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8. For a fascinating account of the connections between, on the one hand,
Christian Fundamentalism generally, and, on the other, neoliberal globaliza-
tion see Comaroff 2006. For a stimulating consideration of these issues see
also Meyer 2005b.
9. Indeed, I believe that the intensity with which such a morphing One nowa-
days recurrently dissipates along a metonymic chain where images and things
constantly slide from one to the next, without easily lending themselves to be
comprehended by any totalizing instance, is key to understanding why it
increasingly exhibits such extreme hyperbolic tendencies. In other words, the
tendency with which, as a greedy “Holy Ghost,” as “Bolívar” or, for that mat-
ter, as Bush’s “Crusading Mission” such a One becomes monstrous, turned
into an oversized spook agonically striving to swallow all of reality is, in my
view, directly proportional to its helplessness vis-à-vis a globalized world that
is ever more resilient to any and all such totalizing ambitions. In this respect,
it is highly significant that the quintessential demonic, pagan “other” of
Pentecostal Christianity in Venezuela is the Maria Lionza possession cult.
Elsewhere I have written about this cult as a site where, possessed by televi-
sion, the mediums irrepressibly slide along metonymic chains where, in any
one session, they may become possessed by literally dozens of globalized spir-
its from “Vikings” and “Barbarians” to “Egyptian Pharaohs,” “wild Indians,”
dead movie stars, and heroes from the Venezuelan Wars of Independence. See
Sánchez 2001.
10. When Hermana Juana seized the Yaracuy building, sometime in 2003, she
did so as the head of some 65 families, of which roughly half were Pentecostals.
Calculating an average of 4 or 5 members per family, this would amount to
somewhere between 100 and 150 Pentecostals in the building.

11. The image is not only metaphorical. Both the zone where Sister Juana used to
live before seizing the Yaracuy building and the nearby Vargas state suffered
in 1999 massive landslides, resulting in 1,000 officially confirmed dead,
thousands disappeared, and 150.000 people displaced. For a fascinating
account of the emergency generated by the 1999 mudslides and its manage-
ment by the military, see Fassin and Vasquez 2005. See also Vásquez 2005,
2006.
12. For an insightful discussion of Derrida’s “economy of violence” and its impli-
cations for the understanding of both political processes and the reformula-
tion of cultural and political identities see Beardsworth 2000, 1–46.
13. This has been made quite evident in recent months when, at least for the time

being, the Boulevard of Sabana Grande has been retaken by the state, clearing
the whole area from informal merchants. Given how crucial the support from
this informal sector is to the Chávez administration the long-term repercus-
sions from such a state intervention still remain to be seen.
14. On televisual possession see Sánchez 2001.
15. For an insightful consideration of Lyotard’s understanding of the notion of
representation see Bennington 1988.

16. On the withdrawal of the Theologico-Political see Lacoue-Labarthe and
Nancy 1997, 122–142. In line with Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy’s arguments,