Venezuela and Indigenous Rights
By: Global Exchange
The child of provincial school teachers, Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez is an outsider to the elite white world of Caracas. Unlike previous leaders in Venezuela and throughout Latin America who gravitate toward the outside European world, Chávez is proud of his Indigenous and African roots, claiming that one of his grandmothers was a Pumé Indian. During his 1998 presidential campaign, he signed a "historic commitment" to govern on behalf of the country's half-million Indigenous peoples were he to be elected. It is a promise he has kept, and this has earned him the undying support of that sector of the population. He is their champion. At the same time, these policies have gained him the animosity of the traditional elite who bristle at the thought of an Indian or African Venezuela.
The child of provincial school teachers, Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez is an outsider to the elite white world of Caracas. Unlike previous leaders in Venezuela and throughout Latin America who gravitate toward the outside European world, Chávez is proud of his Indigenous and African roots, claiming that one of his grandmothers was a Pumé Indian. During his 1998 presidential campaign, he signed a "historic commitment" to govern on behalf of the country's half-million Indigenous peoples were he to be elected. It is a promise he has kept, and this has earned him the undying support of that sector of the population. He is their champion. At the same time, these policies have gained him the animosity of the traditional elite who bristle at the thought of an Indian or African Venezuela.
posted 1:43 AM
