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b'A talk by Tariq Ali, editor, New Left Review. Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Ch\\xe1vez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. While Ch\\xe1vez\'s radical social-democratic reforms have brought him worldwide acclaim among the poor, he has attracted intense hostility from Venezuelan elites and Western governments. Drawing on first-hand experience of Venezuela and meetings with Ch\\xe1vez, Tariq Ali shows how Ch\\xe1vez\'s views have polarized Latin America and examines the hostility directed against his administration. Ali discusses the enormous influence of Fidel Castro on both Ch\\xe1vez and Evo Morales, the newly-elected President of Bolivia, and contrasts the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionary processes. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.'