SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The book "The Adventures Of Juan Planchard" centers on an antihero, a deeply flawed one.
JONATHAN JAKUBOWICZ: This guy used to be a middle-class guy who was from a good family, who was, you know, working decent jobs for a while. But he eventually realized that if he wanted to make a lot of money, he had to get in business with the government.
DETROW: That's Venezuelan author and filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz. He wrote the book to show what life was like under the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez.
JAKUBOWICZ: People thought that we had a socialist revolution in the name of equality and social justice and a government that was, you know, spreading the wealth for the poor.
DETROW: But Jakubowicz says that didn't happen.
JAKUBOWICZ: What was really going on is basically a heist where all the government officials were robbing the nation blind. And the reason I wrote it was basically to open the eyes of those who didn't realize that this was not what was being claimed to be, that this was actually an assault of a nation.
DETROW: It's under those circumstances that we meet Juan Planchard. The book follows him as he makes big business deals, starts a flashy romance and plays riskier games with the government. It's a fictionalized account of what the author says is very real corruption in Venezuela.
JAKUBOWICZ: He's basically uncovering everything in front of your eyes - how they work, how they made money and all the little secrets that they used in order to sustain the propaganda for so long while at the same time enriching themselves.
DETROW: The book came out in 2016. It became a big hit in Venezuela but pretty soon ruffled the feathers of the regime, which was by then led by Nicolás Maduro, and so people turned to reading it underground. It's now available in English for the first time. I spoke with Jakubowicz about the book, which sometimes reads like a summer blockbuster.
How did you strike the balance? Because like you said, you wanted to make a point here. You wanted the realities to sink in. But you kind of dressed those realities up with really over-the-top scenes right out of a blockbuster. We've got jet-setting. We've got rich people. We've got chase scenes. We've got sex scenes. And at the same time, there's a deep reality that clearly struck a nerve with Venezuelan readers.
JAKUBOWICZ: Well, the reason I decided to write a book is because I couldn't make a movie in Venezuela because I got in trouble with the government because of my first movie, so I was exiled. And so I wanted to communicate with my countrymen, and literature seemed like the only possible path. The challenge was that Venezuelans are not big readers. So I said, I'm going to write a book that is so fun and so filled with sex and violence that even Venezuelans cannot resist. You get the politics after all the fun you had, you know, and I truly believe that's the best way to get - to move someone.
DETROW: Yeah.
JAKUBOWICZ: You know, there's a connection with the character in which you understand the reasoning of a criminal. But I think it's essential to understand the politics because you don't - it all sounds like too crazy to be true until you understand the reasoning.
DETROW: In addition to all of those storytelling methods, there are some deep real points here. And there's a line that's stuck with me since I read it. It's in the first couple pages of the book, but it's a quote from Juan where he says...
(Reading) My country elected a man who believes in nothing but loyalty. He doesn't care what you do as long as you don't cross him. So why fight him? Who am I to tell people they're wrong for believing in a man who makes them feel seen?
He's talking about Chávez there, but it could apply to Maduro, and I think a lot of people would say that could apply in the U.S. to President Donald Trump.
JAKUBOWICZ: Yeah. I mean, a lot of the populism you're seeing not only in the United States but in a lot of Europe, you know, we Venezuelans see it as so familiar. You know, Chávez was sort of the first social media president as well. He was tweeting, governing - government - governing by tweets, you know, and saying all the radical stuff and taking all the attention for - from everything. And that, the fact that loyalty was the only important thing - you know, when morals are put aside, where ideology doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that you support the leader, you know, so there's a breakdown in society, and then suddenly anything goes,.
And I think it's a very dangerous path to take. It is a path that I would have never imagined the United States could go through. It's obviously very different because Trump is probusiness and, you know, it's a completely different approach in that sense. But the notion of a populist, you know, whose only value is his political benefit is something that it feels very familiar to any Venezuelan who lives in the U.S. or in Europe right now.
DETROW: Do you like the person, Juan Planchard? Do you think he's a good person?
JAKUBOWICZ: I think he's a good person doing bad things. What is fascinating about him is that he shows you that any person in his circumstances may take that turn. And I think humans are flawed, and he is certainly flawed, but I don't think it comes from evil. I think he is simply put in a situation where he finds a fork in the road and he takes the wrong side.
DETROW: What do you think he would have made of the, to many people, cynical military operation that happened earlier this year of removing Maduro, but by and large leaving the Maduro regime in place without further changes?
JAKUBOWICZ: Well, I don't want to spoil the rest of the franchise 'cause this is a...
DETROW: (Laughter) Sure.
JAKUBOWICZ: This is a trilogy of books, but he's...
DETROW: Yeah.
JAKUBOWICZ: He's very involved into that operation in Book 3.
DETROW: OK.
JAKUBOWICZ: But, you know, I think for Venezuelans, it's been a fascinating situation because we certainly feel that an intervention was necessary. Right now, we have a surreal situation where in a way, like you said, part of the regime or the rest of the regime is still in place, but this is a regime that is now allowing American planes to fly freely in Caracas. So in a way, I am - you know, as you've heard many times in the wars in the Middle East, people saying you can kill people, but you cannot kill an idea. I feel like in Venezuela, they didn't kill people, but they killed the idea of the revolution.
DETROW: So have you seen and felt a difference?
JAKUBOWICZ: Yeah. I mean, the notion that this is an anti-imperial revolution that is facing the American empire is no longer valid. I have friends who were liberated from prison. In the last few months, more than 600 political prisoners were freed. So it's - there's real changes happening on the ground. It's going slower than we want. And, you know, there is a danger that it stays without it becoming a democracy, but I feel like Venezuelans are not going to take that. Venezuelans, if they have to take to the streets, they will.
So I am optimistic, but at the same time, I'm not waiting with my arms crossed. I'm trying to do my best to - for Venezuelans to be strategic and seize this unique historic opportunity to truly make the change that we have been fighting for for almost three decades.
DETROW: That's Jonathan Jakubowicz, the author of "The Adventures Of Juan Planchard." Thank you so much.
JAKUBOWICZ: Thank you. Thank you, guys.
(SOUNDBITE OF RAWAYANA SONG, "VAYANSE TODOS A MAMA (FEAT. LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES AND CHEO PARDO)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
