People Before Profit blog

UN summit will focus on development goals

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 15:07:00 +0000

UNITED NATIONS — On Sept. 14, over 170 heads of state will descend on UN headquarters in New York for history’s largest gathering of world leaders, a three-day World Summit. High on the agenda will be how to reach the “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs).

The eight MDGs, adopted by 189 countries at the UN’s Millennium Conference in September 2000, aim to meet basic needs of the world’s population.

Salil Shetty, director of the UN Millennium Campaign, told the World, “[The MDGs] are the most basic needs faced by the majority of the world’s population. If you go to a village and ask people what their real needs and priorities are, you’ll get pretty much the same eight things. People want to stop struggling against disease, hunger, illiteracy.”

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said adopting the goals “constituted an unprecedented promise by world leaders to address, as a single package, peace, security, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

However, he warned, “In many ways, the task this year will be much tougher than it was in 2000. Instead of setting targets, the leaders must decide how to achieve them.”

The first seven goals are specific targets:

1. Cut in half the number of people living on less than $1 a day and halve the number of the world’s hungry.

2. Allow all children access to primary education.

3. Address gender equality, specifically equality for women in education.

4. Cut by two-thirds the mortality rate of children under 5 years old.

5. Cut by three-quarters the number of women who die giving birth.

6. Halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other deadly diseases.

7. Link people’s well-being to environmental sustainability.

On these first seven goals, uneven progress has been made, observers say. The first goal, in regard to reducing the number of people living on less than a dollar per day, appears to be on track. However, Shetty says that the aggregate masks an important fact: China’s successes in pulling millions of people out of poverty, and to an extent India’s economic development, have skewed the averages.

While the world is doing “OK” on some MDGs, it is doing badly on others, Shetty said. “On the whole, there’s no way we’re going to get to them by 2015 unless we really ratchet up the pace at which we are implementing them.”

Goal 8 says all the world’s countries have to work together to bring about development for human needs and suggests that the poor countries have to put their houses in order, while the rich have to help make sure they are financially able to do so.

“It boils down to the extent to which these countries have the political will to achieve the goals,” Shetty said. “Even in the poorest parts of Africa, some have achieved these goals or are well on track.”

But according to the Millennium Campaign, “for poor countries to achieve the first seven goals, it is absolutely critical that rich countries deliver on their end of the bargain with more and more effective aid, more sustainable debt relief and fairer trade rules, well in advance of 2015.”

“The rich countries have committed for a long time that 0.7 percent of their Gross National Income will be contributed toward development,” Shetty said.

“The richest countries, oddly enough, are the poorest contributors,” he added.

Currently, the U.S. gives about 0.16 percent of its GNI. The average among industrial nations is 0.25 percent. By contrast, some Nordic states and the Dutch give around 1 percent of their GNI.

dmargolis @ pww.org

Animal advocates decry CAFTA as deadly disaster

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:57:00 +0000

Animal advocates denounced the passage of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement as a “deadly disaster” for farmed animals and wildlife.

Prior to the vote, a letter signed by over 100 animal organizations was sent to every member of the House condemning DR-CAFTA. Activists charge that the agreement will lead to massive expansion of cruel and unsanitary “factory farm” agriculture. This intensive confinement industrial production system is responsible for the vast majority of pig, chicken, turkey and egg products produced in the United States, but is still uncommon in Central America.

DR-CAFTA will force member countries to eliminate tariffs and sanitary barriers on U.S. agricultural imports, allowing U.S. agribusiness to flood these countries with cheap pork, beef, chicken, eggs, turkey and dairy products. Latin American producers will be driven out of business or forced to adopt factory farm methods to remain competitive.

Animal agribusiness interests view the elimination of import tariffs as an opportunity to dramatically increase exports of beef, pork, dairy and poultry products and to undercut small farmers in Latin America who use traditional agriculture methods.

The high volumes of water used to clean these factory farms is a serious concern for both the environment and public health in areas lacking adequate water treatment facilities.

Loss of habitat for terrestrial wildlife and marine life is also a concern for activists. The region provides critical habitat to over 1,000 bird species, over 600 species of reptiles, several hundred types of mammal and countless species of insects. Marine life at risk includes sea turtles, manatees, fish, crabs, shrimp and mollusks. Even pro-DR-CAFTA U.S. trade negotiators concede the “loss of migratory bird habitat” as a side effect of the treaty.

