 Good explanation of Chavez's life and background, little analysis of current politics and agenda
This is an engaging and easy-to-read biography of Chavez. I highly recommend it for people who want to understand Chavez's background and his personal struggles. It vividly captures the hopes and dreams that Hugo embodies for the Venezuelan poor and makes Hugo understandable for a US audience.
However, it is very short on analysis and doesn't pretend to be an academic book. It doesn't analyze in any detail the policies which the Boliviarian Revolution is enacting. You won't understand how Hugo is remaking Venezuelan politics except in very general terms. What is actually happening on the ground is not explained nor analyzed. So don't buy this book if you are seeking to understand Chavez's agenda and how it is different from other leftist movements in Latin America. The role of the US and analysis of the coup against Chavez and the subsequent strike of the oil workers is lacking. Jones is a master at telling the personal story of Hugo, but this book falls short if you want deeper analysis or more context. Nonetheless, these things clearly aren't Jones' goals in writing the book, and other authors are already doing a good job in those respects. Without a doubt this book is a page-turner and you will definitely enjoy reading it.
The Most Powerful Man in Latin America
This book is a much needed analysis of the most powerful man in Latin America. Traditional western media outlets have described him as an evil communist crackpot. The reality of Hugo Chavez and his 21st-Century-Socialism is far more complex. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a comprehensive analysis of Hugo Chavez.
The book is very fluent and easy to read. With that said: Bart Jones tends to use the same tactics as his enemies when describing Chavez. The only difference is that he uses them to defend Chavez rather than attack him. Testaments against Chavez are often cast into doubt by one-liners questioning their validity while pro-Chavez testaments are often held to be the uncontestable truth. Before picking this book up it is important to realize that this is a biography of Hugo Chavez far more than an economic analysis of 21st-Century-Socialism.
Hugo Chavez is not anti-American or Anti-West. He is against elite control. He is for equal opportunity for all no matter what a person's socioeconomic class.
Excellent read, but not entirely impartial
I agree with other comments that Bart Jones's Hugo is an excellent read. I also agree with Omer Belsky's review that Jones takes a mostly pro Chavez stance. Although Jones is writing for an American audience, his constant comparison of Venezuelan and US history is dubious. Venezuela was almost exclusively ruled by illegitimately elected caudillos until 1958 and thus has a very different political history and culture. For example, he states that RCTV's actions would never have been tolerated in the United States. However, US political culture is quite different from that in Venezuela. It is not customary for a president of the United States to threaten the citizens of his or her country and thus in general the citizens avoid doing the same. In addition, he fails to mention that after Franklin Roosevelt's twelve-year term ended, the law was immediately changed and has not been challenged since. In contrast, Chavez has repeatedly stated that he wants to be president at least until 2021, even though when he entered office her was only eligible for one five-year term. Roosevelt also repeatedly clashed with the Supreme Court, attempted to remove justices or increase the amount of justices, but was never able to do so. They are also some things that I believe he failed to mention that are of importance.
1. Under Chavez's presidency, the murder rate has at least doubled. Caracas was recently named the most violent big city in South America. What has been remarkable is that Chavez fails to mention that crime is a problem, much less do anything about it. Due to the increasing number of murders, the Chavez government ordered police to stop reporting the number of murders, so now there is no accurate number. By some estimates there are more than 15,000 murders a year in Venezuela, which is more than the United States, despite having one tenth of the US's population. Needless to say, most of the murder victims are from working class backgrounds and thus members of Chavez's main constituency, which makes this oversight all the more shocking. It is however further evidence that there is not a dictatorship in Venezuela, as dictatorships generally have very little violent street crime.
2. Jones mentions that 18,000 PDVSA employees were fired after the strike. What he does not mention is that many of those workers were forced to leave the country, because they could not be hired by other companies involved in the oil business, as PDVSA has controlled the human resources operations. Hundreds of thousands of middle class professional Venezuelans have left the country showing that Venezuela is suffering from the common developing world problem of "brain drain."
3. Jones also fails to mention that it was the Chavez aligned National Assembly that chose not to investigate the massacres of April 2002. This seems a bit suspicious, because if the massacre was entirely an act by the opposition, it would seem that the National Assembly would want to investigate and prosecute as quickly as possible.
4. Like his oversight with violent crime, Jones has under emphasized the increase in corruption during Chavez's presidency. In 2006, a German group released a study which stated that Venezuela was the second most corrupt country in the Western Hemisphere. Despite having benefited from a consistently high oil price, the Chavez government has wasted billions of dollars on inefficient projects, buying foreign influence and simple government theft. Chavez has had to fire several secretaries of housing because his government has been less efficient at building public housing than the government of his predecessor, Rafael Caldera. Based on the theft of the Chavez government, it seems laughable that Carlos Andres Perez was impeached for misusing seventeen million dollars. Documents found in Ecuador show that Chavez has given FARC three hundred million dollars, which led to Chavez to finally condemn the actions of the terrorist organization, but not their ideology. There is also evidence that the Chavez family has run Barinas state as their personal fiefdom by constantly using emergency decrees to award preferential contracts and have acquired several large pieces of farmland.
It appears that Chavez has slowly acquired more and more power. At first he purged the courts, then the military, then the media and now he is inventing ways to subvert the opposition. As was written in Michael Reid's book "Forgotten Continent", "the people are called upon to bless periodically the exercise of authoritarian power." It is a system that has become more and more authoritarian and less and less democratic. While Chavez has not been as repressive as Castro or Peron, he appears to desire absolute political control of Venezuela and has no plans of leaving office in the next few decades.
 Hugo!: The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution
I read a lot of biographies and "Hugo" is simply the best biography I have ever read. It is well researched and reads more like a fast-paced thriller than a non-fiction account of Hugo Chavez. It pulsates with the energy that Hugo Chavez himself generates. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to know what is really happening in Venezuela. I have a large Venezuelan family and spend a lot time in Venezuela. I have traveled to 17 of its 22 states and have seen what has been accomplished by Chavez under incredibly difficult circumstances. "Hugo" should be compulsory reading for everyone in the White House and Congress. Chavez has turned Venezuela into one of the most democratic countries in world. All major changes in the country are voted on by the people in referendums. Chavez wins many but also accepts losses when the people vote against him. The media--a part of the oligarchy-is given wide range and can be (and are) critical of Chavez. Bart Jones shows both the good and the bad in this balanced account of one of the most important leaders in the world today.
Bill Ryan
former President & Publisher
The Village Voice
Interesting Bio
A good read on Chavez. You get to understand the man a little better. We are shown his radical side in the papers and his anti-American rants. He is not the gangster we are lead to believe and this book corrects that image. He's not a saint by any means but you get the picture on things he did for his country and the reason he is like he is.
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