Main photo courtesy of Anna Kunkin. Many thanks also to Jennifer Caldwell for the additional
photos.
This is one of three planned stories about report backs from this year's World Festival in
Venezuela.
(A full transcript of this event is in parts 2 and 3 of this coverage.)
The 16th World Festival of Students was held in Venezuela last August and was attended by
17,000 to 20,000 people from 144 countries. The delegates exchanged information about each
other's homelands, witnessed the changes happening in Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez,
and expressed solidarity with that nation.
On August 26th, four of the U.S. delegates to the event shared their findings and experiences at
ANSWER's headquarters in Hollywood. The host and moderator was Stephanie Beacham. Seated
at a table were the delegates: Carlos Alvarez, a 19-year-old student of El Camino College and
organizer of Youth and Student ANSWER; Marcial Guerra, who has worked hard on issues
concerning Cuba (e.g., efforts to free the Cuban Five) and, at the World Festival, participated in
numerous workshops related to Cuba; Jennifer Caldwell, who is on the Committee to Free the
Five and an organizer with ANSWER; and Muna Coobtee, a member of the Free Palestine
Alliance and an ANSWER organizer.
Many other U.S. delegates were sitting in the audience and shared some of their information
during the question-and-answer session. "There was really a lot of wonderful things that we got
see while we were in Venezuela, and [we had] many great experiences," said Coobtee. "[R]eally
one of the most powerful parts of the trip for me was to stop and realize that we were standing in
Venezuela at a time like no other in its history, at a time when you can feel this sense of change
in the air, and a feeling that you were witnessing a society that is on the verge of great change and
progress. They've gotten this far, not without a lot of struggle and a lot of opposition, though.
And we should take time to analyze that and also the period ahead of them right now."
She began by discussing the accomplishments thus far of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
"Since the democratic election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998, great gains for the people of
Venezuela have really been made," she continued. "He based his government on the aspirations
of more than 80% of the Venezuelans who are living in poverty. Chavez led the effort to rewrite
the country's constitution in 1999 and reshape the political structure in a more democratic way.
For the first time, ordinary Venezuelans had access to the political system under which they
lived.
"One of the greatest criticisms by the right wing--and we've all heard it, and we heard it a lot
when we were in Venezuela as well--was that Chavez is merely a dictator that rules over
Venezuela without allowing for the participation of others or allowing free speech. But one of the
greatest lessons that we learned while we were in Venezuela was that the Bolivarian
Revolution [The term Bolivarian Revolution is described in Additional Information, which
immediately follows this article.] (which is what they call all of these gains that have taken place
over the last several years) is much larger than Hugo Chavez himself. Of course, the people have
a lot of trust in him and his policies, but the revolutionary process is one that is much more
widespread and engraved in the population than any right-winger would care to know.
"One of the major differences is the redirecting of the wealth of Venezuela's oil industry.
Venezuela, as many of you know, is the fifth-largest exporter of oil in the world, and Chavez has
rerouted a substantial amount of the oil revenues into social programs. These [institutions] called
misions take place in the neighborhoods in some of the most deprived areas of Venezuela. The
misions are truly a large step forward in Venezuela's revolutionary process because Chavez has
decided to go around the right-wing opposition in his own government, who early on stood in the
way of a lot of the progressive reforms, and decided to go straight to the people themselves in
Venezuela to be the organizers and leaders of these misions, with the great help of the Cuban
people."
Delegate Carlos Alvarez recalled his visits to some of the misions. "We walked into mision
Mercal," he said, "where food was sold at 50% at what it would normally cost or free if 50% was
still too much or even sent to your home by the reserves if you were either handicapped or elderly
or had some sort of disability that prevented you from getting to the food.
"We also visited the mision Barrio Adentro sector of St. Augustin, the program that focuses on
one of the most important and universal needs: health. We met with two of the Cuban doctors
of that particular location and talked with them about the hundreds of patients that rely on them
on a daily basis, only to be interrupted by a spontaneous yell of 'Viva Chavez!' coming from
some home, followed by a burst of applause and cheering all down the street."
