Peripheral Anti-Imperialism: The New Revisionism and the History of Argentine Foreign Relations in the Era of the Kirchners

Abstract

After 2000, a funny thing happened to the political language of the new left
in South America. While leaders in many countries and of many political stripes
regularly evoke the past, Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez made a science of
historicizing current problems by reviving the distant and forgotten as relevant
and poignant. The point of the exercise was to resurrect obscured narrative as
historical revision with sharp, current political meaning. In 2007, for example,
at the height of a simmering dispute with the Colombian government, Chávez
accused Colombian president Álvaro Uribe of fronting for a “Santanderista
oligarchy.”2 Less striking than the evocation of a contentious narrative on how
independence era icon Simón Bolivar died (murdered by his erstwhile ally,
Brigadier General Francisco Santander) was Chávez’s confidence that an ancient
story of political betrayal could resonate with his supporters. How many
political leaders can trot out a two centuries-old story and make it meaningful
to followers in contexts of current political debate?