`I had breakfast with Hugo Chavez, lunch with Bashar al-Assad,
cocktails with Putin and dinner with Qadafi. Fidel Castro
wooed me with flowers, perfume and cigars. Ahmadinejad told
me he loved me. Chavez proclaimed me `The Girlfriend of
Venezuela'. But I am not a spy, and I am not a traitor.'
When US lawyer Eva Golinger first spent some time in
Venezuela uncovering her ancestral roots, she little realized
how the country was going to change her life. Within a
few years she had become an enthusiast for the Bolivarian
Revolution and a close confidante of its charismatic leader,
Hugo Chavez. She achieved worldwide notoriety by exposing
and condemning US intervention in Venezuela and ended up
travelling with Chavez all over the world, spending time with
many other controversial leaders.
In this frank and disarming memoir, she tells the full story
of her time in Chavez's inner circle and reflects on what she
has learned about revolutionary politics, about the dangers of
authoritarian populism - and about herself.