EP102: Hugo Chávez

The Hated and the Dead

Content provided by Tom Leeman. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Tom Leeman or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://staging.podcastplayer.com/legal.

1+ y ago 1:17:06

MP3•Episode home

Hugo Chávez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013.
Despite attempts to harness Venezuela’s enormous oil revenues for the public good, Chávez left behind a country riddled with economic problems and with little to show for the President’s claim to build socialism in the 21st century. Billions of dollars in oil revenues were hoovered up by corrupt elites. Promises of new hospitals, schools and roads went undelivered. 16,000 Venezuelans were murdered each year under Chávez’s leadership- the equivalent of nearly 35,000 murders happening in the UK every single year. Venezuela now has the highest rate of inflation in any country in the World, and many millions of Venezuelans have fled the country.
Was another path possible? Given America’s distaste for socialism on the American continent, is the noteworthy thing about Chávez not what his project did or did not deliver, but that it got off the ground at all? Has the so-called Monroe Doctrine rendered a moderate approach to left politics in Latin America totally impossible? These are the fundamental questions my guest and I grapple with in today’s conversation.

That guest is Phil Gunson. Phil is a British journalist and the Andes Senior Project Manager at the International Crisis Group, and has lived in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, since the start of the Chávez presidency nearly 25 years ago.

Chapters

1. EP102: Hugo Chávez (00:00:00)

2. [Ad] Great Business Stories (00:09:21)

3. (Cont.) EP102: Hugo Chávez (00:10:08)

137 episodes

#Politics #News #Government #History #Tom Leeman