Reply #56: In Aleida Guevara's book which is an interview with Hugo Chavez, [View All]

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there's an epilogue where she interviewed the president of the equivalent of the house of representatives. She told this story about Chavez:

She was an indigenous indian woman from out in the countryside. She was from a small town near the army base that Chavez was sent to by the army because, when he was in Caracas, he was building up a fan base made up of students of his at the army college who were being converted to his progressive politics.

In this town, white european hunters made a sport of killing the locals. One day, Chavez drove his jeep into this town and all the locals hid, because their experience with the army before that was not very positive. But the kids didn't know enough to hide, so Chavez went up to them and talked. After a while, the adults realized that he wasn't a danger. They came out and talked. He asked them about their problems. They said that they had one big problem: they were hunted for sport by white Europeans.

Chavez put a stop to that. After he solved that problem he got his unit to engage in a public works programs. He helped the town build infrastructure, schools, an oral history program and a community theater (think FDR and the Depression). Well, they loved Chavez.

He obviously did so much for that community that one of its residents was able to become the equivalent of the speaker of the house. (Wouldn't it be nice if, in the US, instead of getting assholes like Newt Gingrich, we got politicians with experiences like this woman's in Venezuela where they're insipred by people who actually try to help people in need?)

This is one of hundreds of stories about Chavez that are told in that book that are incredible insights into what motivates him and what his character is.