Venezuelan President Hugh Chavez inspires hatred and devotion in equal measure in his country. Historically one of South America's more stable democracies, since 2000 Venezuela has become increasingly polarised politically, as the divide among the pro- and anti-Chavistas has grown ever wider. Chavez has survived a coup attempt and repeated calls to stand down from office, while he has played a high-stakes game of geopolitical risk, aligning himself with US enemies Fidel Castro and Libya's Colonel Gadaffy, even while the US eyes Venezuela's considerable reserves of oil. But, while he might be a compelling emblem of modern Venezuela, Hugo Chavez isn't the whole story. In this book, "Irish Times" and "Guardian" journalist Michael McCaughan investigates not only the rise of the charismatic former army office, but also the deep division in Venezuela, and examines the conundrum of Chavez' Venezuela and its place within the hemispheric interests of George Bush's Imperium.

Rodolfo Walsh was a writer of crime novels, a tireless investigative journalist who uncovered real political crimes, an instant historian of a turbulent and violent era in Argentinian and Latin American politics. He was in Cuba in 1960, participating in setting up the first revolutionary press service in Latin America, "Prensa Latina", when a coded telex arrived in their offices by mistake. After sleepless nights and with one cryptography manual, Walsh deciphered the plans for the US invasion of Cuba being planned in Guatemala by the CIA. Walsh was active in the Montonero guerrilla in Argentina, co-ordinating information and intelligence work. In that capacity he made public the existence of ESMA, the Naval Mechanics School which was the main military torture centre. In his own name he wrote an Open Letter to the Military Junta, a year from the coup and a day before his death, denouncing the dirty war. He was gunned down in the streets of Buenos Aires by a military death squad. This is an account of Rudolfo Walsh's life. It includes extended excerpts from his varied writings.