Comandante: Inside the Revolutionary Court of Hugo Chavez. Rory Carroll

by Rory Carroll

Hugo Chavez is a phenomenon. He has been compared to Napoleon, Nasser, Peron, and Castro, but the truth is there has never been a leader like him. He is democratically elected, reigns like a monarch from a digital throne, and provokes adoration and revulsion in equal measure. Future historians will study his rule for what it says about the early twenty-first century. How did a charismatic autocrat seduce not just a nation but a significant part of world opinion? How did he make people laugh and weep and applaud, as if on command? And how does he continue to stay in power despite the crumbling of Venezuela?

When he first came to power in 1999, Chavez promised a democratic revolution to transform his country. In Venezuela and elsewhere, he became a symbol of hope and freedom for his people. Yet in his thirteen years as president, Chavez has seized control of the hugely lucrative Venezuelan oil industry, consolidated government authority under the presidency, allowed basic government functions to wither, jailed and excommunicated political opponents, created a personality cult, and courted Castro and Ahmadinejad, all while occupying much of Venezuela's airwaves with his long-running television show, "Alo Presidente!"

In "Comandante, " acclaimed journalist Rory Carroll breaches the walls of Miraflores Palace to tell the inside story of Chavez's life and his political court in Caracas. Based on interviews with ministers, aides, courtiers, and citizens, this intimate piece of reportage chronicles a unique experiment in power, which veers among enlightenment, tyranny, comedy, and farce. Carroll investigates the almost religious devotion of millions of Venezuelans who still regard Chavez as a savior and the loathing of those who brand him a dictator. In beautiful prose that blends 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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Biography, Latin American History, The Americas, Journalism

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Rory Carroll (b. 1972) is a journalist who started his career in Northern Ireland. As a foreign correspondent for the Guardian, he reported from the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, Latin American, and the United States. His first book, Comandante: Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, was named an Economist Book of the Year and BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. He is now based in his native Dublin as the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent.

Reviews

[KamRun · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتاب علاوه بر زندگی و روزگار هوگو چاوز، به شرایط ویژه‌ی کشور ونزوئلا در اواخر قرن 20 و اوایل قرن 21 نیز می‌پردازد و این نقطه‌ی قوت کتاب است. اما نویسنده بی‌طرف نیست. کدام نویسنده بی‌طرفی در یک زندگی‌نامه که از قضا باید بی‌طرفانه نگاشته شود به سوژه‌ی مورد نظر می‌گوید دهان گشاد؟ یا رئیس‌جمهور کشوری دیگر را روباه پیر می‌نامد؟ علاوه بر این‌ها نویسنده در تشریح شرایط ونزوئلا نیز با غرض قلم می‌زند و گزارش‌های او از شرایط اقتصادی ونزوئلا با غلو و اغراق همراه است. اما جای تعجب ندارد، چون اساسا بیژن اشتری با اندیشه چپ و چپ‌گرایی دشمنی دارد و کتاب‌هایی که برای ترجمه انتخاب می‌کند نیز از این پیش‌شرط مستثنی نیستند. چرا نویسنده‌ی کتاب حتی یک بار نیز به کارشکنی‌ها و توطئه‌های آمریکا علیه چاوز اشاره نمی‌کند؟ چرا در کتاب هیچ سخنی از تحریم‌های آمریکا نیست؟ چرا به دوستی روباه پیر با کنایه اشاره می‌شود ولی خبری از دشمنی آمریکا و بریتانیا نیست؟
اما همین نویسنده‌ی مغرض نیز در خصوص هوگو چاوز می‌گوید که او مردی خوش قلب با حسن نیت بود و در دوران حکومت برخواسته از رای مردم نه کسی را کشت و نه شکنجه کرد و در این دوران اوپوزیسیون آزادانه توانایی برپایی تجمع، سازماندهی و تبلیغات داشتند
نکته‌ی دیگر اینکه نویسنده تلاش می‌کند به طور ضمنی، ونزوئلا را کشوری کمونیستی معرفی کند، در حالی که چنین نیست و حکومت ونزوئلا حتی سوسیالیستی هم نیست و ایدئولوژی آن ترکیبی از سوسیالیسم دولتی، عدالت‌خواهی، ناسیونالیسم و بولیواریسم است. خود چاوز هم در مصاحبه‌های گوناگون کمونیست بودن خود را انکار می‌کند
من مصاحبه‌های چاوز و اخبار محلی ونزوئلا را خوانده‌ام. جزء ستایش کنندگان چاوز نیستم ولی او را دوست دارم و همراه با میلیون‌ها ونزوئلایی‌هایی که به او رای داده‌اند و حکومت او را سرپا نگه داشته‌اند می‌گویم و تکرار می‌کنم که چاوز تا ابد زنده است

[Fatemeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

مگه میشه کتاب های بیژن اشتری رو دوست نداشته باشم .
چاوز ناخودآگاه منو یاد احمدی‌نژاد میندازه(نه به خاطر اتفاقی که با مامانش افتاد) بلکه برای نحوه اداره مملکتشون که انگار سعی داشتند از همدیگه الگو برداری کنن .
هر‌ اتفاقی تو اقتصاد و صنعت بیافته مهم نیست هر چقدرم مردم ناراضی بشن یارانه مردم رو زیاد کن و بنزین رو ارزون نگه دار تا موقعی که تو انتخاب بعدی پیروز بشی کاری به کارشون نداشته باش اما اگه فک‌ کردی محبوبیت داره کم‌میشه آدم های فقیر رو با دلار های نفتیت بخر و تا آخر عمرت مثل یه پادشاه حکومت کن.
دولت چاوز رو نمیشه به معنای واقعی یک حکومت خودکامه بگیم درسته که قانون اساسی رو به نفع خودش عوض میکنه اما همه ی اینا رو در قالب رفراندوم انجام میده و ناراضی هاشو زندانی یا شکنجه نمیکنه اما کاری میکنه که مردم از ترس از دست دادن شغل های دولتیشون و آب باریکشون اعتراضی نمیکنن و چاوز هم مدام وزارتخانه‌های مختلف درست میکنه تا شغل های دولتی بیشتر بشه و مردمی که تا حدودی برده اش شدن بیشتر .
در آخر چیزی که این فرمانده رو به زانو در میاره نه مردمش بلکه بدن خودشه و خوب قبل مرگش هم جایگزینش رو انتخاب میکنه و تا جایی که میدونیم وضع ونزوئلا از قبل هم بدتر شده ،کشوری که میتونست با پول نفتش به ثروتمندترین کشور آمریکای لاتین تبدیل بشه با سر خم کردن جلوی این فرمانده ،کم ارزش ترین پول دنیا رو داره و آمار جرم و جنایتش از همه جای دنیا بیشتره
باشد که پند بگیریم:|

[Петър Стойков · Rating 4 out of 5]

За съжаление българите доста приличат по манталитет на жителите на Латинска Америка, в техния безкраен ентусиазъм към всякакви леви идеологии и популистки политици. Добре поне, че сме се присламчили към дясно-либералната (в икономически аспект) Европа, иначе като нищо да се осерем сами като тия във Венецуела.

Сега, някой може да каже, че той Чавес е виновен и той е осрал държавата. Макар като цяло да симпатизирам на "Great man theory" в историята, повече от очевидно е, че семената никнат там, дето има плодородна почва за тях.

Част от тая почва е разбира се, наличието на гигантски нефтени залежи и следващата от тях Холандска болест. Но плодородната почва на аналната податливост към популистката левашка идиотия там води и до rentier state dynamics, корупция, политическа нестабилност и естествено накрая - авторитаризъм и/или олигархия.

Практически, върхушката използва гигантските приходи от нефт, за да финансира властта си и да раздава пари на подръжниците си. А самата си власт използва за да потиска останалите хора, за да не я измести някой друг.

На този фон, дали на върха на тази върхушка се покачва Чавес, Мадуро или някой с друго име, няма никакво значение. Както се вижда, след смъртта на Чавес друг "спасител на народа" прави същите неща.

Книгата е интересна с това, че описва точният път, по който става по-горе описаното във Венецуела - заграбването на нефтената индустрия от страна на правителството, силно подкрепено от народа, защото лошите чуждестранни капиталисти няма да експлоатират повече богатствата на страната, а те ще остават за хората. Вижда се точно за кои хора остават богатствата и до какво води това...

[Saeed AliAkbar · Rating 4 out of 5]

علیرغم اینکه نام چاوز به گوش هم نسلای من زیاد خورده به شخصه آشنایی عمیقی ازش نداشتم. کتاب دید خوبی به هوگو چاوز و ونزوئلا میده. در این سالها بارها هشدار ونزوئلا شدن کشورمون رو شنیدیم. و البته نحوه اراده کشور چاوز شباهت های زیادی با نحوه اداره کشور در جمهوری اسلامی داره. از شعارهای پوپولیستی تا مدیریت هردمبیل, گرفتن شغل های مدیریتی حساس از آدم های متخصص و حذف مخالفین که البته در دموکراسی نیم بند ونزئلا نرم تر از کشور ما انجام میشه, توهمات عجیب و غریب و غیره. علیرغم نتایج فاجعه آمیز چاوز در دوران زندگیش حمایت حداکثری رو داشت و هنوز هم عاشقان خودش در ونزوئلا و دنیا رو داره. کتاب مفصلیه و شاید کمی بیشتر از نیاز طولانی ولی قطعا کتاب مفیدی میتونه باشه.

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Out now!
Hugo Chavez as of news release Tuesday March 5/3/2012 is deceased! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/05/hugo-chavez-dead_n_2296423.html

Rory Carroll takes you inside the walls of Miraflores palace and shows us how Hugo Chavez rose to power. He tells and shows his skill in politics and his failure in having a peaceful Venezuela. He takes you back to his dreams and a pledge under a particular acacia tree in 1982, where once in 1830 Bolivar made an oath to free and empower his people, and onto the military conspiracy and coup to take leadership.

The author writes on the successes and the failures, he covers in great detail from solider to president, the power journey till this day where he is now ailing in health due to cancer. A story of power and revolution.
I never knew much of Chavez until reading this.
The facts speak for themselves anyone who promises to lead and aid people must have some responsible peace but with the high murder rate, kidnappings and drug trafficking something is not right and this author shows you what he did well and what he failed at.
Love Chavez or hate him, this is a brilliant portrait layered out in words.

It was interesting to learn of Gabriel Garcia Marquez interviewing Hugo Chavez a great writer who seems to be around many a powerful man including Fidel Castro.
I am now inspired to read soon The Autumn of Patriarch by him a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while

Excerpts:

"What Chavez said mattered. He was a master of language and communication. He toyed with words, revived old ones, coined new ones, made them sing and sting. Words can provoke reactions and create their own reality. In Venezuela words spawned hatred and polarisation. Chavez's spurned allies found their voice and hurled back their own insults."

