ISBN: 1931896372 9781931896375

Category: History / Latin America / South America

Page count: 175

<p>No president today is more controversial than Venezuela's Hugo Chávez Frías. Elected in a landslide in 1998, he promised a peaceful revolution. That peaceful dream became a nightmare when Chávez was overthrown in a coup d'état in 2002. Surprisingly, he was brought back to power by his supporters, mostly barrio dwellers, within forty-eight hours. Although Chávez continues to be dogged by controversy, he stays in power because of these supporters who see themselves as active participants in a democratic revolution.</p> <p>As a former Catholic priest who has lived in Venezuela for the past twenty years and spent eight of those years in a cardboard-and-tin shack in one of Caracas' barrios, Charles Hardy is in a unique position to explain what is taking place. <i>Cowboy in Caracas: A North American's Memoir of Venezuela's Democratic Revolution</i> gives the reader insight into the Venezuelan reality, using an anecdotal presentation drawn from the writer's personal experiences.</p>