Blanca Eekhout is the director Vive TV, a national public TV channel that applies the principles of community television to a national level. The result is television of and for the traditionally excluded and marginalized.
Due to his unique experience in the Bolivarian government, Venezuelanalysis.com chose to interview Minister Navarro on the future of the Bolivarian Revolution in the era of “deepening the revolution.”
By Bart Jones - National Catholic Reporter, Sep 8th 2004
What seems clear in the wake of Chávez’s stunning victory is that there will be no fundamental retreat in his “Bolivarian Revolution.” But the referendum has not resolved the country’s tensions.
Nearly six years into his presidency, it is still unclear where Chavez intends to take his "revolution." So far, his reform project seems to be a blend of social welfare and grassroots civic participation, with a strong dose of free-market economics.
For the opposition it is obvious that it’s absolutely impossible that the Chavez’s government can count on the support of the majority of the population. It is simply a matter of an epistemological impossibility.
Address by Historian Margarita López Maya to representatives of the Venezuelan State on the occasion of the ratification Hugo Chávez Frías as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, following the referendum held on Sunday, 15 August 2004.
Opponents of President Hugo Chávez have claimed that fraud thwarted their recent attempt to remove him from office in a recall referendum. Venezuela's election agency declared that Mr Chávez won the referendum by 59% to 41%. How can we assess these competing claims?
Little has been written about the complex and contradictory reality of Venezuela politics and the specificities of President Chavez policies. Both the right and left have substituted myths about the Chavez government rather than confronting realities.
Venezuela's private media is keeping the opposition in the dark about the polls leading up to the referendum. This is neither good for the development of a responsible and informed opposition nor for the political, social and economic development of the country.
A transcendental electoral victory by the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez—his eighth in less than five years—crowned an unwritten journey in the political history of Venezuela and of popular democratic participation.
By Jonah Gindin – Venezuelanalysis.com, Aug 31st 2004
Venezuela’s experiment in revolution has entered a new phase. At stake is the Bolivarian revolution’s ability to transcend defending Chávez, in favour of advancing the revolution itself.
Strange dictator this Hugo Chávez. Masochistic and suicidal: he created a Constitution that permits the people to throw him out, and he risked this occurring in a recall referendum.
Venezuela's opposition does not understand how deeply poor Venezuelans venerate Hugo Chavez. They identify with him because they see him as one of their own. If the opposition were to spend more time with the poor they might be more successful at winning future elections.
With the referendum over, there is a choice ahead, both for Venezuela and the world. Will the Bolivarian revolution be deepened to begin profoundly redefining the basis and the terms of Venezuelan society?
By Brian Ellsworth and Justin Delacour, Aug 25th 2004
Ellsworth argues that Chavez has done things for Venezuela's poor, but he is in the process of re-creating earlier governments' systems of patronage. Delacour responds that while the criticism has a point, it must be contextualized.