On a related subject, Alvarez described an encounter he had with a homeless woman. "She had
picked up the bag of one of the ANSWER delegates after we had forgotten we set it down in [an]
open field," he recalled. "[S]he walked us back to the van we were in [and] walked with me
holding onto my arm. [S]he was barefoot and had trouble walking. [W]hat I really remember is
what she told me. She leaned into my body as we walked and told me, 'You know, ever since the
Cuban doctors came, they've been able to heal my feet.'"
Alvarez further described Venezuela's public services. "We also visited one of the many
government-funded sports and music schools throughout Venezuela," he said, "where anyone can
delve into productive recreational activities such as basketball, soccer, piano, guitar, etc.
". . . [Mision Ribas] focused on education, but unlike mision Robinson, which has obliterated
illiteracy in so many villages and cities throughout Venezuela, mision Ribas was meant for what
would be the equivalent of a high school education. The teacher at this particular site was once
helped by mision Robinson. She, too, was once illiterate."
"There are other great gains that have taken place," continued Coobtee. "Workers are taking
matters into their own hands in workplaces. But the difference in Venezuela is that they're
receiving support for doing so by the government instead of being crushed. Of course, in
Venezuela there existed for a very long [time], and still continues to exist, a right-wing,
reactionary federation of unions called the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, the CVT. And
in the past few years, workers have left the CVT after the pro-Chavez labor forces were unable to
wrestle control of the CVT itself. So they formed their own militant trade federation called the
UNT, the National Union of Venezuelan Workers. And nearly one million workers have left the
CVT and joined the UNT, where the workers are increasingly gaining control of strategic areas of
the economy like the oil industry which is nationalized in Venezuela. [A documentary on this
subject, The Bolivarian Revolution: Enter the Oil Workers, is available through Global Women's
Strike. Www.globalwomensstrike.net/]. Although the oil industry has been nationalized for a
quite a long time in Venezuela, because of the former governments, the profits from the oil
industry were still going to a few families in Venezuela and to the profit of international
corporations.
". . . Minimum wage, since Chavez has come into office, has increased by 30% for workers, and
there is freedom of speech."
Coobtee's report segued to Venezuela's land reforms. "[I]n the last year, the government has
started to implement land reforms that gave large landholders a choice, 'You either give up
this unused land that is just sitting around in Venezuela or the army will take it away and turn it
over to poor farmers,'" she said. "In Venezuela there are millions of poor and landless
Venezuelans, and so these land reforms are starting to take place."
Also mentioned was the urban farms that, with Cuba's help, are appearing in Venezuela.
"[A]bout 10 of us U.S. delegates [went] to the working-class barrio of St. Augustin," reported
Alvarez. "We walked past the community gardens that were once landfills before there was a
government that cared about taking care of not only how the community looked, but potential
health hazards of having tons of rotting garbage in the middle of the city." "[T]hey've turned it
into an organic garden," elaborated Guerra. "Every season they change [to] a different crop."
[More about this urban farm can be found at: http://www.Vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=6432
and for information about Venezuela's urban farms, organic gardening, and land reforms, see:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/cubavenez20205.cfm ]
Another aspect of Cuban life that Venezuelans are adopting is less wasteful lifestyles. "The
Cubans have developed a new culture," Guerra stated. "They are one of the few people that
don't waste anything; they don't throw away anything. It's really incredible that they are able to
manage every available resource that they have and stretch it and are able to make a lot out of
it. In Venezuela there has been a culture of capitalism, of exploitation, and pillage for the last
50-100 years. It's a process that's still in its infancy. However, that is one of the things that the
young people are doing in Venezuela right now." [He later elaborated on this subject, and his
remarks can be found after this article in Additional Information.]
