Comandante

December 17, 2012
A democratically elected despot; a revolutionary whose main priority is winning campaigns; a showboating clown; a feared tyrant. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, soon to enter his 13th year of rule, is a mass of contradictions. In this incisive portrait of a histrionic ruler who brooks little criticism, Carroll, the Guardian’s Latin American bureau chief, captures the tragic absurdity of life in a country flush with petrodollars but where many go without adequate health care, and where “Out of Order” signs are switched out for ones promising “Socialist Modernization” as broken-down elevators languish. The book starts with a closeup look at the comandante himself, then successively pulls back the lens on the sycophants who serve as his ministers and advisers, then on the decaying society outside the presidential palace. Chávez runs the country on whims, one week expropriating famed jewelry stores because they stand on the square where Simón de Bolívar was born, another week enthusiastically launching a public health program only to let it flounder. And all this on national TV, where the president’s show Hello, President can run up to eight hours each day. Meanwhile, disastrous economic policies have left the country mired in inflation and shortages, with a creaking infrastructure and shuttered factories. Readers who know Chávez mainly for his anti-U.S. bluster will find some surprises in the true-life black comedy surrounding this mercurial leader. Agent: Will Lippincott, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin.

January 1, 2013
A journalistic view of life in Venezuela under the Hugo Chavez regime. "An eagle does not hunt flies," Chavez once remarked by way of refusing to debate a challenger for the Venezuelan presidency. That, according to former Guardian Latin American bureau chief Carroll, is one of el presidente's terser comments. Indeed, a constant of life in the South American nation is Chavez's seemingly unbroken presence on TV, "every day for hours at a time, invariably live, with no script or teleprompter, mulling, musing, deciding, ordering." Other leaders, particularly of a totalitarian bent, have made masterful use of the media, but few with Chavez's devotion to the practice. Moreover, as if from the pages of Machiavelli, Chavez has layered himself in swaths of bureaucracy on the principle, it seems, that buying loyalty by way of jobs is a good way to win votes. Carroll is not an admirer, at least not an uncritical one, but he acknowledges Chavez's well-tuned political skills; even if the elections are carefully engineered, Chavez is, after all, democratically elected. On first coming into office, he also amended the constitution to extend human rights guarantees, protect the environment and give a host of benefits to working people--along, as it happens, with increasing the power of the president and the length of the term. When Chavez, a cross between Simon Bolivar and Fidel Castro, is brought up at all in the American media, it is usually as a bogeyman, so the author's evenhanded view is welcome. "Utopia is realizable," insists Chavez. It may not have arrived yet in Venezuela, but it's interesting to watch from afar. Carroll provides a useful primer on a little-known regime.

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March 1, 2013
In 13 tumultuous years as president of Venezuela, Chvez continues to evoke either love or hatred, hardly ever neutral feelings. Carroll, the Guardian's Latin American correspondent, spent six months penetrating Miraflores Palace, interviewing political friends and foes, aides, ministers, and bodyguards for an absorbing portrait of the charismatic Chvez. The former revolutionary and coup leader gained the president's office in 1999, promising democracy and transparency. His impromptu television show, Hello, President, transmitted his actions and his media savvy as he seized control of the nation's oil industry, appropriated private property, and consolidated government authority, all the while exploiting tensions between the rich and the poor. Chvez has skillfully managed his image as a champion of the downtrodden, feared by the West for his close ties to Cuba's Castro, at times defying easy definition as either autocrat or democrat. His longevity and Venezuela's oil wealth have lent Chvez weight in tangled relationships with the U.S., China, and the Middle East. Carroll details Chvez's determination and alluring personality, offering a portrait that is at times frightening and at others amusing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)