Poor's Hopes Take Root Under Chavez

[bemildred]

Some balanced reporting on Chavez, for a change.

CARACAS, Venezuela - You can see two worlds from this shambles
of misery that creeps up the mountain.

The first is the neighborhood itself. Crude cinder-block houses lurch
up the slope. The streets are tight - some no wider than the span of a
man's arms. Contaminated water courses down homemade canals. It's
loud, dirty and cramped here.

The second lies in the valley below.
Skyscrapers owned by multinationals
soar in neat bundles. The
colonial-era Congress building gleams white. The broad avenues of
the rich in the east chug with traffic - symbols of power and wealth
throbbing in the distance.

The first world belongs to Maria Lopez. The second, to her dreams.

LA Times (annoying registration, but you can lie)

[el_gato]

1. too much trouble

I hate that registration garbage

[bemildred]

3. That's OK, don't blame you.

[scarletwoman]

2. Very good article! Thanks for posting it!

There is usually such an unrelenting vomitus of anti-Chavez propaganda in the U.S. press that to read an actually even-handed piece of reportage from Venezuela is rare event, indeed.

Btw, Gregory Wilpert, the free-lance journalist quoted in this piece, has written some fine pieces about the TRUTH in Venezuela. Here's an excellent example:

COLLISION IN VENEZUELA
http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR25505.shtml

What has lain behind the massive social conflicts that have unfurled round the Chávez regime? The spurious and real reasons for the rampage of Venezuelan managers, media and middle class against the country’s elected President. Oil, land and urban rights as the stakes in a social war of colour and class.

(much more...)

Long live the Bolivarian Revolution!

sw