The integration of Venezuela's military into the communities was also discussed. "I would say
that the military is one of the most visible ways in which the revolution has been consolidated,"
noted Jennifer Caldwell. "[H]ere in the U.S., the military is kind of scary and very separate from
the people and doesn't seem to be part of the people. In U.S. history, the military has even
fired on the people many times. It was an amazing and touching thing to see soldiers doing things
like passing out water and passing out food. There was a camaraderie between the military
and the civilians that was really an amazing thing to witness. We also interviewed several
soldiers while we were there, most of them lower-ranking soldiers but also some higher-ranking
military personnel. When we get our video together, I'm sure we will have some of that footage
on there.
". . . We should keep in mind that the people and the military together did defeat the police
during the coup. [The coup of 2002 against President Chavez is described later in this article.]
This is a very important thing to remember."
Guerra contrasted the current military to the one that preceded Chavez. "Venezuela was under a
dictatorship for a long time, and it was very interesting to see the way military bases were
built," he said. "Most of the poor towns are at the bottom, and the military bases were always
built on top of the hills. It was just to keep a check on the people. It was very creepy trying to
imagine what life was like 10 or 15 years ago. These places have now been turned into
community centers; they actually turned [some of] them into universities. That speaks for itself."
Another goal of the Bolivarian movement has been to increase acceptance of homosexuals in
society. Alvarez attended a workshop that addressed this issue. "[A] member of the Bolivarian
government of Venezuela spoke about the important seeds within the Bolivarian constitution to
build a society intolerant of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender," he
recounted. "The audience of many hundreds was made up of people from around the world, but
most importantly, the largest group represented there was from Venezuela.
". . . Things like equality for LGBT aren't stated directly in the constitution, but the constitution
talks about standing against all forms of discrimination of people. So that and having a
representative of the Bolivarian government there, is a huge step in bringing this dialog into the
consciousness of the people of Venezuela."
Coobtee continued, "But it has not been easy to get to this stage that Venezuela is at right now.
The U.S. government has made a large series of efforts to oust Chavez and to reverse the gains
of the Bolivarian Revolution, many of which we know about. The U.S., of course, financially
supported a coup against Chavez in 2002 that many of us already know about. The anti-Chavez
forces, with the assistance of the U.S., used the military to oust Chavez. Even with much of the
military leadership and the Caracas Metropolitan Police on the side of the right wing, the people
came out in the streets in massive numbers to demand the return of Chavez, which they
accomplished.
". . . The U.S. financially supported the coup and so many other attempts to oust Chavez through,
how many of you have heard of the National Endowment for Democracy? It's through this
National Endowment of Democracy, this non-profit puppet of the CIA and the U.S. government,
that we're channeling in, and continue to channel in, money to right-wing opposition groups
inside of Venezuela. Maybe some of you have heard of Sumate and the leaders of the coup itself.
"In the same year as the military coup, in December of 2002, the U.S., through the Native
Solidarity Center of the AFL-CIO, funded the right-wing labor federation, the CVT, that
controlled the oil revenues by going on strike and closing down. So this whole oil
industry, that was still controlled by these few families and big corporations, shut down and
severely affected the families living in Venezuela. This was something that, when speaking to
Venezuelans, especially more middle-class Venezuelans, deeply affected them and turned their
families from anti-Chavez supporters to pro-Chavez. They saw how the right wing was willing
to hurt people in order to control their wealth and their power inside of Venezuela.
"And of course, we know about the referendum that happened last year, but there have been eight
popular referendums since Chavez was elected in 1998 that affirmed the government's
revolutionary policies and the masses' desire for real economic and social change. And the
biggest blow to Venezuela's right-wing opposition was last year on August 15th: this referendum.
The referendum was to decide whether Chavez would carry out his term as president of
Venezuela, which is up next year. The referendum was introduced by this group Sumate, who
was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy by the U.S., and, of course, it
was defeated. That's why Chavez is still in power, and he's up for reelection next year.
"So these attempts by the opposition that were instigated and supported by the U.S. have really
only served to make the people of Venezuela realize their revolutionary potential. It has also
emboldened the people to realize that there will soon come a time when they will need to defend
the revolutionary gains they've made so far."