DR-CAFTA will be a public health disaster for Latin America’s marine life. As regulatory controls are undermined, larger enterprises will move into areas previously zoned solely for small fisherman. Their use of larger nets not only catches more of the fish, it threatens marine biodiversity, sweeping up other species like sea turtles that have been left alone by small fisherman.

DR-CAFTA offers strong protections to corporate investors, including offshore oil drilling projects, but mandates no balancing increase in environmental protections. With the passage of the agreement, private corporations will be able to sue nations in international tribunals for tens of billions of dollars for refusing to allow ecologically destructive natural resource extraction projects that endanger wildlife.

The potential threat to the environment can be seen in the Harken Oil Case. As reported in the online environmental journal Grist, Harken Costa Rica Holdings, a transnational corporation with close ties to Harken Energy of Texas, obtained an agreement to drill off the coast of Costa Rica, contingent on the outcome of an environmental assessment. When it was found that the drilling would pose a serious threat to the rich marine ecosystems of the Talamanca region, the Costa Rican government decided the drilling was contrary to its environmental law, and Harken was denied the right to drill.

In response, Harken tried to bring an international suit against Costa Rica. It demanded the outrageous sum of $57 billion to compensate for profits Harken would have made from the drilling. A stipulation in the contract forced the company to taken their suit to domestic courts in Costa Rica, but had DR-CAFTA’s investor rules been in place, Harken could have bypassed the domestic court system and taken the case straight to a NAFTA-style tribunal.

With a GDP of only $38 billion, the threat alone would have forced Costa Rica to concede and settle, regardless of whether Harken would have been able to substantiate their case in the end.

Oxfam International has warned that DR-CAFTA may replicate the increased deforestation that came as a result of U.S. corn dumping on Mexico when 1.5 million small farmers were driven off their land. This led to an upsurge in tree clearing for farming and fuel. The annual rate of deforestation in Mexico rose to 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres), practically doubling the pre-NAFTA rate of 600 thousand hectares per year. Under DR-CAFTA this phenomenon is likely to be repeated with Central America’s rice farmers.

Reprinted with permission from The Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve: activism @ wetlands-preserve.org.

WORLDNOTES

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:55:00 +0000

Haiti: Denounce detention of priest

A lawyer for jailed Father Gerard Jean-Juste last week called the Roman Catholic priest’s detention by Haitian police a flagrant violation of the 1987 Haitian constitution and the United Nations Charter because no charges have yet been brought in the case.

Attorney Bill Quigley told parishioners at Jean-Juste’s church that a number of initiatives are underway outside Haiti to press for the priest’s release, the Haitian news agency AHP said.

Over 2,000 letters, including one signed by 29 members of the U.S. Congress, have been sent to President Bush and Secretary of State Rice, asking them to press the Haitian provisional government to release the outspoken leader for democracy and human rights. Jean-Juste was arrested July 21 after a mob attacked him during funeral services for journalist Jacques Roche. Police said he was a threat to state security.

Britain: Gate Gourmet pickets can continue

The High Court ruled last week that Gate Gourmet workers can continue to picket on the side of the road leading to the factory, but said pickets at the factory gate would be limited to six.

Gate Gourmet, caterer to British Airways, summarily fired 670 workers, mostly Asian women, last week after they struck spontaneously to protest the firm’s hiring 130 lower-paid casual workers without informing the union. The company alleged the daily protests outside its Heathrow Airport headquarters were intimidating its staff.

A spontaneous strike by other airline workers in support of the catering employees grounded hundreds of British Airways flights.

While pointing out that the spontaneous labor actions were not legal under British labor law, Transport and General Workers Union General Secretary Tony Woodley called in an Aug. 16 London Guardian column for banning “crude union-busting techniques” like those of Gate Gourmet’s bosses. He also urged that workers’ solidarity actions be legalized, consistent with ILO conventions.

Colombia: Attacks on indigenous communities continue

In an Aug. 9 communiqué marking International Indigenous People’s Day, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) reported that so far this year, 66 members of the country’s indigenous communities have been murdered, 16 have disappeared, 111 were wounded, 124 arbitrarily detained, 9,250 threatened and 18,602 forcibly displaced.

