Welcome to Confronting Capitalism. I'm Melissa Nashek, and on this episode, Vivek Chibber is talking with

Gabriel Hetland about the current developments in Venezuela. On January 3rd, 26, the U.S. led a military

operation to capture Venezuela's president Nicholas Maduro. This is an evolving situation, so we can't

come to any definitive conclusions yet about

what is going on and what America's goals are.

Our guest, Gabriel Hetland, is an associate professor at SUNY Albany and the author of the

award-winning book, Democracy on the Ground, Local Politics in Latin America's Left

Turn.

This is a special episode, and next week we'll return to our normal schedule.

Gabe, hi, glad to have you on the show. Thanks. Really glad to be with you, Vive.

This is an important analysis for us because it's one of the most overt and aggressive actions

that a Trump administration or any American administration has taken in many

years and invading another country so brazenly, essentially kidnapping its leader and

who, for better or for worse, says that he was elected into office and bringing him to the

U.S. to be tried in a foreign country.

It's one of the most amazing events we've seen

in decades in the United States and in the hemisphere, in fact. And I thought we would have

you on, Gabe, because you're the author of this terrific essay in the fall 2024 issue of

Catalyst, and it's called from Chavez to Maduro, which is examining both the origins

of Chavismo in Venezuela and the remarkable transformations that it brought about, its constriction

as a political movement, so that it becomes more personalistic, more authoritarian as the years

go on. And then after Chavez's demise, the rise of Maduro in a much more personalistic, more authoritarian as the years go on. And then after Chavez's demise, the rise of

...