"On 17 December 1982, the anniversary of Bolivar's death in 1830, Chavez was the chosen orator for a barracks ceremony. He told the assembled soldiers to picture the liberator in the sky, watchful, frowning, because what he had left undone remained undone. Afterwards Chavez, Baduel and two other captains, Jesus Urdaneta Hernandez and Felipe Acosta Carles, jogged six miles to the Saman del Guere, an acacia tree under whose shade Bolivar used to rest. It was a humid, sticky day and the friends arrived drenched in sweat, Chavez last. There they plucked leaves, a military ritual, and Chavez improvised another speech, this time paraphrasing Bolivar's famous 1805 oath: I swear to the God of my fathers, I swear on my homeland, I swear on my honour, that I will not let my soul feel repose, nor my arm rest until my eyes have seen broken the chains that oppress us and our people by the order of the powerful. The others echoed his words, and a conspiracy was born."

"Colombian cocaine had long trickled through Venezuela en route to Europe and the US. Under the comandante it became a stream, then a river. It was not his intention, but it flowed from his decisions."

"The revolution inherited grave social problems and made them worse. In 1998, the year before Chavez took office, there were 4,500 murders, a grim per capita rate on par with much of Latin America. A decade later it had tripled to more 17,000 per year, making Venezuela , more dangerous than Iraq, and Caracas one of the deadliest cities on earth. Eight times more murderous, it was calculated, than Bogota, Colombia's capital. With less than one percent of cases ever solved it was, all things considered, a good place to commit murder. Kidnappings, previously a rarity, became an industry with an estimated 7,000 abductions per year. To allay their terror the rich and middle class invested in bodyguards and armoured cars, or emigrated, but most of the killing and dying was done by gangs - in slums fighting for drugs, turf, women and prestige."

Also watch author Rory Carroll discuss Hugo Chavez @ http://more2read.com/review/comandante-by-rory-carroll/

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rory Carroll takes you inside the walls of Miraflores palace and shows us how Hugo Chavez rose to power. He tells and shows his skill in politics and his failure in having a peaceful Venezuela. He takes you back to his dreams and a pledge under a particular acacia tree in 1982, where once in 1830 Bolivar made an oath to free and empower his people, and onto the military conspiracy and coup to take leadership.

The author writes on the successes and the failures, he covers in great detail from solider to president, the power journey till this day where he is now ailing in health due to cancer. A story of power and revolution.
I never knew much of Chavez until reading this.
The facts speak for themselves anyone who promises to lead and aid people must have some responsible peace but with the high murder rate, kidnappings and drug trafficking something is not right and this author shows you what he did well and what he failed at.
Love Chavez or hate him, this is a brilliant portrait layered out in words.

It was interesting to learn of Gabriel Garcia Marquez interviewing Hugo Chavez a great writer who seems to be around many a powerful man including Fidel Castro.
I am now inspired to read soon The Autumn of Patriarch by him a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while

Excerpts:

"What Chavez said mattered. He was a master of language and communication. He toyed with words, revived old ones, coined new ones, made them sing and sting. Words can provoke reactions and create their own reality. In Venezuela words spawned hatred and polarisation. Chavez's spurned allies found their voice and hurled back their own insults."

"On 17 December 1982, the anniversary of Bolivar's death in 1830, Chavez was the chosen orator for a barracks ceremony. He told the assembled soldiers to picture the liberator in the sky, watchful, frowning, because what he had left undone remained undone. Afterwards Chavez, Baduel and two other captains, Jesus Urdaneta Hernandez and Felipe Acosta Carles, jogged six miles to the Saman del Guere, an acacia tree under whose shade Bolivar used to rest. It was a humid, sticky day and the friends arrived drenched in sweat, Chavez last. There they plucked leaves, a military ritual, and Chavez improvised another speech, this time paraphrasing Bolivar's famous 1805 oath: I swear to the God of my fathers, I swear on my homeland, I swear on my honour, that I will not let my soul feel repose, nor my arm rest until my eyes have seen broken the chains that oppress us and our people by the order of the powerful. The others echoed his words, and a conspiracy was born."

"Colombian cocaine had long trickled through Venezuela en route to Europe and the US. Under the comandante it became a stream, then a river. It was not his intention, but it flowed from his decisions."

"The revolution inherited grave social problems and made them worse. In 1998, the year before Chavez took office, there were 4,500 murders, a grim per capita rate on par with much of Latin America. A decade later it had tripled to more 17,000 per year, making Venezuela , more dangerous than Iraq, and Caracas one of the deadliest cities on earth. Eight times more murderous, it was calculated, than Bogota, Colombia's capital. With less than one percent of cases ever solved it was, all things considered, a good place to commit murder. Kidnappings, previously a rarity, became an industry with an estimated 7,000 abductions per year. To allay their terror the rich and middle class invested in bodyguards and armoured cars, or emigrated, but most of the killing and dying was done by gangs - in slums fighting for drugs, turf, women and prestige."

