[News] Mayor of London supports Chavez

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=57783

Published: Friday, May 19, 2006
Bylined to: <mailto:features @ vheadline.com>Ken Livingstone

Mayor Ken Livingstone in "Chavez legacy" rebuttal to The Times (London)

Letter to the Editor: The Times May 19, 2006 -- Chavez legacy

Sir, Your coverage of President Chavez' visit to London (reports and 
Thunderer, May 16) misrepresents the record of the President's 
administration in Venezuela.

Far from Chavez' opponents being repressed, as you suggest, they 
control the vast majority of the media, including 95% of the 
country's 180 newspapers, and five out of five private TV stations, 
which pump out anti-Chavez propaganda around the clock.

You claim Chavez has contributed to a steep recession when in 
reality, since the defeat of the strike by oil industry managers 
early in 2003, Venezuela has enjoyed the most rapid economic growth 
in the region. GDP grew 9.3% last year and is projected to be 7% for 2006.

You claim poverty has increased when in reality it has decreased, 
with massive increases in spending on education and health care, in 
particular. UNESCO certifies that under Chavez illiteracy has been 
eliminated in Venezuela for the first time.

Seventeen million Venezuelans have been given access to free 
healthcare for the first time in their lives. A quarter of a million 
people are having their sight restored, shantytown dwellers are being 
given title to their homes and millions are being given the 
opportunity to continue their education in adulthood.

That is why, despite an overwhelmingly hostile media, Chavez stands 
at more than 70% in opinion polls and his supporters have won ten 
elections over the past seven years, all judged free and fair by 
international observers.

That is also why more than a million people took to the streets to 
defeat the attempt by the opposition to remove him through an 
anti-democratic military coup widely thought to have been 
orchestrated from Washington.

Hugo Chavez is one of the most popular leaders in his own country, 
and in the world today, because the combination of democracy and 
social justice, which he represents, is something to which the 
majority of people on this planet aspire.

Ken Livingstone
Mayor of London


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