Ramtin Arablouei and Randa Abdel-Fattah

Which created the expectation that this was not the end, this was the beginning.

This is Raul Gallegos.

He was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and Caracas from 2004 to 2009.

That was his 30 seconds of fame.

And that was all that it took to completely alter the narrative of Venezuela in history.

After giving the speech, Chavez was escorted to jail, which only added to his newfound stardom.

And so in failure...

He nevertheless became the leader because of this circumstance.

Another accident of history.

If somebody else had been, you know, given that airtime, maybe they would have been the ones to lead this movement.

And to a large extent, that had also happened with Bolivar, right?

In both cases, it was out of failure and circumstance that propelled their image as something larger.

And then they kind of rode that image into bigger and better things.

Well, not always better, but without a doubt, much bigger things were just around the corner for both of them.

Part 2.

The Iron Hand

So last we heard of Bolivar, he'd just been sent into exile after a failed attempt at Venezuelan independence.

And it was during that time that Bolivar's revolutionary vision really took shape.

Most people at the time, you know, they never got beyond like 50 miles or a radius, and he just traveled constantly.

everywhere, certainly by necessity, but also by choice.