One Chavista explains how 'Father Chávez' brought dignity to Venezuela's poor

[Judi Lynn]

One Chavista explains how 'Father Chávez' brought dignity to Venezuela's poor
By Charlie Devereux Charlie Devereux
2 hrs 11 mins ago

CARACAS, VENEZUELA – President Hugo Chávez might have many critics, but he can also count on legions of passionate supporters – many of them poor – who say he's the first leader to take their problems seriously.

One such supporter is Nancy Monsalve. The middle-aged community worker, who has lived all her life in the tough Caracas barrio of 23 de Enero, says life under Mr. Chávez has improved significantly. "I complained against the system because we were repressed," she says of life before Chávez came to power in 1999.

Ms. Monsalve says there were often curfews imposed by the National Guard in her neighborhood, a poor slum in the western reaches of Caracas and one of the strongholds of support for Mr. Chávez's leftist movement.

"There were curfews," she says. "You couldn't go out after 6 in the evening to go shopping. We were censored 100 percent. You couldn't say what you thought because automatically you would be thrown in jail."

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090202/wl_csm/ochavista_1