Also watch author Rory Carroll discuss Hugo Chavez @ http://more2read.com/review/comandante-by-rory-carroll/

[Shivaji Das · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book could have rather been named "Accounts of people who ran into problems with Hugo Chavez's government" and the chapters named after each of such characters. Rory gives little space in his book about the context of the Venezuelan society that made Chavez's rise possible and the reasons for his enduring popularity. Except for the last page, the book is a one way track to explain what dig out everything that may have been wrong about Chavez's government. The missions and the councils, the essential pillars of his government are hardly covered. How did people react to these initiatives? Who were they? What did they gain from these? Why did they keep voting for Chavez again and again? We will have to wait for a truly comprehensive, unbiased, and better-researched book on the Bolivarian revolution.

[Ena Alvarado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and fairly unbiased. An insightful extract about government sympathizers' blindness: "A single smashing of revolutionary ideals would have been traumatic and triggered an exodus, but incremental chiselling permitted exculpations. If the comandante overruled party grass roots to impose candidates, well, there was strategic need. If he ignored evidence of corruption, well, the timing was delicate. Chip, chip, chip at principles until all that was left was Chávez." How some Venezuelans could recognize that the country was a mess and the government was corrupt, yet Chávez was not to blame in the least will forever remain a mystery to me.

[Mehdi · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worse and biased books of all time.
Sounds like Rory Carroll is being paid well to write this bullshit. The man talks about the poverty, injustice and crime as there is none of them in USA and British. i want thoes 4 days of my life back and the hours i spent reading this crap.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

BOTW

BBC blurb: The political career of Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías had an inauspicious start. A failed coup in 1992 led to a two-year prison sentence. But Chåvez was nothing less than resilient. He returned to win the 1999 election and remained in power until his death from cancer on March 5th this year.

Throughout his presidency he made friends and enemies in almost equal measure. To the Venezuelan working classes, who benefited from many of his social reforms, he was an heroic figure. To other elements of Venezuelan society, he was considered manipulative and autocratic. Abroad, his reputation was similarly polarised - the US in particular, fired by his alliance with Cuba, found Chávez an antagonistic figure.

As Gabriel García Márquez wrote in 1999, after flying from Cuba to Caracas with the new president, "While he sauntered off with his bodyguards of decorated officers and close friends, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had just been travelling and chatting pleasantly with two opposing men. One to whom the caprices of fate had given an opportunity to save his country. The other, an illusionist, who could pass into the history books as just another despot."

Rory Carroll joined The Guardian as a reporter in 1997. After spells in Rome, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Irishman took over the paper's Baghdad bureau. On October 19th, 2005 Carroll was abducted, but released unharmed a day later. In April 2006, he was appointed The Guardian's Latin American correspondent, and worked out of Caracas for the next six years. In 2011, he was long-listed for The Orwell Prize.

Writer: Rory Carroll Reader: Jack Klaff Abridger: Pete Nichols

Producer: Karen Rose A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4.

Rory Carroll introduces Comandante: Inside Hugo Chavez's Venezuela

[Behnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

تا قبل از خوندن این کتاب تصور اشتباهی از هوگو چاوز در ذهن داشتم و اون رو کنار دیکتاتورهای بی‌رحمی مثل استالین و مائو و قذافی و ... قرار می‌دادم.
ولی با خوندن این کتاب نظرم کاملا نسبت بهش تغییر کرد.‌ هوگو چاوز رییس‌جمهوری با آرزوها و اهداف خوب ولی با مدیریت افتضاح بود. یک متوهم بود که تا آخرین لحظه هم نمی‌تونست باور کنه که برنامه‌هاش یکی یکی شکست خورده و خودش شایستگی رییس‌جمهوری رو نداره. ویروس قدرت چشم اون رو هم کور کرده بود. ولی با همه این‌ها آدم مهربان و دل‌رحمی بود. هیچ‌وقت دستور قتل مخالفینش رو نداد، کسی رو شکنجه نکرد و صدای مخالفینش رو خفه نکرد.
در هر ۳ دوره انتخابات ریاست جمهوری هم با رای مردم انتخاب شد، هرچند که در ۲۰۰۶ و ۲۰۱۲ از بودجه و امکانات دولت برای تبلیغات خودش استفاده می‌کرد و انتخابات اصلا منصفانه نبود.
در مجموع به نظرم هوگو چاوز آدمی خوب ولی در جایگاهی اشتباه بود.

[Stevie · Rating 1 out of 5]

STAY CLEAR OF THIS BOOK. Polemical, one-sided, biased and unsourced Carroll is a far from neutral source on Hugo Chavez, a man who hated. For a more balanced account read Bart Jones's HUGO!

[Breakingviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

By Ian Campbell

“Comandante” sounds like the title of a wide-eyed hagiography. But the book by Rory Carroll, the Guardian’s Venezuela correspondent, is something far more welcome: a clear-eyed account of the whims, machinations and follies of Hugo Chavez, the late Venezuelan leader. It leaves the reader wondering just how the country can find a way forward. The book’s weakness is that the account is far from atmospheric and its structure might have been dreamed up by Chavez’s planning ministry.

Chavez’s trajectory is extraordinary. The comandante’s origins were humble but his ambitions always high. The young Hugo, second of six sons of serious-minded parents who were both primary school teachers, came from a poor village in the central plains but dreamt from the first of international stardom – as a baseball star. His childhood hero was a compatriot, Nestor “the whip” Chavez, no relation, a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. Sporting ambition, rather than any interest in being a soldier, took Hugo from the plains to the military college in Caracas. He hoped to develop his baseball career in the capital.

