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Political Leaders Announce Support for Re-Election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 8 October 2005
6 comments

Edito Elections-Elected Governments USA South/Latin America

Jesse Jackson and Dennis Kucinich were joined by actors, historians and others in sending their support to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, just days before he faces a historic vote on the future of his administration.

Noting the accomplishments of the Chavez administration to improve the lives of Venezuela’s impoverished majority, the joint letter expressed the signers’ "hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president."

Signed by a diverse sampling of well known Americans, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, television star Edward Asner, and best-selling author Howard Zinn, the letter decried the role of the United States government in financing the opposition movement in Venezuela, including participants of a 2002 coup d’etat that briefly ousted the democratically-elected president from power. The signers pledged to heal the strained relationships between the United States and Venezuela.

Despite Venezuela’s vast oil wealth, nearly 80 percent of the country lives below the poverty level. President Chavez has expanded opportunities for all Venezuelans by using oil revenues to finance new schools, health clinics and national nutrition programs catering to the poor majority. In the past year alone, more than one million adults have been taught to read.

The president’s term has been marked by fierce opposition from Venezuela’s former ruling powers, including the 2002 coup and a national management-led oil strike that crippled the country’s economy. This Sunday, the Venezuelan people will vote whether to allow the president to finish his term. Recent polls indicate that the majority of Venezuelans will once again vote in favor of their president.

The American letter is the latest in a series of solidarity statements from well-known figures around the world. In July, a group of 69 Latin American intellectuals, artists, and Nobel laureates signed a letter titled, "If I were a Venezuelan, I would vote for Hugo Chavez."

August 12, 2004

Dear President Chavez,

We are writing to express our solidarity during this important moment in Venezuela’s history. It is our hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president.

The world knows that you are achieving something remarkable in Venezuela: you are investing your country’s vast oil wealth in ways that benefit everyone, not just small minority of well-connected elites. Over the last year your government’s literacy campaign taught one million Venezuelans to read. And today, millions of others are benefiting from the governments investment in job training, small businesses and health care.

We are disturbed by our own government’s interference in your internal affairs. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a group funded by the U.S. Congress, has financed radical opposition leaders in their efforts to cut short your term. Some of the individuals funded by the NED participated in the April 2002 coup attempt against you.

Polling done by both the Venezuelan government and its opposition shows that you will defeat the recall referendum on August 15. We have every expectation that on August 16 Venezuelan relations with the U.S. government will begin to improve.

We are committed to doing what we can, as U.S. citizens, to heal those relationships and encourage Congress and the White House to see Venezuela not only as a model democracy but also as a model of how a country’s oil wealth can be used to benefit all of its people.

Sincerely,

Reverend Jesse Jackson,
Congressman Dennis Kucinich,
Dr. Howard Zinn,
Edward Asner,
Dr. Saul Landau,
Naomi Klein,
Doug Henwood,
Dr. Blase Bonpane,
Liza Featherstone

Biographies of Signers

— Reverend Jesse Jackson, Civil rights leader and former US Presidential Candidate

— Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Represents Ohio’s Ohio’s 10th District in Congress. Ran for president in 2003-04.

— Dr. Howard Zinn, Historian and Playwright. His A People’s History of the United States is an international bestseller.

— Edward Asner, An accomplished television and movie actor whose career has spanned more than 3 decades, Asner has also been a long-time activist.

— Dr. Saul Landau, Internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker. Winner of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, and an Emmy Award for "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang."

— Naomi Klein, Award-winning journalist and author of the international best-seller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.

— Doug Henwood, Editor and Publisher of the Left Business Observer, and author of After the New Economy and the best-selling Wall Street.

— Dr. Blase Bonpane, A journalist and author, Dr. Bonpane is the director of the Office of the Americas.

