Please keep in mind this piece was written in August after my visit to Venezuela. Some things have changed quite a bit, others maybe less so... just keep that in mind.

The objective of this letter is to inform you all on the current happenings of Venezuelan politics from a recent post collegiate perspective, and on what I have gained from my visit. As many of you know, I spent a good portion of my final semester studying Hugo Chavez and his politics, though my focus was more directed on his ridiculous use of rhetoric in regards to the

.I read many articles about Chavez from the viewpoint of his supporters, Chavistas, and from those against him, the opposition.While my thesis articulates my optimism behind his movements, it has also heralded my interest in verifying his efforts.I came to

rather doubtful about the things I would learn about him and what the people would have to say. I almost expected to hear only bad things about this crazy dictator who is suppressing people rights and trying to take over the world…as publicized by the news sources that we are fed in the

.After all, nearly every person I told that I was coming to

would give me a serious and stern facial expression, and then say something along the lines of, “You better watch out for that dictator Chavez,” or “Be careful, those Venezuelans hate Americans, say you’re from

.”Obviously it was nearly impossible to enter the country without an uncomfortable cloud of doubt and anxiety.In the end, I actually welcomed my precarious stance, because that was the reason I had wanted to come to

in the first place: to see what was happening with mis propios ojos (own eyes).I wanted both sides and I wanted to be able to come up with an educated and first hand decision for whichever stance I chose to take.

            Though there are areas where my doubts linger, which I’ll go into later, I can proudly and confidently say that I am a Chavista.  I have a massive amount of respect for Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution he is fighting for.  It is indeed a Bolivarian Revolution in every sense of the two words.  A movement which follows in the steps of a great 18^th century revolutionary liberator Simon Bolivar, and a revolution for complete economic change in a country that has suffered a nearly 20 year depression and continues to fight poverty and corruption.  It’s a revolution against capitalism and imperialism, systems that have historically widened the gap between the rich and the poor in Latin America.  It’s a revolution for participatory socialism, where the ideas and values of the Venezuelan masses will change the world.  I met an older man in Choroni, a beach town about four hours from Caracas, who was wearing a PSUV (Participativa Socialismo Unido de Venezuela) t-shirt. We were talking about Chavez and this new party (PSUV) and its prospects when he told us, “Chavez representa la luz que ya no hemos visto.  El es el segundo major revolucionario despues de Simon Bolivar.” (“Chavez represents a light that we haven’t seen before. He is the second best revolutionary after Simon Bolivar.”) This man is just one example of some of Chavez’s fans. He was full of excitement, enthusiasm, energy and hope and was delightful to talk with.  He sees a ray of hope in Chavez that he hasn’t seen in his whole lifetime.  That has to mean something. 

            While we were in Caracas, we spent a good amount of time in an area called El Valle.  We spent the majority of our time with an organization called Tiuna Fuerte, where they work to bring together youth and elderly alike through music, artesanias and a mutual interest in the participation towards making their lives better.  We went to one of their weekly meeting and were able to see for ourselves the level of passion and commitment these people have devoted to improving security and youth participation.  The majority of the people that came to this meeting had spent the day at work, probably came home to make dinner, and then rush out to this meeting.  Although tired, these consejo comunales are one thing that people really seem to look forward to at the rise of a new week.  This community receives a good amount of funding from the government because of the projects they have created and proposed.  The hill sides of El Valle and Caracas are covered in shantytowns that for the first time are receiving water, in part due to this organization and project proposals of the consejo comunales.

            While we were in Merida, we visited with a Barrio Adentro Cuban run health clinic.  The doctor we spoke with told us that the clinics are run completely by government funding and will treat anyone from mild cold, to lasic-eye surgery, to a terminal illness.  There have been hundreds, if not thousands of these clinics built in the last few years and operated by well-trained Cuban doctors.  Barrio Adentro falls into Chavez’s Mission Milagro, which has brought in nearly 3,000 Cuban doctors to start these clinics and begin intensive medical training for any Venezuela university student interested.  In addition, Venezuelan medical students are sent to Cuba to do their training because Cuba’s medical training facilities are more established than Venezuela’s.  I was floored hearing this woman speak.  She said that the simple gratification of a thank you, made every sacrifice she has made to become a doctor worth it.  We asked her about her opinion on Castro, seeing as the US media is additionally quite one-sided in regards to Cuba.  She said that she loves the country she has grown up in, as well as her President.  She specified that Castro is Cuba’s President and has been elected into government each election term.  She noted that education and health care are some of the best in the world and that she has not had to pay for a cent for education her whole life. That’s pretty amazing. Castro’s Cuba is an area of study I would additionally like to pursue, seeing as we receive rather one-sided media on that country as well.  Although this is a generalization, I feel that many doctors are in it for the money, and not necessarily for the gratification they receive by helping specific patients.  Therefore, this was an inspiring yet frustrating day.  American health care needs to be reformed!