The ONIC communiqué, reported by Weekly News Update on the Americas, said the food crops of at least 10 indigenous communities had been sprayed with the herbicide glyphosate — used by the government in the U.S.-sponsored campaign against drug cultivation — causing the deaths of two children.

ONIC said the majority of abuses against indigenous people were carried out by right-wing paramilitaries or Colombian government forces.

Mali: UN food agency urges more help for children

In an effort to feed 175,000 more children in the most economically distressed parts of Mali, the UN World Food Program last week nearly doubled its emergency appeal for the West African country to $13.6 million, the UN News Service said.

“The international community must respond now to avoid a humanitarian crisis,” said WFP Mali Country Director Pablo Recalde. “This cyclical food shortage in an already burdened country will only further weaken the livelihoods of rural families unless we act immediately.”

The WFP said it has received only $2.7 million in contributions to its emergency program in Mali, leaving a $10.9 million shortfall.

The program had already been targeting 450,000 people in the hardest-hit areas of the country, which like its neighbor Niger, suffers from extreme poverty, drought, rudimentary farming techniques and desertification. Food shortages are typically most acute in August and September.

World Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel

(mbechtel @ pww.org).

Growing ties of friendship on Korean peninsula

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:53:00 +0000

Based on recent developments and opinion surveys, it seems much less likely that the Bush administration will be able to rely on South Korea, traditionally one of the United States’ strongest allies in Asia, to isolate the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea).

Animosity between the DPRK and South Korea is decreasing, while the level of intra-national exchanges has been growing.

In a recent poll conducted among South Koreans aged 16-25 by Gallup and the Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, 65.9 percent said that they would take the side of the DPRK if it were at war with the United States, while only 21.8 percent said that they would side with the U.S.

On Aug. 14, over 50,000 people participated in the Independence, Peace, and Reunification Festival in South Korea, which included nearly 200 North Korean delegates.

“I hope this festival will help improve reconciliation and trust between South Korea and the DPRK, and make a contribution to the development of the inter-Korean relations,” said Kim Ki Nam, secretary of the central committee of Workers Party of Korea, the ruling party in the north. His remarks were reported by Xinhua, the Chinese news service.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was similarly friendly. He exhorted all Koreans to “leave behind a bitter history.”

The North Korean delegation was visiting as part of a four-day tour organized to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Korea’s independence from Japanese rule. Both sides of Korea worked together to produce a united statement against Japan’s wartime atrocities, and to call for Japanese conservatives to stop whitewashing the crimes of the past.

On Aug. 16, about 30 leaders of the Workers Party of Korea made an unprecedented visit to South Korea’s National Assembly. The body’s speaker, Kim One-ki, suggested a meeting between him and his counterpart in the DPRK, Choe Thae-bok, chair of the Supreme People’s Assembly, this September in New York. This was met with “a positive response” from the DPRK delegation, according to reports. The meeting would take place during the UN-sponsored World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments.

After the visit to parliament, the delegation, which included both government officials and citizens, went on to visit a shrine to 104,000 South Koreans who were killed in the war against Japanese colonialism.

The next day, the delegation met with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. Roh reportedly told the North Koreans that the basis for solving the nuclear issue was for both parts of Korea to work together in the six-party talks. A round of talks ended earlier this month without agreement, and another round is scheduled to being on Aug. 29.

Roh told the visitors, “It was a great thing that you visited the National Cemetery. That will become the foundation on which good things will continue to happen in the future.” He said that he felt a new, better stage of relations had been reached on the Korean peninsula.

The North Koreans also visited student, labor and religious groups, and paid a visit to former President Kim Dae-Jung in the hospital. Kim initiated the “Sunshine Policy” of working peacefully with the north.

In related developments, one of the sticking points in the six-party talks was the DPRK’s insistence on its right, guaranteed under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. South Korea’s foreign minister, Ban Ki Moon, appeared to disagree with Washington during a recent television interview, where he said that, if the DPRK returns to the NPT and trust is restored between the two states, then, as far as South Korea is concerned, “the door for peaceful use of nuclear energy should be open.”

