I was a really small tyke when my dad went to Venezuela in the 30's (that's 1930, gen X'ers). The entire lake Venezuela (misnamed since it's really a gulf off of the Caribbean Sea) lies over a incredible pool of oil.

My dad worked for Standard Oil doing his best to pillage the oil for the US and pay a pittance to whichever Dictator was in power at the time. Talk about a cozy party-time arrangement my Dad and Mom had with El Jeffe Supremo. Then the revolution came. A lot of killings of the peons occurred but soon it was business as usual again. The only thing that forced us home to California was WW2.

If anything has changed in Venezuela it must be for the good. The people of that beleagured nation have nowhere to go but up. But they will always have a Dictator's boot on their neck!

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c'mon greg, stop shillin for the machine...
here's li'l greggie trying to disrupt the march on DC a couple years ago by engaging in an ad homenim (sp?) attack on one key note speaker right before the march posted by anthony 'i used to be a USIA agent' lappe
this guy may be one of the most useless journalists (that's being generous) in america. why does alternet keep posting his dribble?

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Personally, I don't care for most of his policies, but at least he does care about trying to help his nation and not just the wealthy.

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at least the underclass is getting decent healthcare and better schools than ever before. When I was in Caracas, the slums and poverty were terrible....much the same as Havana in the '50's when my grandparents visited Havana. It was just horrific.

Anyone who calls "W" the "DEVIL" has my support.

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I would advise anyone who wishes to understand why Hugo's Venezuela is under attack to read Noam Chomsky's various books - they will give you an interesting insight into how power in the West in general and the United States in particular is exercised.

In particular, it is what the good professor called "The threat of a good example". By re-directing the resources of Venezuela to meet the needs of his own people rather than those of the United States and Western Europe he his committing a cardinal sin: the world's resources belong to the economic and political elites of the West, NOT to the indigenous people who actually live there; their prosperity is only an incident, not an end.

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