Review

German Sanchez has been the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela since 1994. As you might expect the book is longwinded, full of cliche’d phrases, and off-the-point diatribes. There are many other books that contain better, and better explained, information about what is happening in Venezuela. For example, Cowboy in Caracas, The Battle of Venezuela, and The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions-100 Answers.

But this book does offer an official Cuban perspective on Chavez’ ‘Bolivarian revolution’. The Cuban government takes great pains to deny the so called ‘Cubanization’ of Venezuela. And it also points out, correctly, that the Venezuelan revolution takes place almost diametrically opposite to the way in which the Cuban revolution occurred.

The book consists of some original material, plus previously published interviews, and a couple previously published articles. Hence the repetitiveness. The original material is actually fairly interesting, and provides good summary information about the state of the Cuban economy and Cuban socialism since the fall of the Soviet Union. There is also some good information on the state of the social missions (Mision Adentro, Mision Robinson, Mision Milagro, etc.) in Venezuela, defining the roles that Cuban physicians and teachers have played in those missions.

In all, I think you have to pretty interested in Venezuela or Cuba to find this book useful.

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