When he failed, other ambitions took over. Carroll charts Chavez’s rise in the military and his radicalisation. He was inspired by the left-wing military governments in Peru and Panama, and influenced by Venezuela’s stagnation as the oil price plunged below $20 in the 1980s. He became a national figure in February 1992 when he led a group of junior officers in an attempt to unseat unpopular President Carlos Andres Perez. Chavez was arrested but was able to broadcast to the nation that he had failed only “for now.”

The brief address became known for those two words. A restive nation had found its Robin Hood.

In jail, Chavez received further political instruction, especially from his ascetic future planning minister, Jorge Giordani, whom Carroll calls “the monk”. Giordani explained how to turn revolution into a structure that will endure. Two decades later, Giordani’s “maze of rules and restrictions” are still in place. Circumventing them, largely by bribes, has become the only way to do business.

Once in power, Chavez proved forceful and erratic. He swept aside enemies, though without murdering them, and hired, fired and rehired ministers and officials. He took to the airways relentlessly. Carroll captures very well Chavez’s ability to ramble for hours in a popular vernacular peppered with denunciations of capitalism, extracts from Pablo Neruda or Walt Whitman, and a line or two from Frank Sinatra.

Carroll’s assessment of Chavez looks entirely right. But his reliance on interviews and avoidance of a chronological account means the book wanders. The extraordinary drama of Chavez’s rise to national dominance and international prominence is lost. The book also fails to evoke Venezuela: there is no sense of the tense streets of Caracas or the heat of the central plains. Too little attention is paid to the country’s history, its complex racial and socio-economic mix, dependence on oil and large income divide: challenges that would tax even the wisest of leaders.

The book does not look ahead but the omens for post-Chavez Venezuela are not good. Chavez was lucky. A high global oil price permitted high government spending that kept him popular with many Venezuelans, especially the poor. But he leaves a politically divided country that is extraordinarily vulnerable to an oil-price fall.

Carroll portrays Chavez’s successor, Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver, as a yes man with an “easy-going demeanour and an instinct for advancement”. It is hard to imagine how the loyal follower can take Venezuela forward. And Chavez’s charismatic chaos looks an impossible act to follow.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a once over lightly sketch of the administration of Venezuela by its late flamboyant President, Hugo Chavez. This book is a quick light read and will suffice until a more thorough work is, inevitably, available.

Rory Carroll recounts moments in the president's career such as his failed coup, successful elections, mercurial changes in policy and his unsuccessful attempt to change the constitution. Opposing political parties long ago marginalized themselves by overplaying their hands, which resulted in giving Chavez a free hand. His administration was a revolving door of ministers, some of whom he fired on TV shows. He had an enemies list, compiled by a supporter and used to deny people jobs and access. Ironically, the list bears the supporter's name, who like many other one-time supporters, wound up on this list too.

Carroll describes how decisions were made by circumstance, whim, and expedience and for no reason whatsoever. While enemies were not tortured, they were publically humiliated and they and their families were financially ruined. Fortunately for Chavez, the petrodollars that fueled the economy satisfied his supporters and further silenced his opposition.

Interesting women are part of the Chavez saga. Eva Golinger, a "volunteer" gadfly from the US, researched and exposed things like the US involvement in opposition groups; Lina Ron lead a motorcycle militia in support of her Comandante. Hon. Maria Lourdes Afiuni, a judge, remains in jail for giving due process to a Chavez opponent.

There are curious men as well: Jorge Giordani, "the monk", serves as something like a national banker who devised a scheme that kept (and may still keep) hard currency in the hands of supporters. Raul Baduel "lifelong friend" of the Comandante, served as his personal secretary and served as Minister of Defense, now serves time in prison for his refusal to politicize the military. Most curious, is Rafael Castellanos, a scholar who served as a librarian and fact checker for Chavez who was prone to including literary and philosophical ideas in planned and ad libbed speeches.

Rory Carroll sees a country in decay. The Commandant's TV directors had to carefully plan camera shots to avoid the crumbling infrastructure and out of order signs. Carroll drives to the airport in traffic similar to any US city, but in Caracas, he worries about bandits and at the airport, expects to pay a bribe. Crime is rampant, the murder rate is the highest in Latin America and fewer than 1% of the murder cases are solved.

The book will help you to understand the phenomena that was Chavez. Undoubtedly, more works on him will follow.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 3 out of 5]

A surprisingly incompetent portrait of a would-be democratic dictator, Hugo Chavez, Rory Carroll’s Comandante sketches plenty but ultimately sticks to broad strokes and thus leaves the unlikely impression that Venezuela, and the world, probably ought to thank Chavez for all his scheming.

Carroll’s inspiration came from a series of notebooks he filled while writing short articles about Chavez. I see no evidence that he did anything but compile his chapters directly from them rather than attempt a more comprehensive approach. He glosses over the entirety of Chavez’s life before the 1998 election, even the 1992 coup attempt that led to it and the two years Chavez spent in jail because of it. He doesn’t even talk much about the state of Venezuelan affairs before the attempt, or the fateful election. For every sly nod acknowledging Chavez’s faults, Carroll still suggests, throughout, that Chavez was probably close to the romantic, delusional myth he so stubbornly projected.

