AP interview: Chavez connects with poor
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This interview was conducted by The Associated Press and ran on
Sunday, June 10, 2007.
MANTECAL, Venezuela (AP) -- The Toyota 4Runner pulled to a stop on the
country road and a tinted window rolled down. Passers-by gawked, then
broke into a run, screaming ''president!'' when they realized Hugo
Chavez was at the wheel. ''I love you!'' cried a middle-aged woman
with tears in her eyes, thrusting a fistful of flowers into the car.
The president clasped hands and planted kisses on cheeks, heads and
hands of the people who turned out in the pouring rain to see him --
an emotional connection that he called the driving force behind the
socialist revolution that has pitted him against Washington.
''What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what led me to become a
rebel,'' Chavez said during six hours of conversations with The
Associated Press on Saturday during a road trip across the southern
plains, a helicopter flight and a visit to a cattle ranch.
Throughout the trip, as he sipped coffee and sang folk songs, he
stopped to talk with poor men and women of all ages who crowded around
his car. Many asked Chavez for help -- to build a home, to arrange
medical care -- and Chavez barked out instructions to his aides, who
jotted them down.
At one stop, a boy peered into the car and asked Chavez for money.
''It isn't good for you to be asking for money,'' the president
replied. He then bought some quenepa -- a tropical fruit similar to a
lychee -- from another boy in the group, and asked about their homes
and schools.
They live in shacks and have no school computers, so Chavez offered
houses and technology -- and more.
''Do you have water? Do you have books? ... That's the kind of help we
can give you, the revolution gives to you. ... The day will come when
kids don't have to sell quenepa fruit anymore.''
Government statistics show poverty has declined during Chavez's eight
years in office, and he rattled off lists of other improvements, from
hospitals to new roads.
But his opponents charge he has accomplished little considering the
billions of dollars in oil proceeds flowing into the country.
Although he is satisfied with his progress, Chavez said: ''I'm not
singing victory yet. It's a long road.''
Chavez defended himself against opposition allegations that he is
trying to be president-for-life, saying he will only stay on if re-
elected. He has pledged constitutional reforms that if approved in a
referendum would eliminate term limits, allowing him to run again in
2012.
The tour with Chavez offered an unusual glimpse into the life of a man
who has transformed Venezuela and spread a socialist, anti-American
message throughout the world.
He said he enjoys watching Clint Eastwood movies, and liked the film
''Gladiator'' so much he saw it three times. He sometimes plays late-
night pickup baseball games with ministers and others, using a rubber
ball. He relishes contact with the public, reads voraciously and makes
hours-long speeches.
But overall he has few escapes from politics, a situation he blamed on
conspiracies to kill him.
''I'm condemned to death, like Fidel (Castro) has been for a very long
time, and as such forced to take security measures that are so extreme
one ends up not having a personal life,'' Chavez said. ''One ends up
being a prisoner on a personal level.''
One of Chavez's five children, 27-year-old Maria Gabriela, accompanied
him on the trip and handed him cookies from the back seat. Though the
twice-divorced 52-year-old former lieutenant colonel often speaks
fondly of his children, Chavez said ''there is no possibility'' of
marriage on the horizon.
''I don't have a life to share with someone,'' he said. ''My life
doesn't belong to me.''
Chavez said he is transforming Venezuela into a socialist state, but
pledged to respect private property.
''There will continue to be all the individual freedoms, collective
freedoms, fundamental rights,'' he said. ''We accept private
education. We accept private health care, as long as it's regulated
and in keeping with national policy. ... The same goes for banks.''
Chavez defended his decision not to renew the broadcast license of
opposition-allied TV station Radio Caracas Television, which set off
two weeks of protests by university students who called it a move
against free speech.
He said the move was long overdue, saying the station backed a 2002
coup against him and consistently broke the law. The channel has
sought to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court.
''We want there to be critical media,'' Chavez said. He warned,
however, that if other private broadcasters ''call for a coup d'etat,
call for assassination ... their concession has to be revoked.''
Chavez said no new nationalization of businesses are planned -- for
now -- after a series of state takeovers in the oil,
telecommunications and electricity industries. But he would not rule
out more expropriations in the future.
His government has also taken over what it considers underused
agricultural lands, including the cattle ranch he visited Saturday. He
described plans for housing, more cattle and cooperative farms on the
giant plot as he circled overhead in a helicopter.
''The agrarian revolution has arrived,'' he said.