Coobtee then discussed the tasks that lay ahead for the Bolivarian movement. "After the time that
Chavez was initially elected back in 1998," she continued, "there were a lot of progressive laws
and provisions of the new constitution that were put into place that would have dramatically
changed the lives of the Venezuelans and still could. But they had not at the time because the
opposition within Chavez's own government--they're still in the government--and the National
Assembly had prevented them from doing so. So there's a lot of block between what could
really happen and what's being put on paper.
". . . [P]eople realize the gains that they've made [and] that they have the potential for even
greater ones, [but] there is the opposition that stands in their way. And they have a lot to lose if
the opposition wins. But after making these gains for the past seven years, and the people,
through defending them again and again, they've realized the potential to get even
more.
"Despite the great wealth of the nation of Venezuela--as I said, they're the fifth-largest exporter
of oil--there's still a disproportionate amount of people who live in poverty in Venezuela, even
though there have been such great improvements in their lives, based on their ability to get
healthcare, the alleviating of illiteracy, and all of these projects. So, many members of the
Venezuelan government, including Chavez and Vice-President Rangel, have talked about the
next phase of the revolutionary process.
"The head of the Women's Institute, who we got to hear speak, talked about the first phase of the
revolution being called the Constitutional Phase, where they were able to achieve getting a
progressive leader, Chavez, in power; getting their new revolutionary constitution into place that
provided for the people and empowered them to put more and more laws into place
that help the people; the misions established to begin to providing basic relief for people in
Venezuela in education and healthcare. This was the first phase. The laws on paper are
starting to be implemented, but it is really the next phase that is really the critical one, as said by
Chavez and the Venezuelans while we were there.
"First, there has to be sweeping domestic reforms that take place. For example, there are laws
that have been on the books for decades for the protection of consumer rights, for tenants'
rights, all of these things, but they've never been implemented. So large monopolies still control
things like paper, they control food products, basic necessities that are expensive for ordinary
Venezuelans. So now is the time to take this drastic move and break up these monopolies inside
of Venezuela. This is also the same of the more massive redistribution of land so it's more
equitably apportioned amongst the population of Venezuela. These are very large reforms that
really the right-wing opposition or the ruling elite inside of Venezuela will not be looking
forward to.
"Second, Venezuela is still living under the threat of U.S. neoliberalist policies, just like all other
Latin American countries. So the Venezuelan government of Chavez has put forward an
alternative. Being the fifth-largest exporter of oil in the world, Chavez has now created
something called ALBA, which is the Bolivarian alternative for the Americas. [It's] an alternative
to what we know as FTAA, that's Free Trade Area of the Americas, that the U.S. is trying to push
forward. [It] would allow the U.S. and other western countries to come in with their corporations
and more easily exploit the resources and the people of Latin America. So Venezuela and
Chavez, in these negotiations, are saying: 'Well this isn't so good for us. It isn't fair. And anyway,
in our constitution in Venezuela, we cannot approve it unless it's passed through a vote of the
people.' So the people of Venezuela have to vote for the FTAA before it can be passed.
"But anyway, Chavez is putting forward things like ALBA as an alternative to build a way for
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to trade amongst one another without U.S.
interference. This is very big. "And where is this all headed? During the first speech, where we
all got to march by Chavez and the heads of Venezuelan government, and then we got to hear
Chavez speak for quite a while, he talked about the history of U.S. intervention in Venezuela and
in Latin America. And he said that really where Venezuela is now is on the road to socialism.
This was a theme that was echoed by leaders of Venezuela throughout the week, including Vice
President Rangel, the head of the Women's Institute, and it was an overwhelming sentiment
coming from the Venezuelan youth that were participating. [Coobtee talks about Venezuela's
active youth in the transcript.] Why is this the case? Well, the current form in the government, as
I said before, is really standing in the way of the relief that's needed for the people of Venezuela,
and that is constantly putting them under the threat of attack. So as long as Venezuela has a form
of government that they do now, there's always this strong opposition from the ruling elite inside
of Venezuela that is always going to be trying to get at the gains and to reverse the gains that
people are trying so hard to achieve. And the threat is from outside as well. The U.S. will
continue to try to interfere with the gains of the revolution and reverse them."
