In 2002 I travelled to Venezuela to photograph the country under the influence of President Hugo Chavez for National Geographic Magazine. The socio-economic divide in Venezuela and the controversial social reforms of President Chavez was implementing were a focus of the project. I traveled all over the country. I was particularly interested in Chavez’s birth place, the plains of Venezuela, and the parallel of popular, cowboy culture exploited by both President Chavez and the US president at the time, President George W. Bush.