Nowhere are we given a real context for any of it. Carroll drops in hints as if the reader knows or agrees with accepted conclusions. For me, I never really paid attention to Chavez. I knew he existed and that he was probably one of the world tyrants we’d be better off without, and nothing in this book persuaded me to any other conclusion, not even that Carroll loves to point out at least Chavez didn’t just kill all his opponents. Well, thanks for establishing your ethical bar so low, Rory Carroll.

Observers like Oliver Stone, who apparently never met an outsize personality he didn’t at least consider falling all over (I greatly admire Stone’s abilities as a filmmaker; this does not condone his stance on Chavez, as exhibited in the documentary South of the Border, which as I watch it after writing this review will at least allow me a visual glimpse of Chavez) seemed to find it easy to apologize for the results. Carroll, in the end, is another.

Unfortunately.

[Adrian]

The subtitle of the book I read was 'the life and legacy of Hugo Chavez' presumably the British title. Carroll, a Guardian correspondent, covered Chavez' Venezuela for six years and provides an in depth look at Chavez the leader. There isn't much in here about his private life. Chavez' key to electoral success was class warfare. He set the poor off against both the middle classes and the rich. Since there are more poor in Venezuela he was pretty much bullet-proof at the polls. He governed by whim. Policies and plans tumbled out one upon the other but seldom was there any follow up as he lost interest and moved on to something else. Carroll contends that he had a magnetic personality which he exploited on television programs that often ran around the clock. I have to assume a lot is lost in translation as he comes across in English as a desperate salesman. Though Chavez was no dictator (he did win fair elections) he certainly ruled like one by the end nothing was done without his say so and his rule was as much a personality cult as the worst dictators of modern times. Venezuela will be dealing with the Chavez legacy for years.

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book. It's easy to read, it's often fun and it doesn't shy away from actually talking about history, politics and economics. When I started reading this, I read it, and more or less nothing else, until it was finished. I've never been known for taking a particular interest in South American politics, but the bizarre story of Hugo Chavez's rise to power and later decline in reputation, is just too strange to even seem real. The way he kept himself in power, basically undemocratically, without ever suspending democracy or faking elections, is thoroughly weird.

The author, Rory Carroll, is a journalist. He lived in Venezuela through most (maybe all?) of the time he decribes in the book. He once, briefly, interviewed Chavez on Venezuelan TV, in a strange episode he recounts in the book but that reads more like it belongs in a George Orwell novel. Carroll manages an excellent balance throughout between being able to tell an engaging and dramatic story, and having thorough knowledge of his subject matter.

I can assuredly recomend this book.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed account of Chavez's Venezuela. Mr. Carroll does a great job in detailing the consequences of the state that Mr. Chavez created and a cautionary tale of being a leader who's main policy platform is that everything he does is right. I love the detailed accounts and stories of Mr. Carroll's adventures in the country and what life is like in a country that has been viewed by America as a hostile state and have heard very little reports out of. It is a great tale to see the decline of one of Latin America's strongest states into a almost failed state. I think their should be a follow-up or an updated version to see what a bang-up job Mr. Maduro has done to the country since Chavez's death. Great read

[Shawn Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read that introduces the reader to what it was like living in Venezuela during Chavez's reign. Some interesting topics are covered though lacks real depth (bibliography hardly covers a page). The book sticks to its tight topic, grazing over Chavez's early life and Venezuela's political history before Chavez. If the publication date where held off a few more months, Carroll would have had a more complete story of Chavez. We know his fate now, but because the book was finished shortly before his death, it feels like the narrative is forced to stop short. Enjoyable overall, but if you aren't into reading the book just do what I did: marry a Venezuelan.

[Shervinrmz · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب به شکلی کامل سعی کرده به ابعاد مختلف زندگی چاوز بپردازه، البته در بعضی فصلا، نویسنده به نظرم جانب انصاف رو نگرفته و بی‌محابا هر کار مثبت و منفی چاوز رو نقد کرده.
به شدت پوپولیسم و ساختاری که چاوز درست کرد، برای ما ملموس و قابل درکه.
از نامه گرفتن از خلق‌الله تا تشکیل کمیته برای پاسخ به نامه‌های مردمی و الی آخر...
از خواندن کتاب پشیمان نمیشید.
خواندن کتابی در خصوص مردی که ۲ بار اراده کرد به میرافلورس برسد.
بار اول با کودتای بی‌سرانجام نظامی و بار دوم با صندوق رای و تکیه بر عوام.

[Nazanin Sherafati · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتابی بسیار جالب و خواندنی. بسیار از خواندنش لذت بردم

[James Yee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very insightful book about how Hugo Chavez rose to power and managed to maintain it (ie. oil-funded systemic corruption and patronage) despite the fact his "Bolivarian socialist" policies contributed to the ruin of Venezuela. By giving an inside look at how the government operated (functioned would be too kind) under Chavez, I can now understand how "the system" allows someone like Maduro to cling on to power despite the ongoing decay of the country. A truly tragic story for the people of Venezuela.

The book is divided into three main sections: Throne, Palace, and Kingdom. As such, it bounces around at times in the chronology of events while the author is writing about themes within the main sections. I think it would have been nice if he added an appendix to the book with an overall timeline of key events. Other than that, it was a great read. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could, but no half stars allowed so 4 will have to do.

[Camstheram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Research read. If you like horror, just read about Venezuelan history. Incredible reporting, fairly represented the information and showed both sides, while also using beautiful and descriptive imagery that paints a very sad picture.
I’ll leave it with a quote that stuck with me: “in wasted potential, lay tragedy.”