            I’d like to address a few common concerns among the American public about ol’
Hugo Chavez.  For example, where did his hate for the US government come from?  I have to specify US government here because nearly every person we met reassured us that they didn’t have a problem with the American people, just the American government.  On the contrary, people were so excited to listen to what we were doing in Venezuela and so hopeful that we could relay a positive message to our country.  Obviously Venezuela and the United States are extremely important oil trading partners and therefore have a complex relationship.  With geographical proximity, the US is dependent on Venezuela as an oil producer, and Venezuela is dependent on the US as an oil consumer.  The relationship between Chavez and the US government began to get shaky as Chavez was beginning to campaign for presidency.  The US was pretty anti-Chavez to begin with because Chavez led a military coup against former Venezuelan President Perez in 1992.  The coup failed, but Chavez’s fame and support rose.  Just a few years later, Perez was impeached for laundering money and practicing an illegal distribution of public funds.  The US was skeptical of Chavez from the beginning for having led this coup.  In the government’s eyes, he was a strong and charismatic military leader, who wouldn’t necessarily comply with every plea and request from the US, and was therefore a big threat to their foreign policy and oil relations.  Upon Chavez’s inauguration into office in 1998, after a fair and majority ruled democratic election, he went on a world tour to meet with different leaders.  On that tour, Fidel Castro, among many others, preceded Bill Clinton.  Chavez received a written request not to visit Cuba before coming to the US, and that if he didn’t comply he would regret it.  Of course, Chavez does what he wants and his diplomatic relations with Cuba are important, so he went to Cuba.  Upon showing up at the white house for his meeting with President Clinton, he was ushered into a back room where Clinton met him in jeans and a t-shirt. They had an informal 15 or so minute meeting and Chavez was ushered out, avoiding all paparazzi.  This meeting tweeked Chavez’s opinion of the American government because it was a severely disrespectful treatment of a new democratically elected President who was attempting to respectfully introduce himself to other world leaders.  Nonetheless, relations remained civil until after the 2002 coup, upon which factual evidence was found that the US had backed and helped fund the coup against Chavez.  Nearly 90% of the funding for oppositional groups in Venezuela comes from the US and every problem from bad roads, to high unemployment, to poor sanitation, to corruption, is blamed on Chavez.  These problems, of course, were around before Chavez was in the government, and have actually improved greatly in some areas since he has been in office. 

            Another area of concern I’d like to address is the upcoming referendum to change the constitution to have limitless Presidential term elections. This sticks out to the US as being a very problematic change for a leader who just wants power, power, power.  I see both sides.  I feel that through Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution (B.R.), he’s trying to get the public to participate more and have more of an influence in what happens in the public sphere.  With this in mind, it seems supporters of Chavez could carry out the B.R. ideas without Chavez being in power.  On the other hand, many supporters feel that the B.R. is just getting started and it will be too soon for Chavez to be out of government.  Some feel that if he cannot continue the Bolivarian Revolution momentum, its ideas will fall and all of Chavez’s work, as well as the massively increased participation among the public sector, will go down the tubes.  While endless terms are a concern to me, I’m almost leaning towards the side of the Chavistas because I do believe that Chavez is the revolutionary who started this movement and needs to get it more entrenched before moving out of office.

            Chavez is all about democratic norms and 21^st century socialism, which basically just accentuates the importance of participation.  He is NOT leaning towards communism. Historically, the CIA and the US government have done the exact same methods of intervention in countries they are unsure about.  In both Nicaragua and Chile, the US supported an overthrow of the mild and relatively harmless governments, only to put into office ruthless 20+ year dictators.  I can’t remember the name of the Nicaraguan dictator, but Pinochet was the Chilean.  Both were supported by the US.

            One other pro-Chavez point I’d like to make is that when thousands of poor US families asked the government for aid with heating oil in the winter of 2005, the first petrol company to respond to this plea was CITGO, a Venezuela run oil company.  Chavez came to the state and was able to provide all these grateful families with heating oil for the cold east coast winter. Where was the US government to help American people?  In recent news, Chavez is providing a billion dollars in aid to other struggling Latin American countries, that the US has chosen to neglect.  While such vast spending seems a concern to some oppositional groups, Chavez claims that these business deals will bring more money back into the Venezuelan economy later, through deals, negotiations, and support.

            Some of the information I have said about US invention in Venezuela was found in a book called, The Chavez Code by Eva Golinger, which I highly, highly recommend that you all read.  It’s a super quick read but is sooo interesting.  I also recommend that you check out a website called venezuelanalysis.com, which is an informative site on the current happenings of Venezuela from a non-biased, truthful point of view.  I cannot emphasize enough the importance of Venezuela in upcoming political matters.  Please start reading up about it because the US is getting nervous and antsy and Venezuela is pushing them away more than ever.  For this reason, news that we receive on Venezuela is going to continue to be biased.  I’ve written this letter because I want you all to be informed on my experiences, but realize that an hour-long phone conversation or a two hour cup of coffee is hard to schedule these days!  Please feel free to call me with questions or debates, I’m all fired up!