Chung Dong-young, who is also chair of South Korea’s National Security Council, said that South Korea disagreed with the U.S. on the issue of the peaceful use of nuclear energy. As long as the DPRK returns to the NPT, which its leadership has said it would consider, “North Korea of course must have the right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, such as for agriculture, medicine and electrical power.”

dmargolis @ pww.org

UN troops in Haiti aid repression, critics charge

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:52:00 +0000

On July 6, 350 soldiers from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) stormed the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Cite Soleil, one of the capital’s poorest districts and a hotbed of support for ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

“The foreign soldiers came with helicopters and their war machines and started shooting at everything that moved,” said Rene Momplaisir, a neighborhood activist. “They killed 40 people who carried no weapons.”

Among the victims were 22-year-old Sonia Romelus, who was killed by the same bullet that passed through the body of her 1-year-old son Nelson, who also died. Found next to their bodies was Sonia’s 4-year-old son Stanley, killed by a single shot to the head.

Doctors Without Borders reported receiving 27 patients with gunshot wounds after the incident, three-quarters of them women and children.

Minustah commander Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro initially claimed the attack was an attempt to “curb violence” in the neighborhood, alleging that no civilians died and that soldiers shot out of self-defense. However, after outraged protesters held demonstrations across the U.S., Canada, France and Brazil, Minustah issued an apology for its actions and promised to investigate.

As a result of this incident and others, critics charge that Minustah is not protecting human rights in Haiti. Instead, they say, it is aiding the coup-installed government’s campaign of repression against Aristide’s supporters.

Journalist and filmmaker Kevin Pina, producer of the documentary “Haiti: the Untold Revolution,” told the World in an e-mail interview from Haiti that UN forces have been involved in other massacres besides the one on July 6.

“Ordinary Haitians who continue to support Lavalas and Aristide are frightened and angry by their [Minustah’s] presence,” he said. They sometimes find themselves “verging on helplessness, especially when the UN continues to support armed incursions in their neighborhoods by the Haitian National Police (HNP). They [Minustah] are always in the background of these deadly raids.”

According to Brian Concannon Jr. of the Oregon-based Center for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, “Minustah has been involved in a lot of killings and is most certainly supporting police in murderous raids in poor neighborhoods.”

Pina’s and Concannon’s statements are supported by two recent studies.

“Keeping the Peace in Haiti?” by Harvard University Law School and the Brazil-based Global Justice Center, accuses Minustah of violating its own mandate. The report, published last March, points out that Security Council Resolution 1542 requires that Minustah help with monitoring and reforming the HNP.

Instead, “Minustah’s most visible efforts have involved providing logistical support to police operations … implicated in human rights abuses such as arbitrary arrests and detentions and extrajudicial killings.”

A University of Miami Law School report issued last November and titled “Haiti: Human Rights Investigation” says that the HNP routinely launches “guerilla attacks” against poor neighborhoods, carrying out illegal killings with Minustah’s backing.

Journalist Ben Terral, who recently visited Haiti, said that he watched a video recording of an HNP-Minustah operation made by a Haitian journalist in downtown Port-au-Prince. “It included images of a Bel Air resident named William Perry who was in a wheelchair in the courtyard of his residence when UN troops burst through the gate and blew the top of his head off. William’s sister testified on camera that Brazilian UN troops fired gas and came into courtyard with no provocation. … The survivors testified that UN soldiers were shooting ‘without any control.’”

Concannon said that ordinary Haitians sometimes welcome Minustah into their neighborhoods because “they are less brutal than the police or armed groups that they displace.”

“But Haitians would prefer that Minustah protect them without having to shoot them as well,” he said.

tpelzer @ shaw.ca

Anger rises over cover-up on shooting of Brazilian

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:50:00 +0000

LONDON — The family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian electrician who was shot to death by British police on July 22 in the wake of two terrorist attacks here, have demanded an end to police “shoot to kill” tactics following revelations about the circumstances surrounding the killing.

Family members and friends have called for the policemen responsible to be jailed for life and for the laws sanctioning their actions to be repealed.

Lawyers representing the family also called for Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair to resign, following accusations that he had promoted a campaign of “lies” over the killing.

The chief previously insisted that the incident, which took place in the Stockwell Tube station of London’s subway system, was linked to the July 21 bombings.

