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I was really moved by the Venezuelan reaction to the coup in Honduras. On two levels… One was the way everyone (well obviously not everyone, there are always those who go about their shopping and drinking and soapie watching as if the world is not a bigger place..) but a lot of people were somewhat glued to their televisions, watching the events progress, and here in Merida a crowd gathered from 12pm in the plaza to protest.

President Barack Obama said he went to the Fifth Summit of the Americas to listen but I’m not sure he heard or understood all that was being said.

I went with M to the university dining area for dinner, where he used his student card and his mum's student card to get us both the free meal. Dinner that night was two bread rolls, a kind of porridge type soup (atol its called), an apple, jelly, cooked sweet plantain, cheese, and lettuce type salad. All uni students can eat lunch and dinner for free during week days at these dinning rooms.

I wouldn't recommend putting too much faith in LONELY PLANET'S Venezuela edition., If you are planning a trip to Venezuela

This is Holy Week. In Venezuela, it means that a multitude is filling the streets in processions and in attending Catholic Church services. It also means that tens of thousands are also heading to the beaches. Some are doing one or other of these activities; many are doing both.

Thanks to J for suggesting we go to IMMFA (Merida Institute for Women and the Family) to see what the folks there are up to. Apparently they were pretty cool when they were first set up then there was a new ‘team' and they started to just focus on domestic violence, and now there's a new team again and some of the original team and they are getting more into the structural side of things, the active side of things.

A week and a half has now passed since my visit to Fundo Comun and things have moved frustratingly slowly. To revoke the mandates of all those currently holding elected positions in the council and start again cleanly we need to call a Citizen’s Assembly, yet for this assembly to be legally binding more than 20% of the population over 15 to attend.

One day a U.S. college student asked if the Venezuelan programs giving subsidized food, decent housing, free eye operations and better all-round medical care, were not just a ploy by Chávez to win elections.

February 11, 2009

Dear Larry and friends at COHA,

I am writing to express my disappointment with the two latest articles on Venezuela, both of which were weighed down with generalities and inaccuracies, which, I believe, led to misguided conclusions.

Criticisms are frequently made that, but for Hugo Chávez, the Bolivarian project lacks leaders. Yesterday the President himself explained that part of the need for the proposed amendment, which would remove term limits for elected officials, is that he is essential to the unity of the revolution. Without him he suggested that there would be a fragmentation within the revolutionary party, the PSUV, indicating a clear lack of alternative leadership.

 

Last Saturday I went to a meeting of the "Ideological formation and attention for women centre", which as far as I can tell is the only decent feminist organisation fighting for women here- the rest are all wishy washy organisations that do what ever Chavez says (or see supporting Chavez in elections as feminist activity), and mostly see feminist stuff as fighting against violence and poverty (which it is) but not challenging women's role in society (mother, active in the background only, cooking, caring, object of beauty) and generally against abortion.