The Smoking Fish - Cover and Prologue
The Smoking Fish: A Wikibox TL
An alternate history of Venezuela, the United States and the world in the 21st century
Prologue
An alternate history of Venezuela, the United States and the world in the 21st century
Prologue
"When an English voter wants a change in the politics of the conservative government in office, all they have to do is vote for the Labor candidate. The differences between a Labor and a Conservative government are not only of personalities but of content, objectives, programs and political philosophy. The case is similar in the United States, in France, in Spain or in any other democratic society.
In Venezuela, in these years, the opposition has never offered such a possibility of a true alternative..."
- Arturo Uslar Pietri in Coup and State in Venezuela
"I can see why people find him [Hugo Chávez] charming. He's very ebullient, as they say. I've heard him make a speech, though, and he has a vice that's always very well worth noticing because it's always a bad sign: he doesn't know when to sit down. He's worse than Castro was. He won't shut up. Then he told me that he didn't think the United States landed on the moon and didn't believe in the existence of Osama bin Laden. He thought all of this was all a put-up job. He's a wacko.”
- Christopher Hitchens
"It was less explained how, after having had that kind of monarch, Venezuelans still did not have an institutionalized mechanism to designate presidents. She did not conceive that Venezuelan society would go into crisis and put itself on the brink of civil war every time the head of state had to be chosen."
- Francisco Zuniaga in Truman's Passenger
"Venezuela has become a melancholic punching bag. They all say venerate her, while they beat her without pause."
- Leonardo Padrón
"Being born in Cuba, a country where freedom of speech is non-existent, it's startling to observe how Venezuela, where I was happily raised, is fast becoming Cuba's mirror image: Dismantling of fundamental democratic rights deserved by its people and citizens of the world."
- María Conchita Alonso
In Venezuela, in these years, the opposition has never offered such a possibility of a true alternative..."
- Arturo Uslar Pietri in Coup and State in Venezuela
"I can see why people find him [Hugo Chávez] charming. He's very ebullient, as they say. I've heard him make a speech, though, and he has a vice that's always very well worth noticing because it's always a bad sign: he doesn't know when to sit down. He's worse than Castro was. He won't shut up. Then he told me that he didn't think the United States landed on the moon and didn't believe in the existence of Osama bin Laden. He thought all of this was all a put-up job. He's a wacko.”
- Christopher Hitchens
"It was less explained how, after having had that kind of monarch, Venezuelans still did not have an institutionalized mechanism to designate presidents. She did not conceive that Venezuelan society would go into crisis and put itself on the brink of civil war every time the head of state had to be chosen."
- Francisco Zuniaga in Truman's Passenger
"Venezuela has become a melancholic punching bag. They all say venerate her, while they beat her without pause."
- Leonardo Padrón
"Being born in Cuba, a country where freedom of speech is non-existent, it's startling to observe how Venezuela, where I was happily raised, is fast becoming Cuba's mirror image: Dismantling of fundamental democratic rights deserved by its people and citizens of the world."
- María Conchita Alonso
As a Venezuelan person who had to leave his country for economic and personal reasons, I’ve always seen the United States as a modern Promised Land: a country where civil and economic liberties are protected, individuality is valued and celebrated and its government institutions are truly committed to protect their citizens. That explains why millions of Hispanics left everything behind to live in there, creating a large and heterogeneous community that has become a very important part of the American society. However, while reading some of the great discussions and TLs about American politics in this forum, I noticed the lack of focus on Hispanic and Latino Americans, their issues and political involvement, something that has caught my attention.
Another thing that I noticed is that even if there are plenty of TLs that deal with the post-Cold War world, there are few that actually focus on Latin American issues, and not even a single one focused on Venezuela. I highlight this because even if Venezuela isn’t the most populated or even the richest country of Latin America (it was), until a few years ago it arguably was the most politically powerful country of the region because of its oil industry. Without the use that Chávez gave to it as his foreign policy weapon, several political and economic developments in Latin America and other parts of the world would have been very differently. For instance, think about how positive would have been to the world economy having three or four million more barrels of Venezuelan oil, as well as a less belligerent OPEC during the 2000s and 2010s energy crisis.
With those considerations in mind, I decided that my first contribution to this forum will be a Wikibox TL that integrates the issues that I mentioned previously and analyze their impact in the 2000 U.S. presidential election and beyond. I choose it not only because it was an inflexion point, but because it can be safely said that it was decided by the vote of one of the biggest Hispanic and Latin American communities: the Cuban Americans. They, along with the Venezuelan Americans, remain as a Republican-leaning voting bloc only because the Democratic Party missed a huge opportunity to win their support and secure the state of Florida as a solid blue state from 2000 onwards. In parallel, I want to tell a different story of the election and the first years of the Chávez administration, since during those years he was able to take control of the Venezuelan political, judicial and economic institutions.
The first two chapters will focus on Venezuela, as they will describe events that will occur between 1998 and 1999 before catching up with the United States in the end of 1999. In the following chapters, the storytelling will be equally split between both countries as the events in one of them will affect the other.
Finally, I would like to thank you for taking a moment of your time to read my work. I would also like to thank @Yes and @hcallega, since their amazing TLs McGoverning and Decision Points inspired me to write this one. With nothing more to add, I welcome you to The Smoking Fish.
