Horn Tooting Scale: 3 Toots
- 1 toot for being a biography
- 2nd for being about a foreign country
- 3rd for being about a man of the moment (topical)
Points of Interest:
- Authors seem to be careful to stay neutral, yet reveal an anti-Chavez bias
- Close attention paid to Chavez's relationship with Fidel Castro
- Hugo Chavez doesn't need much sleep and is an autodidact who reads voraciously
- Hugo is a hottie! Apparently, he is quite the ladies man
- One of Hugo's favorite books is the Green Book by Muammar Qaddafi
- Hugo has his own TV show (Alo Presidente) that takes over the airwaves without warning, for an indeterminate length of time
This biography was originally completed in 2004, then was revised in 2006 when it was published to include recent events. In that sense, it is a little patched together. It covers Hugo's life from his early years being raised by his paternal grandmother, being called Goofy by his peers, through to his time in the military, his love life, his time in prison after the failed coup against Perez in 1992 and his surprising electoral victory in 1998 and his evolving presidential style, including the mini-coup against him in 2002. The main theme of the book seems to be that Hugo's political convictions are opaque and possibly illusory, that he has become, if he wasn't always, a corrupt power-seeker, just like those that he railed against. The conclusion was that very few Venezuelan poor have actually been assisted by his programs, and all of his original inner circle has turned against him and now bitterly oppose him. The authors are clearly underwhelmed by Hugo's promise to stay in power until 2021. Viva la Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela!
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