Dear President Chavez

[goodhue]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=122-08122004

August 12, 2004

Dear President Chavez,

We are writing to express our solidarity during this important moment in Venezuela's history. It is our hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president.

The world knows that you are achieving something remarkable in Venezuela: you are investing your country's vast oil wealth in ways that benefit everyone, not just small minority of well- connected elites. Over the last year your government's literacy campaign taught one million Venezuelans to read. And today, millions of others are benefiting from the governments investment in job training, small businesses and health care.

We are disturbed by our own government's interference in your internal affairs. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a group funded by the U.S. Congress, has financed radical opposition leaders in their efforts to cut short your term. Some of the individuals funded by the NED participated in the April 2002 coup attempt against you.

Polling done by both the Venezuelan government and its opposition shows that you will defeat the recall referendum on August 15. We have every expectation that on August 16 Venezuelan relations with the U.S. government will begin to improve.

We are committed to doing what we can, as U.S. citizens, to heal those relationships and encourage Congress and the White House to see Venezuela not only as a model democracy but also as a model of how a country's oil wealth can be used to benefit all of its people.

Sincerely,

Reverend Jesse Jackson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Dr. Howard Zinn, Edward Asner, Dr. Saul Landau, Naomi Klein, Doug Henwood, Dr. Blase Bonpane, Liza Featherstone

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=122-08122004

[Cha]

1. Wow! With these people behind him...he must

be okay. And another sign he is okay is that the bushgang is not behind him.

[ret5hd]

2. thnx for posting...hadn't seen this (nt)

[goodhue]

4. no problem

eom

[K-W]

3. Thats quite the endorsement. EOM

[goodhue]

7. yeah, not to shabby

Biographies of Signers

Reverend Jesse Jackson, Civil rights leader and former US Presidential Candidate

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Represents Ohio's Ohio's 10th District in Congress. Ran for president in 2003-04.

Dr. Howard Zinn, Historian and Playwright. His A People's History of the United States is an international bestseller.

Edward Asner, An accomplished television and movie actor whose career has spanned more than 3 decades, Asner has also been a long-time activist.

Dr. Saul Landau, Internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker. Winner of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, and an Emmy Award for "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang."

Naomi Klein, Award-winning journalist and author of the international best- seller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.

Doug Henwood, Editor and Publisher of the Left Business Observer, and author of After the New Economy and the best-selling Wall Street.

Dr. Blase Bonpane, A journalist and author, Dr. Bonpane is the director of the Office of the Americas.

Liza Featherstone, Journalist and author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of A Movement.

[AP]

10. Doug Henwood also wrote "After the New Economy"

I hear this is a great book. It's on my list.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1565847709/qid=1092401737/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-7986230-2145652?v=glance&s=books

[goodhue]

11. looks good

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. A *kick* for the good guys. Viva Hugo! Venceremos!

[genius]

6. That's beautiful

[goodhue]

8. Friday AM kick

eom

[Judi Lynn]

9. So glad to read this!

Noticed this note attached:

The American letter is the latest in a series of solidarity statements from well-known figures around the world. In July, a group of 69 Latin American intellectuals, artists, and Nobel laureates signed a letter titled, "If I were a Venezuelan, I would vote for Hugo Chavez."

Very, very interesting, and appropriate.

Hope it goes well, and that _Bush decides to back off and behave like a gentleman for the first time in his life, and get the hell out of Venezuela's business, and leave their ELECTED leader the Cheney alone.

Thank you, goodhue!