IIF discussion. Curt Coulombe will serve as our moderator.

As usual, I am sending along some background information:

From The Economist, here are the Country Briefing and a Backgrounder on Venezuela:

Country Briefing: Venezuela

Backgrounder: Venezuela

Here is an article from the Foreign Policy Association:

Venezuela: The consolidation of the Bolivarian Revolution and Beyond

Here is a biography of Chavez from the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia:

Hugo Chávez

Here is an interview that appeared in Time last month, in which Chavez discusses his tirade against George W. Bush at the United Nations:

The Sound & The Fury

Jennifer McCoy of the Carter Center wrote an article about Chavez that appeared in Current History a few years ago. Here is the link:

Demystifying Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez

Here is a Deborah Sontag interview with Chavez that appeared in The New York Times Magazine shortly after the coup and counter-coup in 2002:

In the Time of Hugo Chávez

Foreign Affairs has published several articles on Venezuela this year. Here are links to four of them:

Is Washington Losing Latin America?

Latin America's Left Turn

In Search of Hugo Chávez

A Benign Revolution

Here is an article that appeared earlier this year in Smithsonian Magazine:

Venezuela Steers a New Course

Finally, here is a site from Venezuela where you can find mostly pro-Chavez news and analysis:

Venezuelanalysis.com

I hope you will make plans to join us at Villa this Thursday evening to discuss this colorful, complex, and controversial leader, and the country he governs.