Con­grat­u­la­tions, Mr Chavez, on your vic­to­ry. I have fol­lowed the Venezue­lan sit­u­a­tion for sev­er­al years by read­ing on­line blogs, eg Cara­cas Chron­i­cles, and Venezue­lan pub­li­ca­tions in Eng­lish, eg El Uni­ver­sal. I have al­so read the heav­i­ly neg­a­tive re­port­ing of the for­eign tra­di­tion­al press. The blogs and press are main­ly an­ti-Chav­ista while AVN, Correo del Orinoco and Venezuela Analy­sis are pro-Chav­ista. As an out­sider I do not know what is the re­al­i­ty.

This mass of con­flict­ing in­for­ma­tion has re­sult­ed in one thought so­lid­i­fy­ing in my mind. Re­gard­less of the re­al­i­ty, Chavez, your re­al vic­to­ry is your fo­cus on the plight of the Venezue­lan poor. Pri­or to 1992, over 70 per cent of Venezuela was con­sid­ered poor-in an oil-rich coun­try! I have dri­ven through Venezuela sev­er­al times from Guiria and now re­alise the sig­nif­i­cance of hous­es with four walls and no fur­ni­ture. I now un­der­stand what the fe­male cit­i­zen means when she says her par­ents and grand par­ents nev­er had den­tal treat­ment. Chavez, this is your strength. The poor in Venezuela are fi­nal­ly, af­ter years of in­sti­tu­tion­alised ne­glect and be­ing treat­ed like non-hu­mans are be­ing re­gard­ed as "nor­mal" cit­i­zens and giv­en ac­cess to fa­cil­i­ties which every­one else con­sid­er "nor­mal'.

Ster­ling S Mo­hammed

via e-mail