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99 Reasons Why We Vote for Chávez

In the run up to the October presidential elections, "Why we vote for Chavez" blogspot is interviewing a Venezuelan every day to find out why they vote for Chavez.

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In the run up to the October presidential elections, “Why we vote for Chavez” blogspot is interviewing a Venezuelan every day to find out why they vote for Chavez.

My reason is Chavez himself: his sensitivity, his attitude in terms of social consciousness, he promotes reading books. Deep down he is a poet and outwardly a creator; all of this is blended into the love he feels for his people, he is like no other leader in history that I’ve known of during my few years of life. ¡Our great ‘comandante’! 
Enrique Hernández D’ Jesús
Objective reasons and reasons of the heart.

It’s easy to reply to the question, but it’s more difficult to set out the reasons. For me, there are two sets of reasons. First, the objective reasons, which you feel because of the material improvements in living conditions for our population, such as the steady increase in our minimum wage, the battle for attaining balanced economic indicators, the significant reduction in poverty and extreme poverty levels, the increasing empowerment of people, all the while, dignifying our international profile and making sure that our voice is increasingly heard and recognised, and fearlessly defending, not just our own sovereignty, but that of our great American brotherhood of peoples, etc.

All of these statements are probably better handled by other people, organizations, etc.

I would like to concentrate on the reazons of the heart, and that is what the opposition does not get; the fact that we have reasons of the heart to vote for Chavez.

Some of these reasons boil down to the fact that Chavez symbolises what for me is the most authentic expression of the Venezuelan character: he is a tireless fighter, unsubmissive, and at the same time he has such a tenderness that it sometimes borders on innocence; the best expression of Venezuelan frankness, which at times is shocking, but nonetheless is always authentic.

I see him, and I see myself reflected in him. I see my brothers, my sisters, or in better words, I see the best of us reflected in Chavez.

Chavez is the idealisation of the father, the image of the mother. He is the person that pushes us not to give up, after everyone used to tell us we couln’t make it.
He is the hope for better times. Not an illusion of hope, but hope in a very Venezuelan sense: that where “God helps those that help themselves”; we recognise that we have achieved a great deal, but a lot more remains to be done.

He stands for the positive reaffirmation of acknowledging ourselves as different, with a true respect for our differences; knowing that we are Black, Amerindian, White, and at the same time one people.

I vote for Chavez because my mother, for the first time in her long 73 years, believes in politics and in political activism, and got up on the 10th of June to accompany the registration of Chavez at the CNE (National Electoral Council), because -for her- that’s what she can do for him.

With Chávez I know we have achieved much, but with Chavez, I am also certain that we will achieve a great deal more, because that’s what we decide; because we are now truly independent and sovereign.

Carmín Navas R. 

My main reason to vote for the guy is that I know the history of my country and can see that this is a stellar moment for the people of Venezuela. Chavez remaining in Miraflores (the presidential palace) means the guarantee for us as a people in rebellion to keep building the country we never had; the country taken away from us by the rich, and by anglo-saxon powers.

Chavez has to continue his mission, and we ours, which is basically the same: to push the wagon of history so that this country never again returns to the hands of multimillionaires, to the powerful. Chavez represents the advent of the poor people at a time when we will save our homeland, and with it that portion of humanity which may see us as their example.

José Roberto Duque. “El Duque”

In 1998, I had had enough of so much misery. I remember that 80% of us then voted for Chavez, but they stole heaps of votes from us. I know this, because I was a witness at a polling station. He’s the only president we’ve had that has worried about educating his people, and developing social missions: Robinson Mission, Rivas Mission; and the Simón Bolívar satellite. Do you know how valuable that is for a people? He has been the only president who has taken the initiative to launch a satellite, and now he’s going to launch another one, because he knows that our people need education, health and decent access to food.

Who said “fear”?

God has good sense in what he does, given that with the president’s illness, those dunces have become so pathetic that they have even made fun of his affliction, revealing their own ignorance. They haven’t had the remotest consideration that can be had towards a human being who is ill. They were so stupid that they said the president had to submit a health certificate, in order to register his candidacy at the CNE (National Electoral Council), in a display of evil.

Capriles lifted up his shirt to show that he was healthy and then went on to faint in some other place. He’s human too, and we’re all exposed to getting ill. He appears to ignore the fact that Chavez was young too, and remains young, given he has a very good mixed indigenous and african heritage, which gives him a lot of physical strength.

Caperucita Roja (“Little red riding hood”), Chacao. 72 years old. 

To see the rest of the interviews in the countdown to the elections, please go to http://whywevoteforchavez.blogspot.co.uk/