Comments on: Why the Barrios Still Love Hugo

By: LanceThruster

LanceThruster — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:35:19 +0000

The Mexican native I vanpool with is very anti-Chavez. She tends to reference only the negative items regarding HC and the situation in Venezuala. I am glad to see Mr. Dickinson’s commentary as a counterpoint to those claiming Venezuala has enteirely gone to hell under Chavez’s leadership.

By: Roy Dickinson

Roy Dickinson — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:38:01 +0000

as someone who lived in the US for 15 years and after becoming so disillusioned with the “me first what ever I can get” society there, I sold up and moved to Venezuela. As far as the food shortages, it was pretty much up to the referendum and that was to piss off the Chavez voters, since then you can pretty much get anything now, and I live in a small town. Sunday afternoon the bakery may be out of bread, and most of the shops are out of beer, but that’s because of all the people coming to the beaches from Caracas. I love it here, the lifestyle is relaxed you can live well on about $500 – $600 per month and the people are very very nice, I have no regrets about the move. I’m probably the only person to give up a green card to move to Venezuela, not the other way around. :)

By: Kyle Shafer

Kyle Shafer — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:36:40 +0000

“Hugo Chávez’s government has organized citizen committees and popular assemblies to exercise popular control at the municipal and community levels. Under his presidency, health clinics have been established throughout the country in the poorest neighborhoods and rural villages, more than 3,000 new schools have been opened, and illiteracy has been eradicated. In addition, more than two million people have gained access to fresh water for the first time in their lives, more homes have been built for the poor than in the preceding twenty years combined, and hundreds of thousands of previously landless peasants have been given titles to farmland. There’s also been a close collabortation between the Venezuelan and Cuban governments, where one very visble result is the presence of around 15,000 Cuban doctors who are serving in the health clinics that the government established.

The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela has so far taken place without a bloody civil war, public executions, or the suppression of civil liberties.

The country’s oil wealth, which Chávez has increasingly brought under government control, has permitted his government to do what Che Guevara in the early 1960s declared that the Soviet Union and other countries should do for the Third World countries – engage in trade that is based on human needs rather than profits. Consequently, Chávez has signed trade agreements with Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, and many of the Caribbean countries that provide them with oil at relatively low, subsidized prices they can afford. Also, he has taken the lead in building an integrated regional economic community among the South American countries as an alternative to the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas promoted by Washington.”

By: Hue Longer

Hue Longer — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 04:30:47 +0000

Great article…

I hear from many US Americans on the “left” that they know Venezuelans who say that Chavez is hated by “everyone” because he doesn’t use the oil wealth on Venezuela.

If you know a Venezuelan in The USA, chances are he/she didn’t come from the Barrio- and as class order is well established and racist in Venezuela, the middle class isn’t very cozy with the notion of remaining middle while the poor (the vast majority of Venezuelans) increase their power and access.

By: DavidG.

DavidG. — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:42:51 +0000

It is heartening to read such an article, one that demonstrates what good can be achieved when capitalist greed is pushed to one side.

Capitalism is the number one scourge of our world. It creates a dog-eat-dog world where the few get to have it all while the bulk of humanity struggle.

Good on, Hugo! He is like a beacon in the darkness.