12/05/2011 7:30 pm Lecture: Jennifer McCoy

Jennifer McCoy, "Understanding Chavez' Venezuela".

Dr. McCoy will address Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution led by Hugo Chávez. What were its origins and, more importantly, where is it going? The uncertainty about President Chávez health after revelations of unnamed cancer this summer, combined with an apparently evenly divided population, make next year’s presidential elections a potential gamechanger. A defiant challenger of U.S. influence, Chávez has courted Chinese investment, befriended Ghadafi’s Libya and Iran, and nationalized many foreign investments. Thus, the implications for relations with the U.S. in this oil-producing country also hang in the balance

Dr. Dr. Jennifer McCoy

Dr. McCoy is Director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program and a professor of Political Science at Georgia State University. Her areas of expertise include democratization in Latin America, the role of international actors in mediating democratic crises, and the emergence of global electoral rights and anti-corruption norms. Her new book International Mediation in Venezuela, about The Carter Center’s role during the 2002-04 conflict in Venezuela and subsequent political developments through 2010, was released in October by the U.S. Institute of Peace Press.