— Liza Featherstone, Journalist and author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of A Movement.

http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=2771&cha=10

Forum posts

  • I wished Hugo would be our President in U.S.! Bush and murdering cohorts SUCK as does some in Congress too, who don’t give a shit about us middle or poor classes! INCLUDING SOME SO CALLED PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS,EITHER! SOME OF THEM SUCK TOO, JUST NOT AS MUCH AS BUSH DOES. BUT THEY STILL SUCK! LOOK AT HOW GUTLESS DEMOCRATIC SENATORS VOTING FOR MORE MONEY FOR F-CKING ILLEGAL, IMMORAL WARS! NO F-CKING GUTS! OUR TROOPS NEED TO COME HOME AND NOW, IT IS PURE BUSHIT THEY ARE ANYWHERE IN WORLD! WORLD, PLEASE HELP STOP BUSH AND HIS COHORTS AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER WHICH IS JUST SUPPRESS OF WORKING PEOPLE WORLD WIDE! Wished Chavez was our President in U.S.! Screw Bush and his murdering band of thieving, S.O.B’s! I hate them! They need to all be put in Gitmo or worse! PLease world help stop them and now! Chavez is right! People in U.S. are suppressed in more than one way. We don’t get the truth out of corporate press,PLUS 80% OF ALL Politician’s don’t give a shit about America or middle and poor class ONLY GETTING RE-ELECTED OR CAMPAIGN MONEY FROM GREEDY CEO’S AND RICH! 80% OF US DON’T GET ANY F-CKING REPRESENTATION! WE NEED A 2ND AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND NOW! AND ONE WORLDWIDE TO STOP THESE FASCIST MURDERING BASTARDS! "WAR ON TERRORISM" IS BOGUS! AND JUST ANOTHER DAMN EXCUSE TO USE TO SUPPRESS THE MASSES WORLDWIDE! YES, THERE ARE TERRORISTS BUT I BELIEVE BIN LADEN IS STILL WORKING FOR CIA TO CAUSE HAVIC ON WORLD TO KEEP WORLD MASSES IN LINE, I.E. SUBMISSION THROUGH FEAR! WAKE UP AMERICA AND WORLD! "WAR ON TERRORISM" IS BOGUS!

    • Hey, calm down. This is America and it appears that you are just noticing the unfairness of it.

      Where were you before Bush showed up on the scene?

      Talk of being clueless.

    • Right, Americans are in the same way guilty for the massmurder committed by their troops as Nazi Germany was!

    • Viva Chavez......a breath of fresh air after the stench in Washington, the garbage dump of corruption and criminals.

    • Great post, too bad most people in the "good" ol USA are brain dead zombies. This is how the capitalists continue to get away with their crimes against humanity. You speak the truth and that is rare, congratulations!

    • I know things are unfair and before Bush I was fighting for democracy ALSO! And Fairness in NOT ONLY U.S. but worldwide! And the person who said we in America are to blame like Nazi Germany IS WRONG! I AND THOUSANDS OF OTHERS HAVE BEEN BITCHING ABOUT WARS AND ALSO PROTESTING! WHAT IN GOD’S NAME DO YOU WANT US TO DO, SHORT OF AN ARMED REVOLUTION? WHICH AT THIS POINT, MAYBE NEEDED! WANT DO YOU EXPECT US TO DO? THE GODDAMN PRESIDENT NOR CONGRESS WILL LISTEN TO US! GOT ANY SUGGESTIONS? SHORT OF AN ARMIED REVOLUTION, WHICH WE DESPERATELY NEED A 2ND REVOLUTION AS OUR GOV’T IS WAY TOO CORRUPT AND WE ARE OPPRESSED HERE, WHAT IN HELL DO YOU WANT US TO DO? US ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS ARE GOING ALL WE CAN, SHORT OF ARMED REVOLT! IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS, I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM! I SAY ALL THE TIME, MAY GOD FORGIVE AMERICA! I AND THOUSANDS MORE LIKE ME, HATE WHAT IS GOING ON BUT HOW IN HELL DO WE STOP THEM AND IT? THEY HAVE THE $$, THEY HAVE THE MILITARY,ETC. HOW IN HELL DO WE STOP IT AND/OR THEM?