The Bolivarian Revolution as a Counter-Hegemonic Project

Chapter 3 outlined the transference of the neoliberal project to Latin America and its eventual organic crisis in the late 1990s. This crisis sparked a series of struggles out of which emerged a Pink Tide of leftist governments that has sought to move beyond ‘savage neoliberalism.’ As suggested, this Pink Tide phenomenon is not homogenous, but includes varied approaches to countering neoliberalism, with Venezuela and Brazil as the two leading examples. This chapter explores the former, in the form of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ initiated by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998, which represents a fledgling attempt to construct a counter-hegemonic alternative to neoliberalism and global capitalism. While still in its infancy and facing a number of internal and external pressures, the Bolivarian Revolution nevertheless represents a fundamental challenge to the neoliberal project not only within its own borders but also regionally. Its domestic features are explored in this chapter.