Rigorous state-promotion of cooperatives as part of the Bolivarian Revolution has increased the number of cooperatives in Venezuela from 762 in 1998, before President Hugo Chavez came to power, to 108,000 in 2006. However, in July 2007, Chavez declared the program a failure, a surprise given his break from a past of exclusionary national rhetoric and his popular support. By examining CECOSESOLA, one of the most successful cooperatives worldwide, I argue that a cooperative's success is tied to its effectiveness in generating agency and a group narrative of resistance. Unlike CECOSESOLA, which has maintained autonomy and developed its own alternative narrative of belonging, Chavez's program provided cooperatives with a politicized and state-centric narrative of cooperative identity reliant on his charisma. My research ultimately suggests that though Chavez discursively encourages citizen mobilization, the Bolivarian narrative perpetuates patterns of exclusion and may consequently undermine the creation of a strong civil society.

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