[Soheil Abrishamchi · Rating 2 out of 5]

کتاب تکرار مکررات در مورد چاوز است بعد از خواندن چهار صد صفحه احساس نمی کنم نکات جدیدی در مورد ونزوئلا و چاوز یاد گرفته باشم.

[Mike Ginocchio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quickest way to get one of my dear friends, perhaps one of the sunniest and most enjoyable people on the planet, to become sullen and melancholy is to ask about their home country of Venezuela. "There's no future there," my friend opines. And in giving me this book, my friend (and millions of other Venezuelans) points the finger at one man responsible for the slow and then sudden collapse of the land: Hugo Chavez.

Rory Carroll writes this book in a snappy, crisp, and eminently readable way, blending in a dry sense of humor and sardonic tone that allows for some legitimately funny moments, if only because he knows that merely recording the ridiculousness of some of Chavez's Venezuela is comedy enough.

Because Chavez, a former failed military coup plotter turned democratically elected autocrat, is a ridiculous figure. He seems pathologically incapable of avoiding the camera. He's a storyteller, constantly holding court with his gregarious personality. And he's cunning, knowing that sometimes the way to master the media is to master the art of propaganda. Reading as an American, I could not help but draw parallels between Chavez's reign and the term of former president Donald Trump: a constant desire to be the center of attention, a prickly skin thinner than paper, a need to use polarizing and aggressive language to rile up his base and galvanize the opposition, so that everyone is at each others' throats...all whilst a culture of fear and sycophancy reigned in the capital, with countless nameless (and, frankly, talentless) ministers vied and jockeyed for the ear of El Comandante. Meanwhile, institutions decayed, corruption reigned, and the people suffered.

Carroll doesn't have to work too hard to indict Hugo Chavez as an autocrat with cunning ability to stay in power and whose laser focus on winning elections left him floundering when it came to real issues in his country. Carroll saves his harshest indictment, it seems, for the countless Venezuelans who *knew* that Chavez's regime was autocratic but rather lazy about it (North Korean "disappearances" and Russian gulags, it ain't) and yet still went along with it anyway for the sake of a paycheck. "The sword was plastic, and still they bent the knee."

It's a fascinating look at not only the man who broke Venezuela, but also an interesting look at a fascinating country and a wonderful people who were and are suffering under the shadow of Hugo Chavez's legacy. I say *suffering* because reading this book in 2022 comes across as eerily prescient: the book was published in 2013, shortly before Hugo Chavez died of cancer, and it only spends two pages describing Chavez's eventual (and, frankly, even more horrific) successor: Nicolas Maduro, who currently presides over a country in collapse, with none of Chavez's charm that allowed him to get away with being the worst.

Start reading this book, and you won't be able to put it down.

[Bjorn Carro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reality clearly beats fiction, fascinating and quite sad as well

[Thanakorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting insight to Miraflores when el commandante was in power. RIP Chavez!

[Globe Trotter · Rating 1 out of 5]

One can reflect on many things after reading this book. Perhaps the most significant at the highest level is not about what Rory Carroll has written about Chavez, but more about Rory Carroll himself, and what he stands for.

Rory Carroll is the Guardian's correspondent for Venezuela. For such an important post from an important Western media outlet, the responsibility was given to Rory, a newbie journalist who moved to Caracas for his new post, and to study Spanish. This represents the Western media's scorn towards latin america, a young and melleable young man who himself is being used as a tool. His tone and reporting is shocking in how he described Chavez. It is difficult to see how such a young man without any grasp of the spanish langauge and his narrow minded views can have any credibility in his writings, and be allowed to influence millions back home who reads his stories. Evidently a mouth piece for the chief editor back home at the Guardian.

The book does not at all attempt to understand nor narrate the life of Chavez. There is no attempt to narrate his family, his childhood and his upbringing. No narrative of events in his life that shaped him into the person that we all now is Hugo Chavez. The entire book is a character assassin.

The book is essentially organised into series of anecdotes one after another. Each describing a story focused on a particular enemy of Chavez, or cleverly put together narratives and negative connotations and imageries that are then weakly linked to the failure of Chavez that is both manipulative on the part of the author as well sinister towards the subject of the book. I will provide examples from the book.

For example in chapter 10, the author described gang violence in the neighbourhood of El Cementerio ( note the start of setting up the dystopian canvas of the "Cemetry" to paint his story). He focused on detailed stories of individual gang members, how they killed a "woman's husband, then widowed her again after she remarried", and how members of gang were killed including "one shot 30 times in the face". The explicit details in his narrative seemed so real that the author lures the reader into shock horror and sympathy. Suddenly the author attacks Chavez quote from the book that this " showed in microcosm how Venezuela's social contract shredded under Chavez. Forces were unleashed that gave Richard ( a gang member in his book ) , and countless more like him, litter choices but to trade childhood for a gun". This is both manipulative and sinister. Because surely such gang violence and harmful childhood can also be found in plenty in cities across the Western world. However one would never expect to read a story from the Guardian or any western media that manipulates a story about a gang member in the city of New York in America that then reflects on the "social contract shredded under" the Obama government which meant thousands of American people would have "litter choices but to trade childhood for a gun".

