There is a new constitution in Venezuela, handing vast= decision-making powers over to the people. There is free health care. There is constitutionally guarante= ed free universal education through the undergraduate level. The Venezuelan military has been p= ut to work for peaceful domestic purposes. Building of schools, clinics, and essential infrastructure have increased dramatically. Housing and cooperative farms have increased significantly. Unemployment has dropped considerably. Illiteracy has been reduced to an astounding 1%. Women who work raising their own children are guaranteed income for their work. There are constitutionally guaranteed social security benefits for all citizens. These changes are not empty promis= es or temporary placations; they are realities today in Venezuela.

The profits resulting from Venezuela’s huge oil resources have been redirected to benefitting the majority of the people of Venezuela, rather than the local elites and the foreign oil companies. It’s no wonder we are spoon-= fed misinformation in our media, and from our government, regarding the positive changes taking place. Can you imagine if the huge profits of the oil companies in the U.S. were put to wo= rk to provide medical care, housing, education, and rebuilding our infrastruct= ure, rather than going into the pockets of the wealthy? Can you imagine what would happen = if our military in the U.S. was put to work building schools, clinics, and infrastructure rather than dying and killing in Iraq and Afghanistan?

After hundreds of years of being oppressed by Spain, a= nd another hundred years of oppression by wealthy elites (both domestic and foreign) the people of Venezuela are starting to stand up. The people of Venezuela are living= a peaceful participatory revolution of the greatest magnitude. They are not a threat to us, or an= yone else (other than oil company and other Western/Northern corporate profits). More than a century ago Simon Bolivar prophetically stated “The United States of North America seems destined to plague Latin America with misery in the name of liberty”. Unfortunately his words still ring true today. We have seen this in numerous Latin American and Central American countries (not to mention Iraq= and elsewhere) with U.S. governme= nt and corporate influence, interference, resource grabbing, profit-taking and fun= ding of undemocratic rulers in the name of spreading democracy and freedom. Hugo Chavez has been democratically elected three times; the president and the constitution have been overwhelmingly approved by the majority of the people in Venezuela. This is no dictatorship in the Bol= ivarian Republic of Venezuela as some of our media would have us believe.

Venezuela is truly a peaceful participatory government= . We need to support the people and peaceful processes in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as they work tow= ard freedom from foreign and corporate induced oppression and poverty. Others around the world are recogn= izing the positive changes taking place in Venezuela. Other governments are congratulati= ng Chavez and the changes he is implementing.= Why is he being demonized in the U.S.? Why would the U.S. government reco= gnize, support, and congratulate those few in Venezuela who would plan and attempt= a coup against the democratically elected government in Venezuela? Could there be profits in the balance? Could there be massi= ve oil reserves waiting to be stolen by a foreign power? Would anyone really consider overthrowing or attacking another country, and demonizing its president, ju= st to obtain vast oil resources and assure corporate profits? Does any of this sound all too fam= iliar?

What we still need to learn in the U.S., especially du= ring our current war torn era, has been succinctly stated by President Hugo Chav= ez: “What the Right fears most is an organized people= ”. Much is done to keep us here in th= e U.S. from becoming an organized people (think about what we are letting our government and corporations get away with due to our lack of an organized movement to demand accountability in our own country). An organized peaceful movement is = desperately needed in our own country, the least we can do is recognize it and support = it in another country when it is there for us to see. Will we see it? Or will we continue to be blinded = by the Western/Northern media’s enmification of = Hugo Chavez and the truly humane and meaningful changes taking place in Venezuela?