Gran marcha hacia el abismo | Latin American Studies

Gran marcha hacia el abismo

We are happy to announce that Carlos Blanco, a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies since 2016, has published a novel fictionalizing the populism of the 21st century as he has observed it in his native Venezuela.

Bolivian writer Juan Claudio Lechin describes the book, Gran marcha hacia el abismo, as follows:

Gran marcha hacia el abismo es vertiginosa y tremenda. Con naturalidad salta del pasado a la actualidad y viceversa. Su personaje icónico, Baldomero Perdigón, revolucionario y asaltante de bancos (como Stalin), y otros ‘militantes’ hostigan violentamente a la democracia. Cuando esta militancia pierde la fe política se profesionaliza, dice Blanco, y aprende a manejar una compleja mafia de donaciones económicas de banqueros y burgueses adeptos, robo, extorsión, secuestro, asesinato, manipulación de los ingenuos, a tiempo, que acuden a las asambleas —como a una liturgia— a debatir sobre la esperanza humana y el destino de los más pobres.

Al llegar al poder mostrarán su verdadera naturaleza: venal y apocalíptica, purgas de amigos, traiciones, la capacidad viral de enfermar países, de expoliarlos, de entregarlos a Cuba y a otras potencias extranjeras, incansable frenesí que hacen para curar —con el abuso de poder—, el profundo resentimiento que los habita.

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