Police shot Menezes in the head seven times at point-blank range, after hurriedly convincing themselves that he was a suicide bomber. But leaked evidence suggests that the events leading up to the killing were vastly different from police accounts.

Police claimed that Menezes, 27, who was wearing a “suspiciously bulky coat,” was challenged by officers before fleeing into the underground.

But leaked documents reveal that closed circuit television footage shows him wearing a light denim jacket, walking casually into the station and using his travelcard, not fleeing officers and vaulting a ticket barrier as police had claimed.

Tapes even show that he stopped — in the last few moments of his life — to bend down and pick up a copy of a free newspaper in the station foyer. Menezes was seen to board the Tube train through the middle doors, before sitting down on a seat facing the platform.

A spokesman for the Menezes family’s campaign for justice, Asad Rehman, said, “The people of London have been told lies and half-truths about how Jean died.

“Jean was an innocent man who was shot in cold blood. We now know that he wasn’t wearing a bulky jacket, that he wasn’t acting suspiciously or that he was told to stop by the police. He was being restrained when he was shot and killed,” he added.

“The overwhelming majority of the people of London join us in believing that there can be no alternative but the immediate suspension of the ‘shoot to kill’ policy before another innocent Londoner becomes its victim.”

Harriet Wistrich and Gareth Peirce, lawyers for the Menezes family, said that it is clear that the “entire body of information which had been placed in the public domain since his shooting was false.”

From the beginning, the “most senior of police officers and government ministers, including the prime minister, claimed the death of Jean Charles to be an unfortunate accident, occurring in the context of an entirely legitimate, justifiable, lawful and necessary policy.”

“Sir Ian Blair should resign. The lies that appear to have been put out are clearly wrong. And nobody has stepped in to correct the lies,” Wistrich said.

Two top Brazilian officials met with London police on Aug. 22 as part of their own investigation of the incident.

Morning Star ().

Festival diary: Venezuelans have big hearts

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:48:00 +0000

Erika, 19, a Chicana student from the Los Angeles area, was one of the more than 700 U.S. delegates to the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, Aug. 6-13, in Caracas, Venezuela. Erika was interviewed before leaving for Venezuela in the July 30-Aug. 5 PWW. Below is the interview during the festival and next week the PWW will publish the last interview and Erika’s post-festival impressions.

What have you experienced today that you would like to share with the youth of the U.S.?

Everything! But the main thing is that I could see the delegation working together despite the differences. Even though we didn’t agree on everything, we have united to experience this Festival.

Did anything you experience today change your way of thinking?

Everything in general is beginning to change my view of things. Seeing the situations for myself has moved me in the direction of a more liberal thinker.

What was your most personally memorable experience today? What did you like most about today?

The thing I remember most of the opening ceremony was the end where the Venezuelan delegation showed their passion. Seeing them happy, enjoying themselves, makes me happy. I also like the way [President] Hugo Chavez greeted the American flag. It showed his understanding of the American people.

What questions popped into your mind that you would like to ask the Venezuelan government?

How can they be so strong and giving, knowing that they have been out here at the opening all day? They seem to have big hearts.

From Daniel: Welcome to Venezuela!: A day in the life of a social worker

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:46:00 +0000

SIMON BOLIVAR AIRPORT, Venezuela — Our very first experience as the United States delegation at the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students here was the warm and excited Aug. 5 welcome of a youngVenezuelan who is a social worker in the steep hill community that faces this airport, Mission Barrio Adentro. His name is Daniel, better known as “the guy in the red shirt” to many of the 700-plus U.S. delegates that journeyed here.

What does social work in the hill communities of Venezuela consist of? Climbing up and climbing down, up and down, and up and down, he says. Daniel’s day starts when the sun comes up at 6 a.m., he puts on his pants, his T-shirt, his shoes and gets to work. After breakfast, there is a daily meeting with the five Cuban medics to go over the day’s work and then the climbing begins.

His duty is to do what he must to ensure the community’s health. For example, sometimes he climbs to the most remote parts of the hill to deliver a medicine to a person who is too disabled to make the trip to the clinic or perhaps is too busy working to do so. Other times he schedules clinic appointments for them, from an allotted schedule provided by the doctors. He also registers neighbors for reading and writing classes and for educational workshops.

