Latin America in the Post-Chávez Era

`

Latin America in the Post-Chávez Era

The Security Threat to the United States

Luis Fleischman
Foreword by Michael Skol

272 pages

Hardcover

May 2013

978-1-61234-601-4

$29.95 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

May 2013

978-1-61234-602-1

$29.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

Hugo Chávez passed away in March 2013 after a two-year battle with cancer, prompting much speculation about the impact of his death. What will a post-Chávez future look like, not only in Venezuela but also in the region? In Latin America in the Post-Chávez Era, Luis Fleischman examines Chávez’s highly controversial Bolivarian revolution, which has expanded beyond Venezuela to other countries in South America and whose sphere of influence also extends to Central America and the Caribbean. In this context, the author systematically shows how an emerging authoritarianism in the region plays an important role in defining the geo-political context of the region. Across Latin America, Chávez had financially supported political candidates or presidents in office dedicated to producing dramatic socialist change, cementing authoritarianism, and reducing American influence in the region. Meanwhile, China’s influence has been increasing and may evolve beyond an economic presence into a more political role. It is in this volatile context that Chávez’s destabilizing activities—including cooperation with regional as well Islamist terrorist organizations, drug cartels, and rogue states, particularly Cuba and Iran—take on ominous proportions. Fleischman argues that the shape of this post-Chávez world is one that Americans should watch with grave concern while taking appropriate measures to counteract Chávez’s legacy.

Author Bio

LUIS FLEISCHMAN is an adjunct professor of sociology and political science at Florida Atlantic University Honors College. He has a PhD in sociology from the New School for Social Research in New York City and has worked as senior adviser for the Menges Hemispheric Security Project at the Center for Security Policy. He is the editor of the Americas Report, where he writes about the Bolivarian revolution, its alliances with Iran and terrorist groups, and the rise of antidemocratic forces in the region. He lives in Jupiter, Florida.

Praise

“Luis Fleischman goes where the Director of National Intelligence and other senior officials of the U.S administration fear to tread. He undertakes a sober, hard-headed look at the mischief makers in the Western Hemisphere. Dr. Fleischman offers an important study of the causes and consequences of radical anti-Americanism in Latin America. It is a work of enduring value, even if El Commandante Chavez passed from the earthly scene on March 5, 2013.”—DR. RAY WALSER, senior policy analyst, Heritage Foundation

“This is an invaluable book, with an enviable grasp of the mounting threat of the Bolivarian Revolution--the handiwork of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and carried forward by an alarming number of regional allies--to the security and stability of South American democracies and to the United States itself. Fleischman moves sure-footedly from country to country, to the Western Hemisphere as a whole, and then far beyond, to Chavez’s close friends in Tehran. Bravo!”—DR. MICHAEL LEDEEN, Freedom Scholar, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; former special advisor to the secretary of state; and author of Virgil’s Golden Egg and Other Neapolitan Miracles

Latin America in the Post-Chávez Era is a comprehensive and objective analysis of the phenomenon of radical movements and regimes in Latin America associated with the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s ‘twenty-first-century socialism.’ Luis Fleischman traces the origins of these movements to a crisis of legitimacy of deficient democratic political systems and points out that Chávez’s regime is a truly revolutionary project whose very nature and ideology might have far-reaching consequences for the region. He concludes with a thoughtful set of policy prescriptions, in the short and long term, to halt the advance of these revolutionary movements and strengthen and consolidate democracy in the region. This book is an important contribution to the debate on the future of Latin America and the U.S.-Latin American relationship.”—DR. ANGEL RABASA, senior political scientist, Rand Corporation