Venezuelan Insurgency, 1960-1968:

About the Book

Venezuelan Insurgency, 1960-1968: A Successful Failure examines and analyzes the Venezuelan Extreme Left and its activities from the first serious uprising against the government of Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt in April 1960 through the Venezuelan national elections of December 1968. As background, an examination of Venezuelan politics begins with the 1899 introduction to power by President Cipriano Castro in order to provide a framework to the development of the political environment from which the prominent insurgency and government leaders emerged. In addition, a summary examination of contemporary global insurgency and terrorism introduces the specific examination of the Venezuelan Extreme Left and the reasons why it viewed guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism as the paths necessary to achieve its goals. The work also undertakes an assessment of the Venezuelan peasantry in order to shed light on the reasons that, in general, they remained loyal to the Venezuelan government rather than support the Left. Finally, the present work presents some conclusions concerning the political impact of the insurgency movement on the Venezuelan democratic process.

About the Author

H. Micheal Tarver teaches Latin American History at McNeese State University (Louisiana), and is an adjunct member of the “Grupo de Análisis Socio-Político de Venezuela” at the Universidad de Los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela). Tarver was a 1999 J. William Fulbright Senior Scholar to Venezuela and a 1998 Shearman Research Fellow at McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana. He is a past Chairman of the Gran Colombian Studies Committee of the Conference on Latin American History, and is the current Secretary of the Southeast World History Association. Tarver has a doctorate in Modern Latin American History from Bowling Green State University (Ohio).