The War on Democracy Page #2

so many billions of dollars in oil money,

that there still is this poverty,

in spite of all the changes you've made?

The poor of Venezuela

carry on being poor, yes,

I always say that we don't want to be rich,

Our aim is not material wealth,

It is to live with dignity,

of course to come out of poverty,

and to come out of extreme poverty

above all,

And to live, to live with dignity,

this is the objective,

Not to become millionaires,

the American way of life, No, that is stupid,

I'm telling you this because the issue of poverty

affects us deeply,

It's most of our daily struggle,

The daily struggle is made easier here

Ten years ago

this clinic would not have been dreamed of

Now, all over Venezuela

ordinary people have free health care -

many seeing a doctor

for the first time in their lives

(Speaking Spanish)

For the first time, children of the poorest

have a full day at school

and at least one hot meal a day

They're learning history and music and dance

often for the first time, and all of this is free

Under the constitution the poorest housewives

are now paid as workers

(Speaking Spanish)

There is now close too full literacy

thanks too classes like this

catering too those like Mavis Mendez, aged 95

now reading and writing for the first time

This means an enormous amount to us,

The only thing I wish is that I was younger

so that I could keep learning more,

We never had a government

that looked after the poor before,

or taught us to read and write,

There was none of that before,

I think its never too late to better yourself,

(Barks)

This is East Caracas, home too some of

the wealthiest people on earth

and what they call here the middle class

I dropped in on John Vink

who agreed too show me around

his grand house

Wow, this is such a striking house,

- Thank you,

- My goodness,

- Thank you,

- Yes,

You've been here long, have you?

This is the family home?

My family home, We grew up here,

John Vink has travelled the world

collecting objects d'art

Have you collected all the silverware?

- The chandelier, is that,,,

- Yes, That one I brought from Spain,

Wow,

This is a collection of Delft Blue,

I have them over there so they don't break.

This is from Peru, this silver,

Mm,

- But you're thinking of leaving,

- Yes,

Why is that?

Well, the situation of the country,

It's getting day by day worse, so, um.,,

- In what way?

- In a political way,

We thought that this gentleman

that's now in power,

that he would change the whole situation,

- because it was a mess,

- Yeah,

But now it's a whole mess,

John Vink's view is echoed

by Venezuela's powerful media

Mostly privately owned, it combines banality

with hard-line anti-Chavez politics

Coming up, more dangers

in the latest official decisions,

Venezuela is moving towards

a very similar regime

to that which prevails in Cuba,

For the government, what 21st-century socialism

means is simple -

the total control of society by the state,

A number of journalists now say,

"Well, there is censorship,"

they have been censored,

How can that be?

They speak. out every morning,

They have their shows every day,

They speak. out constantly

against the government every day,

How can they say this?

I don't know if you have seen

the programs that they have,

Anybody that comes to Venezuela

and spends two days looking at these channels,

knows there is no censorship in Venezuela,

You just have to sit down

and see those opinion programs

between six and eight in the morning,

Hugo is evolving from a fascist to a Nazi,

What's the difference

between a Nazi and a fascist?

Basically, Nazis murder people,

I don't think in any part of the world

you hear the things that they say

about President Chavez, about his cabinet,

his ministers, the governors, the policies,

It's even obscene in some ways,

It seems to me

that everything, including the weather,

is being blamed on Mr. Chavez,

Nobody blames Mr. Chavez for the weather

because it's the only thing left which still works,

OK?, All the other things fell apart entirely,

We're talking here 1 91 4,

Bolshevik revolution, Russia -

this is what's taking place here,

- If you go out,,,

- Eh,,, Eh,,,

Wait a minute,

Look., we're sitting here in your

wonderful apartment,,,

- Thank you very much,

-,.overlooking Caracas,,,

In Venezuela they say "es su casa",

this is your home,

,,and you're comparing this

with the Bolshevik revolution -

there are no revolutionaries

banging on your door

and none of your companies

have been invaded,

Your good life hasn't really changed,

It hasn't changed, has it?

Yeah, but as I said before

it is now on a wait and see position,

If I had come today on a two-year contract,

as I did in 1 976,

I would fulfill my contract,

pack my luggage and go,

because I don't see any more future,

His critics accuse Chavez

of building another Cuba

of being another Castro

And although he recently announced temporary

presidential powers that bypass parliament

he maintains that his aim

is solely too speed up reform

The irony is that, unlike Cuba

capitalism has never had it better here

At the Caracas motor show

Ferraris and other luxury cars are sold

Smart restaurants and private golf courses

and weekends in Miami are booming

What this class has lost is political power

over a huge oil economy

I think Venezuela,

because it is an oil economy,

its middle and upper classes are very much,,,

biased towards the US

and the American way of life,

In a way, they think they are cosmopolitan,

They don't feel that they are from this country

or that country, they belong to the world,

They belong to this

kind of privileged people of the world,

- Miami?

- Miami, New York, Paris,

We adore Miami,

Miami is our second home,

We discovered Miami, because Miami

formerly was, you know, it was a village,

And we were so rich, you know,

we went to Miami and we bought houses,

apartments, bungalows, boats, cars -

everything we got in Miami,

We were the owners of Miami,

And so we are very US-minded,

In the old Venezuela the United States

played the part of a mafia godfather

The deal was simple -

for supplying endless cheap oil the

Venezuelan rich kept a large slice of the profits

The election of Hugo Chavez

ended the deal

Obviously Venezuela is important

because they're

the third-largest supplier of petroleum.

I would say that Mr. Chavez,

and the State Department may say this,

probably doesn't have the interests

of the United States at heart,

We have been concerned with some of the

actions of Venezuelan President Chavez

and his understanding of what

a democratic system is all about,

I assure you that we tried to avoid

the clash with the empire, but it was inevitable,

I went to the White House,

I shook hands with Clinton,

Even on the phone, "How are you, Mr. Clinton? "

"How are you Mr. Chavez? "

We were trying to do the impossible,

To have a revolution without crashing

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes