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George Ciccariello-Maher'sWe Created Chávezis the most important book available in English proposing an anti-capitalist framework for understanding the Bolivarian process in contemporary Venezuela, as well as its historical backdrop dating back to 1958. The book contains within it a laudable critique of Eurocentrism and a masterful combination of oral history, ethnography, and theoretical sophistication. It reveals with unusual clarity and insight the multiplicity of popular movements that allowed for Hugo Chávez's eventual ascension to presidential office in the late 1990s.We Created Chávezhas set a new scholarly bar for social histories of the Bolivarian process and demands serious engagement by Marxists. As a first attempt at such engagement, this paper reveals some critical theoretical and sociological flaws in the text and other areas of analytical imprecision. Divided into theoretical and historical parts, it unpacks some of the strengths and weaknesses by moving from the abstract to the concrete. The intervention begins with concepts – the mutually determining dialectic between Chávez and social movements; 'the people'; and 'dual power'. From here, it grounds these concepts, and Ciccariello-Maher's use of them, in various themes and movements across specific historical periods of Venezuelan political development – the rural guerrillas of the 1960s, the urban guerrillas of the 1970s, the new urban socio-political formations of the 1980s, Afro-Indigenous struggles in the Bolivarian process, and formal and informal working-class transformations since the onset of neoliberalism and its present contestation in the Venezuelan context.

This article takes stock of major developments in the political economy of contemporary Venezuela after ten years under Hugo Chávez. It is argued that the Bolivarian process has done a great deal to rejuvenate the international critique of neoliberalism and to bring discussion of socialism back on the agenda of the Left. At the same time, there has been no socialist revolution in Venezuela, and Chavismo is ridden with profound and abiding contradictions. This article considers the historical backdrop of the Bolivarian process, beginning with the end of authoritarianism and the Pact of Punto Fijo and the rise and fall of orthodox neoliberalism at the end of the twentieth-century. The article then describes Chavez' gradual and partial radicalization between 1999 and 2009 and finally concludes that the global economic crisis poses a unique set of challenges and opportunities for the Bolivarian process in the midst of significantly reduced oil revenues. Cet article analyse les développements majeurs dans l'économie politique du Venezuela contemporain après dix ans sous Hugo Chávez. Il défend l'idée que le processus Bolivarien a considérablement revivifié la critique internationale du néolibéralisme et a remis le débat sur le socialisme sur l'agenda de la Gauche. En même temps, il n'y a pas eu de révolution socialiste au Venezuela et le Chavisme est marqué par des profondes contradictions structurelles. Cet article retrace les évènements historiques qui ont précédé le processus Bolivarien, en commençant avec la fin de l'autoritarisme et le pacte de Punto Fijo et la montée puis la chute du néoliberalisme orthodoxe à la fin du vingtième siècle. Ensuite, cet article décrit la radicalisation graduelle et partielle de Chavez entre 1999 et 2009 et conclut que la crise économique mondiale représente des défis et opportunités pour le processus Bolivarien en particulier compte tenu des revenus pétroliers significativement réduits.

During the short-lived government of Carlos Mesa (October 17, 2003—June 6, 2005), Bolivian society was intensely divided along the lines of class, race, and region. Out of this context, two social blocs emerged: a left-indigenous bloc, constituted by worker and peasant organizations based in La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Potosí, and Chuquisaca, and an eastern-bourgeois bloc, constituted by groups representing agro-industrial, financial, and petroleum capital in the Departments of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando, and Beni. The Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism—MAS) party and fractions of the middle class were oscillating forces that belonged to neither side. Mesa attempted to play a mediating, Bonapartist role between the social blocs but ultimately failed, and his government collapsed. Thus the stage was set for Evo Morales's successful bid to become the country's first indigenous president in the elections of December 2005. Understanding this decisive interval in Bolivian history is crucial for fully coming to terms with the reformist character of the Morales government today. The nonrevolutionary trajectory of the MAS administration since 2005 should not have come as a surprise given the extensive collaboration between Morales and the neoliberal regime of Mesa directly prior to the former's ascent to office.