No president today is more controversial than Venezuela's Hugo Ch¡vez FrÂas. Elected in a landslide in 1998, he promised a peaceful revolution. That peaceful dream became a nightmare when Ch¡vez was overthrown in a coup d'©tat in 2002. Surprisingly, he was brought back to power by his supporters, mostly barrio dwellers, within forty-eight hours. Although Ch¡vez continues to be dogged by controversy, he stays in power because of these supporters who see themselves as active participants in a democratic revolution.
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. Cowboy in Caracas: A North American's Memoir of Venezuela's Democratic Revolution gives the reader insight into the Venezuelan reality, using an anecdotal presentation drawn from the writer's personal experiences.