Lunch is usually an invitation at a neighbor’s home or wherever lunchtime has found him. In midday there is a meeting with the mission organizers to share the day’s happenings and afternoon plans. In the afternoon two or three workshops are conducted regarding such topics as hygiene and health, sexual education and premature pregnancy, drugs and alcoholism, or other topics according to what the community asks for. These usually end at 10 p.m.

It’s at that time that Daniel begins to climb down the hill towards his modest one-room home. But on his way there at least 10 neighbors who stop to talk to him or ask him a question. He finally arrives home at midnight, at which time he takes a shower puts on his favorite shorts and lays down on his bed. To sleep? No. Only to rest for about half an hour, because he must write his daily report, as he does so every working day.

Astonished, our jet-lagged group finds the strength to express our admiration and reverence. “How much are you paid?” we ask. “The minimal,” he replies. “I have everything I need: a roof, a bed, and I am never short of an invitation for breakfast, lunch or dinner.”

“Welcome to Venezuela!” he renews. “You are defenders of truth, and please send my warmest greeting to the people of the United States.”

Food, schools and liberty thats the Bolivarian Revolution

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 08:16:00 +0000

CARACAS, Venezuela — Carolys Perez came to tears when the World asked her about the changes taking place within Venezuelan society, the Bolivarian Revolution and its leader, Hugo Chavez.

The World spoke with Perez during the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students, which brought together 17,000 youth from over 130 countries to struggle for peace and solidarity.

Perez, 28, a leader of the Francisco Miranda Organization (FMO), an organization of youth in the Miranda municipality, which develops leadership and encourages community residents to continue and expand their education and engage in the “Bolivarian” process, is also a teacher, mission (social service) volunteer and member of the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV).

Perez gave the World a short history of the PCV and President Chavez’s election. She said the PCV was 74 years old, that it had been an underground organization at times, especially during the ’60s when many of its leaders and members were assassinated.

During the ’80s and ’90s, “economic methods to further oppress the people were instituted. Poverty sank [people] lower and lower,” she said. The former president “took the peoples’ human rights away. He let the police do what ever they wanted. They would run into peoples’ houses, grab their children, family members and make examples of them.”

After only being in office one month, protesters began to call for the former president’s removal. One protest lasted five days. Afterward, “leaders of the movement were murdered, including party members.”

Chavez stood up to the president, she said. He helped build and lead an uprising in 1992, but was captured and thrown in jail. Eventually that president was removed. Chavez was released and “Chavez stayed with the community, with the people,” said Perez. “He understood that the path to victory wasn’t a violent path.” And in 1998, Chavez won the presidential elections with 4 million votes.

On the night of the elections, “we stayed up all night waiting for the results. The whole country celebrated when Chavez won. The poorest came from all over just to see Chavez.” According to Perez, “the people chose a new political leadership and direction.”

“Rich people,” said Perez, “who control the private communications, tried to make Chavez look bad. Business interests, especially oil interests, tried to sabotage the economy.” Then the coup took place. Chavez was kidnapped. “There was no gas for the houses, no way to stay warm. People were burning their furniture to stay warm.

“Everybody was looking for Chavez,” said Perez. “The party used its underground networks to hide and protect other leaders of the revolution.”

Then Chavez was found. As Perez spoke her eyes filled with tears. She became animated and warm. “He apologized to the people,” she said. “He was sorry for what we went through. And he promised he would never abandon us!”

Most recently, she said, the PCV helped the left-wing electoral coalition beat back the recall referendum initiated by “private, big-business interests.” Out of 10 million votes cast, Chavez got 6 million. “The PCV is growing,” Perez said. “It is accepted by the government. There is no more reason to hide.”

Perez also told the World about her experiences as a educator in the missions. She said, “before there was nothing, now every class has a computer, Internet, television and books. The buildings have been upgraded. We have more rooms. We also have a mess hall for the community. We bring people food while providing political education.”

She said the missions “organize schools, students, into political formations. We educate the youth and explain the goals of the revolution.”

The World asked Perez what she thought of George W. Bush. “I see President Bush as an assassin, a terrorist. He is taking advantage of his power. Instead of improving the lives of the people, he is hurting them.”

tonypec @ pww.org