Coobtee insisted that socialism is not being imposed on Venezuela by the Cuban aid workers.
"[T]he Cuban doctors-volunteers [in Venezuela] that are totaling in 15,000, stressed--and we
witnessed--that they aren't there to teach their ideology, and they really, truly aren't," she stated.
"They're just trying to providing services in Venezuela. But it's easy to see for any Venezuelan
that the people of Cuba have so much more in the ways of basic goods and services than the
people in Venezuela, a much richer country, simply do not have. And they're starting to ask,
'Why is that the case?' So this is what is facilitating the introduction and the continuing education
about socialism as an alternative to the form of government they currently have."
"A lot of the sentiment was 'Chavez until 2021,'" said Guerra. "Many, many people think that if
this process continues the way it is right now until 2021, this is going to be a first-class
country."
Coobtee returned to the subject of the unification of Latin America. "The people in Venezuela,
especially their leadership, realize that they will not be able to maintain the revolution without
international solidarity as well," she said. "This was a big lesson that the Cubans were bringing to
the conference. This was the main topic of conversation of the [Cuban] Prime Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Felipe Roque. In his address to the festival, [he] said that it is through
cooperation and through this continued international solidarity that Cuba has been able to
thrive. Cuba sent tens of thousand of volunteers to South Africa to throw over Apartheid. They
led as an example of what international solidarity and the strength of it can do."
"[T]here are so many projects going on," noted Guerra. "One of the most important things, I
think, is Telesur. They're breaking away with the imperialist ideology that is being broadcasted to
people 24/7 by CNN, ABC, El Telemundo, and all. The fact that they are now trying to re-create
a culture of solidarity and friendship among the people is an important step.
"But there are many [other] things: there's Petro Caribe, which is cooperation between all the
Caribbean countries and Venezuela to [inaudible] and drill for oil and take advantage of the
resources for the people. There are numerous other projects."
Coobtee continued, "[I]n Chavez's second speech that we got to hear in the closing--and he's
talked about it before then and since then--he talked about selling oil directly to oppressed or
impoverished countries, which, as we saw on the news, to two other countries in the Caribbean.
[He's] selling directly at a fair price to other countries who are in deep need of this oil.
"When we got to hear Chavez speak, he took out his paper and his pen, and he wrote down how
much oil that Venezuela is sending to the U.S., which is quite a lot, and he calculated how much
it costs people, all of us here in this room, to buy gas. But if we were to receive these goods from
Venezuela directly, it would cost us half the amount without having to go through our
government.
"So he was making an offer. It was this gesture from Chavez that 'I am willing to sell to any
progressive collective in the United States oil directly to you.' [Laughter.] Maybe someday the
ANSWER Coalition will be getting oil directly from Venezuela." [Extended applause.]
Throughout the evening, there was discussion about new tactics being used by the U.S. to stop
the Bolvarian movement. "Well, really the U.S. has had little to no success in indirectly trying to
overthrow Chavez through the funding of these right-wing groups inside of Venezuela," Coobtee
stated. "Of course, these groups are still very powerful; we got to see a handful of them. But the
U.S. appears to be taking a new approach towards Venezuela and Chavez as Chavez gains more
and more international support, especially from other Latin American countries. In recent
months, Washington has stepped up its anti-Chavez rhetoric. It appears that the U.S. is now
taking it upon itself to destroy the Bolivarian Revolution, instead of through these right-wing
groups, by trying to portray Chavez as this rogue agent in Venezuela that needs to be eliminated.