The author's hatred towards Chavez grew more evident towards the end of the book. Something as a reader I could not but feel he could not contain himself and his views. Nearing his death the author described the situation as "A decaying revolution, a ravaged body, a vigorous challenger: Chavez was in trouble" and that "He could not avoid physical extinction" once he was diagnosed with cancer. There are no respects towards the politicians of Venezuela. They have been addressed as derogatory nicknames the author created for himself such as "The Monkey", "The Monk" etc. Would you imagine any western author writing about Lincoln, Obama, or any other western leader in such a way? And to be allowed to publish in the western world?

If you have read this book and have enjoyed it I would like to ask if this is because the book confirms your already formed views of Chavez. In which case we are not approaching the book with an open mind and read objectively.

As I said at the start, the book reveals more about Western journalism than about the subject of the book himself. If our media is allowed to continue its narrative in such a biased fashion, that we are always judging our enemies from our point of view, then we may never be able to find reconciliation with the other half of humanity that do not see the world in the same as we do. And this only serves to create more future conflicts and not peace in this world that we share so much more in common in our shared humanity.

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 5 out of 5]

El que compra un boleto a la utopía, compra un boleto al infierno.
Y obviamente esto no lo digo por Chávez sino por todos aquellos que le ofrecieron su vida con base en una promesa fantástica que se ha transformado en una horrida y desesperante realidad que no encuadra para nada con el paisaje que el Comandante pintara para su pueblo. Con una diáspora de más de 5 millones de Venezolanos que huyen (y esa es la palabra, no otra) de su país, hay que ser muy tonto, muy cínico o muy fanático para no darse cuenta del ídolo con pies de barro que se encargó de elevar el espíritu de un país con retórica barata, al mismo tiempo que su ineptitud y su egocentrismo socavaba las bases del mismo.
Comandante, la Venezuela de Hugo Chávez, no es una biografía del autócrata, sino de todo un país que prefirió una de estas dos cosas: Vivir la fantasía socialista de un cuento de Hadas marxista o cuidarse las propias espaldas agachándose servilmente ante la voracidad de un hombre que había perdido el rumbo y a sí mismo.
Yo llegué a la historia del chavismo cuando comenzaba la secuela de la película, o sea, cuando el gran comandante galáctico superespiralidoso murió. No, miento. Lo hice un poquito antes cuando me tocó ver por televisión la escena con la que abre precisamente el libro: Chávez expropiando edificios "para el pueblo" con una palabra de poder: ¡Exprópiese!
Lo que se me hacia verdaderamente sorprendente es que tanta gente no pudiera ver la necesidad psicológica detrás de un hombre que era capaz de aguantar 8 horas en un programa de televisión, gobernando su país con un programa de revista. Chávez gritaba por atención: "mirenme" -decía - "mirenme".
Alguien si supo mirarlo: fue Castro, quien vio en la necesidad de atención de Chávez el punto por el que podría apoderarse de Venezuela y no dudó en usarlo. Lo invitaba a Cuba,a filosofar, a conferencias, lo declaraba un verdadero revolucionario (lo que por cierto, nunca hizo con Allende, ni después de muerto). Lo elevó al cielo de los grandes hombres de la historia, de esos que "nacen cada 100 años, cuando despierta el pueblo".
Chávez fue como su pueblo. Vivió una fantasía. La fantasía de la revolución, que realmente era un infierno de corrupción, de traiciones, de proyectos inacabados, de dinero tirado a la basura que acabó consumiendo al país y convirtiéndolo en el basurero que ahora es.
El libro es una crónica de ese largo tobogán hacia la perdición que comenzó en 1992 y terminó en Cuba en 2013... para Hugo Chávez, pero no para Venezuela.
Es también un libro que parece una receta para los autócratas pues mucho de lo que aquí aparece tiene un paralelo con lo que estamos viviendo en México, con la autonombrada 4 Transformación y su líder indiscutido, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Muchos Venezolanos, por cierto, ya lo habían hecho notar: "cuídense, les está pasando lo mismo que ocurrió acá". A lo que uno puede contestar: "No, amigo. México no es Venezuela"
Y ellos te contestarán a su vez: "Y nosotros decíamos: Venezuela no es Cuba".
Y ahora ya los vemos...

[Aaron Aoyume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart, sharp, informative, insightful!

From the way the chapters are organized and some information is presented in Comandante, one can assume that Rory Carroll took advantage of the extensive material he had probably collected during the period he served as reporter on the ground to The Guardian in Venezuela and all the stories he had lived or heard, and maybe even articles he had already published. Indeed, one of the most interesting parts of the book is exactly his narrative about the day he appeared on Chávez's TV talk show, making a keen question about caudillos to the president himself, only to be soon after smashed by Chavez's verbose. 'Alo Presidente episode 291' can still be found on YouTube or on The Guardian website, and there it is, maybe 40 minutes or more of the best and worst of Chávez, accusing Carroll and all Europeans of being cynical.

The mix of personal notes, a concise but comprehensive coverage of the main events during Chávez's presidency and a keen interpretation of the facts make this book really useful and informative, but even more so enjoyable and entertaining. Because it covers a long period (from the 1992 failed coup and the 1999 election all the way through 2012) in its 350+ pages, Comandante does not dive really deep into the complexities of Chavez's system of power (it covers some key personalities only), but that is not necessarily a flaw, because it makes the book fresh and sharp. And despite the accusations Chávez dropped on Carroll in Alo Presidente, Comandante is a book that may be critical in many instances, but never cynical.