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    Solidarity with Venezuela 

    The project

    Sources of information

    How you can help 

    The project 

The organization 

    HPJC is doing its Venezuela solidarity work through a local organization it organized. The organization, called Venezuela Viva!, has the following mission:

    We seek to educate our communities by providing accurate information about the promising social changes progressing in Venezuela and to counter mainstream media bias against Venezuela. We seek to foster understanding through artistic, cultural, political, and intellectual interaction.  We oppose U.S. intervention against Venezuela in any form and defend the Venezuelan people's right to follow their Bolivarian Revolution alternative.

    Participation is open to anyone who subscribes to the mission statement.  Please contact us by writing to info@venezuelaviva.org 

    Visit our website at: www.venezuelaviva.org 

    For more information and to access the resources listed below, contact Erica Sezonov, ericasezonov@yahoo.com or Torry Mercer, torrymercer@hotmail.com

    Educational programs and counter-disinformation

    Film showings

    "The Revolution Won’t Be Televised" is a prime resource. It is a documentary about the abortive 2002 coup overthrow Chavez and install a U.S.-backed dictatorship. We want to generate as many showings as possible. Antonio Padrino, the Venezuelan consul general in Houston, is willing to speak at film showings as his schedule permits.

    Speakers

  1. Venezuelan students at universities in Houston
  2. The Venezuelan consul general
  3. Members of Venezuela Viva
    4.

    Work with media

  4. Create opportunities to get accurate information to the media.

  5. Respond to disinformation if it gets printed or broadcast.

    6.
    Political activity
  6. Create a list of solidarity activists who can contact elected officials if need arises.
  7. Work with foreign policy staffers of Houston-area members of Congress to create a right understanding of Venezuela. 

    8. Person-to-person programs

  8. Encourage Houstonians to go on fact-finding trips, such as those sponsored by Global Exchange and Witness for Peace.

  9. Help the Venezuelan consulate to assemble delegations of local opinion shapers to visit Venezuela as guests of the government.

    10. Sources of information

  • Venezuela in the CIA’s World Factbook, Feb. 2007 https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/ve.html

  • Bolivarian Revolution" in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Revolution

  • North American Congress on Latin America (http://www.nacla.org) publishes academic-quality reports. The website describes them and then asks for a small fee for the entire report.

  • Venezuelan News, Views and Analysis (http://www.venezuelanalysis.com) is very pro-Chavez.

  • Venezuelan Information Centre (U.K.) (http://www.vicuk.org) also pro-Chavez.

  • Richard Gott, Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution;and The Bolvarian Revolution in Venezuela. Gott is a British journalist and historian who has written extensively on Latin America. A former Latin America correspondent and features editor for the British newspaper The Guardian, he is currently an honorary research fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the University of London.

    How you can help

  • Buy your gasoline at CITGO stations. CITGO is a wholly owned subsidiary of the national petroleum company of Venezuela.

  • Arrange a showing of the documentary, "The Revolution Won’t Be Televised" and/or a speaker (see above).

  • Write a letter to the editor every time the Houston Chronicle runs an editorial or op ed trashing Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.

  • Consider taking a "Reality Tour" to Venezuela. Click on Global Exchange or Witness for Peace. Also US–Venezuelan Bolivarian Exchange Network

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