Book Review: Eva Golinger, Confidante of ‘Tyrants’: The Inside
Story of the American Woman Trusted by the US’s Biggest Enemies.
Oxford: New Internationalist,
2018.
Don’t let the
title put you off. Eva Golinger is a very smart, hard-working, and
courageous woman. She pioneered investigation into the intense
efforts of the United States government to overthrow the
democratically-elected government of Venezuela. I certainly agree
with Noam Chomsky that this book is “a unique and informative
perspective on some of the most intriguing events of current
history.”
Golinger points out
the extreme hypocrisy of the U.S. government: it brazenly attempts to
win so-called “regime change” in other countries by funding
opposition political parties, protest movements, and journalists,
while at the same time strictly prohibiting any other country or
noncitizen from contributing to a candidate or party in any U.S.
election. What a double standard!
In this memoir,
Golinger is brutally honest. She served as a foreign policy
consultant to the Hugo Chávez government from 2004 to 2012 without
salary, and accompanied him as he met many other heads of state. Even
as the president trusted her, other Chavistas tried to block or
sabotage her efforts. Now is openly critical of his mistakes. The
corruption that he tolerated among some of his supporters grew to
epic proportions.
Disclaimer: I lived
and worked in Venezuela from 2006 to 2016 and had the honor to meet
Eva Golinger on several occasions. I share her opinion that President
Chávez had a great love for the Venezuelan people and used petroleum
revenue to achieve great advances in social welfare: education,
health care, food, housing, culture. I agree with her that the messy
process of empowering communities in participatory budgeting was very
significant. She says Chávez “gave his life for his country and
his fellow citizens.” I also share her opinion that the mistakes he
made, especially the economic ones, have now come back to ruin the
Bolivarian Revolution, resulting in pain and tragedy for the people.
Golinger says that
Chávez “had no hate in his heart that I ever saw.” I would
disagree, because he regularly insulted the opposition, always
calling them “squalids.” (The word is an adjective, not a noun,
in Spanish as well as in English, yet it is obviously an insult). If
you insult those who disagree with you, you’ll never win them over
to your side. He also imprisoned opponents accused of corruption,
while most of his supporters who were corrupt were immune from
punishment. She points out that “Chávez’s habit of choosing
loyalty over competence was a fatal mistake.”
She admits her
mistakes, including her distribution in November 2007 of a purported
CIA memo that was a sloppy forgery created by the Venezuelan
political police (SEBIN)—she
was “spammed” she says. After Chávez died, she continued to
support his chosen successor, President Nicolas Maduro, for two years
until: “I saw up close and personal what I considered to be severe
corruption and criminal activity inside his government. And when I
informed him of those activities, instead of initiating
investigations against the people involved, he rewarded them.”
I recommend the book
to anyone who wants to see the dramatic changes in Venezuela “up
close and personal.”