The U.S. government realizes that Venezuela only gets stronger through its relationships with
other countries, so they're attempting to isolate Venezuela and make it appear to be out of step
with the rest of Latin America. "On January 18th of this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice told the senate that, quote, 'we are very concerned about a democratically-elected leader
who governs in a liberal way.' She has described Chavez's government as being a, quote,
'negative force in the region,' and Washington has repeatedly criticized Chavez for his close
relationship with Fidel Castro. Threats have come from the CIA director as far as ALBA and the
alternatives to trade with the United States. Chavez is really perceived as a threat to U.S.
hegemony in Latin America because he represents what can be achieved by a formerly-colonized
nation that decides to break away from the U.S.-dominated economic institutions like the IMF,
the International Monetary Fund.
"And millions of Latin Americans are seeing Venezuela now as an example of what truly
independent nations can accomplish, much in the same way that Cuba had been seen for the last
50 years. And at the festival, support was coming from so many movements in other Latin
American countries, where people are struggling against the same neoliberal policies of the U.S.
that have hurt the poor and working people of those countries.
"Also, there was a very serious threat against the life of Chavez. At the festival, Chavez was
giving testimony to the Anti-Imperialist Tribunal [and] spoke about the evidence Venezuela has
of numerous plots to assassinate him, to eliminate him. And he told the delegates at the festival
that 'if I am to be eliminated, the person that you should blame first, no matter what, is President
George Bush.' These are very serious threats. Not too far away, the CIA has tried to organize over
300 attempts to assassinate Castro, so it's something that is a reality. They have a very good
reason to believe that this is a serious threat. It was this speech by Chavez at the festival that Pat
Robertson was probably referring to last Monday when he called for the assassination of Chavez
by the U.S. government, an escalation of outright hostility against the Venezuelan government."
Another delegate of the World Festival, who was seated in the audience, made additional
comments on this issue, based on conversations he had with Colombian delegates. "[R]ight now
the biggest fear for them is that part of Plan Colombia is beefing up the Colombian military so
that there's that risk that there might be some type of escalation between Colombia and
Venezuela," he said. "It was mentioned over and over by Colombian delegates who we actually
spoke to in an informal basis. I know several people mentioned the possibility of a U.S. invasion
of Venezuela, but the Colombians are almost positive that it will be through the aegis of the U.S.
government under Plan Colombia, that they're beefing up the Colombian military."
According to Coobtee, Venezuela is preparing for these dangers. "These threats are not taken
lightly by the Venezuelans and Chavez." she said. "They realize that between the confrontations
within Venezuela over the past several years, funded by the U.S., and through the direct threats
from the U.S. government in various forms, they know that a confrontation is on the horizon.
A confrontation with the U.S. directly or through this ruling elite within Venezuela is something
that is very much a reality and something we very much need to know about.
"In his testimony during the Anti-Imperialist Tribunal, Chavez told the world, 'I am not Allende.'
[He] was referring to Chile in 1973 where the military carried out a bloodbath and fascist
coup that destroyed the gains of the people and murdered tens of thousands of workers and
leftists. Salvador Allende, who had just been democratically-elected by the people of Chile, had
mistakenly believed that the military would be true to the constitution and was faithful to the
government. The general view is that most of the military stands with Chavez today, even
though there are still some hostile elements that Chavez is attempting to purge from the military.
Another problem is that much of the Caracas Metropolitan Police, 21,000 strong and heavily
armed, are in the hands of the reactionaries. [It's] the same in the second-largest city in
Venezuela.
"Chavez has reaffirmed the current attempt to strengthen the military. He announced earlier this
year that he would create neighborhood popular defense units that would vary in size and
function in various areas, too, not just as military but would help in farming and fixing roads and
all sorts of areas. And more importantly, Venezuela is building its number of reservists to
foster increasing ties between civilians and the military and encourage working people and poor
people to participate in the defense of the country. So the reserves is supposed to increase from
35,000 people to 100,000 people."
Guerra also talked about the reservists. "We talked to a lot of people who have become military
reservists because they're taking it on themselves to defend this [movement]," he said. "Before
this process was in place, people had nothing to eat, people had never seen a doctor in their lives,
and now they have all these basic human rights that are actually being given to them by this
process. So people are taking it onto themselves to protect this with their lives. Many, many
workers that we spoke to are volunteer reservists, and they are actually being trained by the
military to defend this process. We thought it was very inspiring to see common people who
didn't have anything before [who now] have a job, they have an education, they have a house."
