(Note: This first appeared at Caracas Chronicles)
I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Corrales at the Venezuela at the Crossroads event on March 4 of this year. If you haven’t read his excellent book Dragon in the Tropics, co-authored by Michael Penfold, you should. It’s a great exposé on the Bolivarian Revolution.
I started off with the question I had been dying to ask him all morning, just to break the ice. “So, just to clarify, you’re not an ‘ultra-rightist’ are you?” He laughed. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. And that’s where the interview began as we delved into the myths of the “ultra-derechista fascistas” and the “good” Bolivarian socialist left and Javier took it from there.
Javier Corrales is professor of Political Science at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. He earned his Ph.D. in political Science from Harvard University. He is the author and co-author of many books and he serves on the editorial boards of Latin American Politics and Society and Americas Quarterly.