The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia have rebuffed demands by the European Union and other leaders at a summit in Vienna to temper their policies on foreign investment and energy, declaring that a new political era had arrived.
Guardian Report

Meanwhile John Pilger, in his usual uncompromising style, reports on his visit to Venezeula where he interviewed poor people who have benefited from the Chávez education programmes.
These are reminiscent of programmes run by the Maurice Bishop government of Grenada before it was invaded by the US under President Reagan in 1983.

Sometimes it’s difficult to see clearly through the propaganda blizzard on both sides, but I was struck by this comment on the Pilger article:

“A business colleague of mine has done a lot of business in Venezuela over the past 20 years and says he has never seen such improvement in the lives of ordinary people. In spite of his being a hardcore American capitalist, he thinks that Chavez has been very good to Venezuelans. He also feels that long term, other than for foreign oil companies, it will be good for business.”

That sounds like intelligent observation to me. When I lived in Barcelona at the end of the Franco era, I was struck by the existence of a virtual shanty town side by side with luxurious villas at the edge of the city. Why live in luxurious prisons in fear of the deprived, when it is so easy to house people decently and to live without fear? As far as I know, this is what has happened under Spanish democracy.

I’ve always been mystified as to why so-called neo-liberal governments think it’s dangerous to educate the poor and give them a decent standard of living. Surely this is what creates new markets of millions of people?

Anyway, read the John Pilger article and judge for yourself.