Something remarkable is happening in Venezuela. Since the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999 Venezuela has embarked on a profound and controversial project of reinventing society from within, with the bold goal of changing a political and economic system that benefits the few and powerful to one that gives ordinary Venezuelans a seat at the table.
The world's fifth-largest oil producer, Venezuela has long been a country of contrasts: despite its great wealth, 80% of Venezuelans once lived in poverty. Now, for the first time, millions of Venezuelans have access to education, job training, housing, land, clean water, health care, and something maybe even more precious: dignity.
While the personality of Hugo Chavez monopolizes the headlines and op-eds in the mainstream media and reduces complex issues to simplistic soundbites, the reality of the Venezuelan revolution is a complex, contradictory and ever-changing process. With new spaces for political participation opened to grassroots social movements, once-marginalized Venezuelan citizens have come out of the shadows to demand an active role in society and politics. The government, working together with social movements, continues to launch a wide range of innovative programs to move the country towards the unknown of 21st Century Socialism.
Community-based health care missions now bring medical services to poor neighborhoods. Educational programs are putting millions more children into thousands of new schools, while new university opportunities are providing higher education to Venezuelans previously shut out of the system. At the same time, Venezuelan elders are imbuing their citizenship with new meaning as they learn to read and write. Women, Indigenous peoples, and Afro-Venezuelans are gaining stature and rights, while a high-profile (and controversial) land reform campaign is giving poor farmers access to land and opportunities.
Venezuela is also becoming a leader in regional integration, particularly in the promotion of viable alternatives to corporate globalization and the "free trade" economic model. The proposed Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) would prioritize endogenous development, bilateral trade, and regional cooperation as a way to strengthen national economies. Venezuela also helped create the Bank of the South, an alternative source of funding for development in Lain America, TeleSur, a Latin American news channel that offers an alternative to foreign-dominated corporate media, and PetroAmérica— the first fully integrated, Latin American oil company.
But these ambitious programs, and Chavez's call for the creation of 21st Century Socialism are controversial. The Bush Administration -- which endorsed the coup d'etat against Venezuelan democracy in 2002 - continues in its rhetorical and funding efforts to discredit the government's legitimacy both at home and abroad. The U.S. media continues to routinely label President Chavez a 'dictator' and 'demagogue.' At the same time, political polarization continues to rack Venezuela as the opposition struggles to create an alternative to the chavista program and to influence the direction of the nation.
The direction the Bolivarian process will take is being negotiated, right now, not only in the presidential palace but also in the streets and fields of Venezuela. After new constitutional changes were narrowly rejected by the Venezuelan public the future of Venezuelan is more unsure than ever.
We invite you to travel to Venezuela with Global Exchange to dig past the headlines and explore the changes occurring in Venezuela, Latin America and the hemisphere as a whole. Meet with human rights activists, rural agricultural workers, labor unions, community activists, journalists, and government as well as opposition figures, and see for yourself the unprecedented social change that is occurring at this historic time in Venezuela and the region. At the crossroads of the Andean mountains, the Caribbean coast, the Amazon rainforest, and the Amacuro River Delta, Venezuela's wondrous natural diversity and beauty combined with its visionary social justice agenda guarantee an exciting -- and unforgettable -- experience.
