My Kids Spent 5 Months In Venezuela Last Winter

[Wiley50]

My first wife grew up in an oil camp in Venezuela. She described it as pretty much
like any upper middle class american neighborhood, with one glaring exception
It was surrounded with razor wire and walls, to keep the campesinos (poor people) out.
Her mother was american. Her father was a native venezuelan oil engineer who met his wife
when in college in Tulsa.
My wife was married before in Venezuela and, when I met her in Tulsa in 1980, had a beautiful
four year old daughter who became my daughter. there was never any "step" about it.
In 1981, she gave me a son, a truly amazing human being.
The marriage didn't last, but the friendship did.
And I have a wonderful relationship with both of my children.

So, My kids had made a pact growing up that one day they would venture to Venezuela to meet the family members that they had never met: Samantha's father and his family and their grandfather's family. Last winter, a few days before Xmas, that day came.

They both quicky began to learn spanish through immersion and found the local internet cafes.
In Caracas and Maricaibo, crime is really bad. Even people who drive "junkers" have alarm systems.
In Merida, a college town in the mountains, crime was almost unheard of.

So I guess I now find that I've shared my and my kids lives to make a point
I guess I could have made a lot quicker.

They found that Sam's father's family, in Merida, absolutely loved Chavez and everything that he has done. They couldn't say enough nice things about him. They
are working class people.

Their grandfather's family, in Maricaibo, was a semi wealthy family with oil company connections.
They absolutely hated Chavez and eveything he has done. They spat Chavez name out with contempt.

But, maybe it's just due to something my wife always told me, even 25 years ago.

" It's always so hot in Maricaibo. It think that's why so many people there are angry
all of the time."

My advice: Head for the mountains

[MADem]

1. Well, that makes a bit of sense, really, from a selfish perspective

Someone rich as Roosevelt might not want Chavez nationalizing the source of their wealth--they might have to actually work to keep up appearances if the interest on their assets dries up.

Someone poorer would surely go along with the "least of thy bretheren" concept.

[razors edge]

2. I just watched

"The Revolution Will not be televised" today for the first time, and I find myself wondering if the people who have made a decent living in Venezuela from oil, really are upset most with Chavez for a perceived slight to them by sharing the oil wealth, or if it is more than that.

I work in the petroleum field myself and process alot of Venezuelan heavy crude vac tower bottoms into asphalt as well as other sources of crude and recycled products.

Do the moneyed interests there really care so little for the poor around them that they would allow them to live in such poverty. and if so, are they so detached to think these people would not rise up against them. (sort of like america and the rest of the world)

I have thought about going to venezuala to work in the petroleum industry, but as a hillbilly gringo I don't think it would work out well, no hablo here.

[niallmac]

3. Any time the working class and the poor love a South American leader

that hapless person will be the recipient of very special attention from the U.S.
government via the CIA and friends.

[Stargazer99]

4. Perfect illustration as to the dynamics here in the US

Those that have power and wealth running the show. Teaching the common man how wonderful "capitalism is". When anyone who has not been brain-washed would have some real questions about privitizing everything.