This is a well written, richly detailed, and very traditional history of Venezuelan politics during the rule of el benemérito Juan Vicente Gómez. The author’s central thesis is that Venezuelan historiography exaggerates in depicting the Gómez regime as a totally ruthless and effective tyranny. The author believes that the dictator’s political skills have been underrated, and that although Gómez was widely reviled as the “Tyrant of the Andes” and the “Shame of America,” “it is debatable whether his modus operandi was more extreme than those of his contemporaries” (p. 378).
There was hardly a year of his rule (1908 – 35) in which some kind of antigovernment conspiracy was not being hatched. McBeth counts 25 movements, including 12 invasions, typically overland from Colombia, often paired with major seaborne expeditions like the Odin Harrier (1919), the Angelita (1924), and the Falke (1929). The financing and organization of these movements are described...
