ABSTRACT
The first chapter of this book draws on interpretations and theories of populism in the literature, and Laclau's populist theoretical approach coupled with Glynos and Howarth's methodological schema. This chapter seeks to present the genealogical basis of this investigation. The first section presents a genealogical review of Venezuela since its independence from Spain in 1821 until the first moment of popular dislocation on February 27, 1989. The second section contextualizes the degree of social inequality in the country, and how neoliberal reforms in the 1990s further ‘excluded’ a great proportion of the population. This chapter describes the conditions that made Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez organize a coup d’état in 1992, and the unprecedented popular support this radical attempt received from Venezuela's poor and underprivileged population. This moment of dislocation laid the foundations for a collective social uproar against a common enemy: an ‘us-them’ axis. Chávez's ‘on air’ speech requesting other coup plotters in the country to surrender had unprecedented effects upon the popular mass. His presence and the discursive meaning of Chávez's ‘Por ahora’ became an empty signifier that fulfilled that sense of lack to people living in marginalized areas in Venezuela.
