El Código Chávez: Descifrando la Intervención de los Estados Unidos en Venezuela

by Eva Golinger

El Código Chávez reveals how the US Government has been involved in more than three attempts to overthrow Venezuela's democratically elected President, Hugo Chávez, during the past few years. The author utilized the Freedom of Information Act to obtain top secret CIA, Department of State, Department of Defense, National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and other agencies' declassifed documents, proving a US role in the April 2002 coup d'etat that briefly ousted President Chávez from power. More than $20 million in US taxpayer dollars have been invested in attempts to oust the Venezuelan leader from his constitutional mandate. El Código Chávez tells readers how, who, when and why.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published May 30, 2006

Reviews

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

so, i'm not sure what to think about this book. i'm fairly disposed to believe that the u.s. has intervened and continues to intervene in venezuelan politics. finding definitive proof of this wouldn't surprise me at all. what was actually surprising to me was how unconvincing i found the information in this book. reading the exposition section, i became more inclined to agree with gollinger--reading that much rhetoric and that much inflammatory prose might be off-putting at first, but it wears you down after a while. once i got to the documents section, however, everything that had seemed clear became much less clear to me. the evidence that gollinger had used to claim that the u.s. was pleased with the instability in venezuela seemed, when read in context, to be just a simple fact-finding document, outlining the basic situation in the country. the intelligence that gollinger claimed was proof that the u.s. knew about and was even coordinating the coup seemed, again, like the educated guess-work that anyone concerned with venezuelan politics might have made at the time. i don't contend that these impressions prove that the u.s. wasn't involved. i'm just saying that the evidence seems less strong to me than it was presented in the book. perhaps the book would have convinced me more if gollinger had made a weaker claim--that the u.s. was funding various venezuelan political organizations in a manner that was deeply inappropriate and that contributed to unrest in the country. as it is, i'm not convinced of her stronger claim--that the u.s. orchestrated the coup attempt and has been actively engaged in destabilization of venezuelan politics ever since. i'm not saying that that claim isn't true, just that i don't think it's been proven in this book.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

"La novia de Venezuela" tells why daddy is the best leader one could have.

[Jacob Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but very dated now. A good summary of American attempts to overthrow and destabilise the Chavez government in the early 2000s, during the early stages of the Chavista project.

[ylin002 · Rating 4 out of 5]

lately, chavez is looking less and less...uh, on the good side. i wonder what eva is thinking.

[Mohamed Awada]

Highly informative of how neo-imperialism works in Venezuela. This book is not of the same caliber of The Open Veins of Latin America, but it is just as useful.