Policing the Revolution - The Transformation of Coercive Power and Venezuela's Security Landscape During Chavismo

In Policing the Revolution, Rebecca Hanson provides the first in-depth analysis of policing and security policies during the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, focusing on the experiences of three groups: police officers, police reformers, and residents of neighborhoods most affected by violence. Drawing on ethnographic, interview, and survey research collected over ten years, she analyzes how security policies within the context of the pink tide and later turn to authoritarianism contributed to the expansion of lateral violence and the pluralization of non-state violent actors. Rethinking the relationship between revolution, violence, and state-building, this book is essential reading to understand how and why violence increased so dramatically in Venezuela in the twenty-first century.