Robyn Marshall, Caracas
Tens of thousands of Venezuelans joined with 200 foreign guests — authors, political activists, teachers and students from across the world — to commemorate the first anniversary of the April 13 mass insurrection that smashed the right-wing coup against President Hugo Chavez government.
They rallied for an evening of music and speeches held in the square outside the presidential palace to inaugurate the Second International Conference in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution.
The conference itself was held in the central chamber of the country's national parliament from April 14 to April 17. A series of speakers' panels explored topics from democracy to trade union activity to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Four Latin American countries have still not signed the FTAA treaty — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Venezuela. The US government is pushing for them to sign by January 2005. Carlos Escarra, one of the Venezuelan FTAA negotiators, said the Chavez government opposed the treaty since it would allow US corporations to become the owners of all Venezuelan natural resources, including the waters of the Orinoco river.
The Venezuelan government is proposing a totally different trade agreement called ALBA — the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean — that would preserve member-countries' sovereignty over their natural resources and public services and utilities.
Coinciding with the international conference, there was a two-day conference held at the Hotel Avila just for women participants. Organised by the National Institute of Women, INAMUJER, it focussed on the destructive effect of the FTAA on the lives of Latin America's women workers and peasants. It was attended by representations from all the women's groups in Venezuela. Organisers had expected 300 attendees but 400 women participated.
On the final day of the international solidarity conference, the foreign guests visited several of Caracas's barrios to witness first-hand the Chavez government's health, education and food programs for the poor.
"Venezuela represents the centre of the political changes in all of Latin America", commented Rafael Alegria from Honduras. Alegria is the secretary of international operations for Via Campesina, the 60 million member international network of peasant organisations.
"What I discovered convinced me that there is a grassroots revolutionary process that is very strong and very popular", said Mamane Sani Adamou, a high-school biology teacher from Niger.
Many of the foreign guests were from the United States. Margaret Brugger, a social work student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, bluntly observed: "I think that Chavez stands for the people and Bush stands for money... so I came to show my solidarity with Chavez and the people."
From Green Left Weekly, April 29, 2004.
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