| Letter to Independent re: article on Chavez,
unpublished
Dear Editor, Your article, "U.S. is Trying to Overthrow Me, Says Venezuelan Leader" (18 February 2004), describes typical US treatment of Third World democracies independent of Washington. But President Hugo Chavez was not only "restored [to power] by loyalist troops" after the 2002 coup. It is well known in Venezuela that women from the poorest areas were the first to take to the streets in their hundreds of thousands and tell rank-and-file soldiers - sons, brothers and husbands - they had to act to save their President and constitution. Defeated by a popular uprising, the US is now using a referendum recall to keep up the pressure and prevent the Venezuelan people from advancing their anti-poverty programmes. For women there is much to defend: Article 88 of the Constitution recognises housework as work that produces economic value and entitles housewives to social security; Article 14 gives priority in the distribution of land to woman-headed households (70% in Venezuela); a Women's Development Bank supports grassroots women's co-operatives with micro credits at low rates of interest . . . And there is the civil-military alliance. Under Mr Chavez, the military are trained not to repress but to work with the population: distributing food, building housing, providing healthcare . . . Venezuelans are engaged in building what they call "a caring economy, an economy at the service of human beings rather than human beings at the service of the economy". A glaring contrast with Washington's corporate greed and military might. Yours sincerely, Nina Lopez |