Another topic that was discussed was the role that people in the U.S. can play to support
Venezuela's Bolivarian movement. "We in the anti-war movement in the United States have a
responsibility to educate people in the U.S. about Venezuelans and what is taking place there at
this time," continued Coobtee. "Time and time again, delegates from all over the world, from
North Africa to Asia to Latin America, everywhere, were coming up to us and telling us (and this
was Chavez's message at the beginning of the conference as well), 'We are so happy to see that
there are 700 delegates from the United States because we see you not as your government and
the policies of your government but that you are fighting for the same thing as we are, for a better
life for our people and for greater gains for the people as a whole.' And what every single one of
them wanted to know, especially the people of Venezuela and Cuba, was that people here in the
United States are struggling as well, that we're not just sitting back and watching what's
happening because of the policies of the Bush administration and the U.S. government. They
were so excited to hear that we were going to be having demonstrations, like on September 24th.
So we need to continue to struggle in the United States, build international solidarity with the
people of Venezuela, Cuba, and Latin America. Viva Chavez! Long live the Bolivarian
Revolution! [Applause and shouts.]"
END
Special thanks to Carlos Alvarez, Marcial Guerra, Jennifer Caldwell, and Muna Coobtee for
making clarifications and answering follow-up questions.
A complete transcript of this event can be found in part 2 of this coverage. A great deal of
information could not be included here in part 1.
A link to the transcript is provided in the Comments section below.
------
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
SIMON BOLIVAR
The term Bolivarian Revolution is based on Simon Bolivar, who is seen as "the liberator of South
America, one of the great heroes of its history," as described in Webster's encyclopedia. "[H]e
led the liberation of Venezuela [from Spain] in 1821 and created the federal state of Greater
Colombia, including what is now Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador," the article explains. "He
went on to liberate Peru and to form the republic of Bolivia (1825)." However, before long,
various countries seceded from Bolivar's state. (See: The 21st Century Webster's Family
Encyclopedia, Volume 2, 1999 Edition, pp. 20-21. Published by Trident Press International in
Naples, Florida.)
Bolivar is also discussed at the website VenezuelAnalysis.com. It is stated there that Bolivar's
"major contribution was perhaps his understanding of importance of Latin American integration.
He understood very early on that our countries had no future unless they joined in their struggle
against European countries and the United States. Already, in the second decade of the 19th
century, he foresaw that 'in the name of freedom, the United States of North America seem to
have been destined by providence to plague America with miseries.'"
VenezuelaAnalysis.com goes on to say, "While Bolivar never spoke of class struggle, he did
insist on the need to abolish slavery, and his work always shows concern for the common people.
. . . He also believed that democracy had to be conceived as a political system to give people
supreme happiness. According to him, no military man should ever aim his weapon against the
people. . . ." (see: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1040)
MARCIAL GUERRA: MORE ABOUT RESOURCEFUL LIVING IN CUBA
In a conversation that I had with Guerra after the ANSWER presentation, he elaborated on
Cuba's less wasteful lifestyle. "Forty years of embargo has taught [the Cubans] to be very
resourceful," he noted. "They don't have much paper, they don't have a lot of other stuff that we
take for granted here. Because of that, they're not so wasteful with paper the way we are here.
In the United States, if you went into an average home, you'll see piles and piles of garbage. They
don't have that in Cuba. Because of the inherent culture of our system, we think that whenever
we are able to throw lots of stuff into the garbage, we must be doing well. They have a huge
program of recycling and [reusing]. Whatever [electronics] they have, they repair and reuse and
turn it into something else."
HOW TO BUY GAS FROM VENEZUELA
The Venezuelan-owned gas station chain, Citgo, may have a location in your area. You can find
out by going to this site and entering your zip code:
http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp Phoning the station(s) before going is
recommended as some of the site's information is said to be out of date.