One Chavista explains how 'Father Chávez' brought dignity to Venezuela's poor

[Judi Lynn]

One Chavista explains how 'Father Chávez' brought dignity to Venezuela's poor
By Charlie Devereux Charlie Devereux
2 hrs 11 mins ago

CARACAS, VENEZUELA – President Hugo Chávez might have many critics, but he can also count on legions of passionate supporters – many of them poor – who say he's the first leader to take their problems seriously.

One such supporter is Nancy Monsalve. The middle-aged community worker, who has lived all her life in the tough Caracas barrio of 23 de Enero, says life under Mr. Chávez has improved significantly. "I complained against the system because we were repressed," she says of life before Chávez came to power in 1999.

Ms. Monsalve says there were often curfews imposed by the National Guard in her neighborhood, a poor slum in the western reaches of Caracas and one of the strongholds of support for Mr. Chávez's leftist movement.

"There were curfews," she says. "You couldn't go out after 6 in the evening to go shopping. We were censored 100 percent. You couldn't say what you thought because automatically you would be thrown in jail."

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090202/wl_csm/ochavista_1

[tavalon]

1. Father Chavez gets how to win the love of his country

I'm quite unsure about him but my opinion is still open for change. I've seen quite a bit of good and quite a bit of megalomania there. Hella better than what we had for eight years.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Latin America Breaks Free

Latin America Breaks Free
Written by Benjamin Dangl
Tuesday, 03 February 2009

Source: The Progressive Magazine, Feb. 2009 Issue

Five years ago, when Evo Morales was a rising political star as a congressman and coca farmer, I met him in his office in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He was drinking orange juice and sifting through the morning newspapers when I asked him about a meeting he just had with Brazilian President Lula. "The main issue that we spoke about was how we can construct a political instrument of liberation and unity for Latin America," Morales told me.

Now President Morales is one of many left-leaning South American leaders playing that instrument. This unified bloc is effectively replacing Washington's presence in the region, from military training grounds to diplomatic meetings. In varying degrees, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela are demonstrating that the days of U.S.-backed coups, gunship diplomacy, and Chicago Boys' neoliberalism may very well be over for South America. The election of Barack Obama also gave hope for a less cowboy approach from Washington.

While many of the current left-of-center leaders in Latin America were elected on anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal platforms, the general scope of their policies varies widely. On the left side of the spectrum sit Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. They have focused on nationalizing natural resources and redistributing the subsequent wealth to social programs to benefit the countries' poor majorities. They have also enacted constitutional changes aimed at redistributing land and increasing popular participation in government policy, decision-making, and budgeting. Chávez, Morales, and Correa were also more outspoken than other leaders in their critique of the Bush Administration.

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A conflict in Bolivia this past September proved to be a litmus test for the new regional unity. Just weeks after a recall vote invigorated Morales with 67 percent support across the country, a small group of thugs hired by the rightwing opposition led a wave of violence against Morales's supporters. The worst of these days of road blockades, protests, and racist attacks took place on September 11 in the tropical state of Pando. A private militia allegedly funded by the rightwing governor, Leopoldo Fernández, fired on a thousand unarmed pro-Morales men, women, and children marching toward the state's capital. The attack left dozens dead and wounded.

More:
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1520/1/