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For Immediate Release
August 11, 2004
Contact: Venezuela Information Office, 202-347-8081
Former Democratic Presidential Candidates Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich Announce Support for Venezuelan President Chavez
Political Leaders Joined by Actor Edward Asner and Historian Howard Zinn
Washington, DC -- Jesse Jackson and Dennis Kucinich were joined by actors, historians and others in sending their support to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, just days before he faces a historic vote on the future of his administration.
Noting the accomplishments of the Chávez administration to improve the lives of Venezuela’s impoverished majority, the joint letter expressed the signers’ "hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president."
Signed by a diverse sampling of well known Americans, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, television star Edward Asner, and best-selling author Howard Zinn, the letter decried the role of the United States government in financing the opposition movement in Venezuela, including participants of a 2002 coup d’etat that briefly ousted the democratically-elected president from power. The signers pledged to heal the strained relationships between the United States and Venezuela.
Despite Venezuela’s vast oil wealth, nearly 80 percent of the country lives below the poverty level. President Chávez has expanded opportunities for all Venezuelans by using oil revenues to finance new schools, health clinics and national nutrition programs catering to the poor majority. In the past year alone, more than one million adults have been taught to read.
The president’s term has been marked by fierce opposition from Venezuela’s former ruling powers, including the 2002 coup and a national management-led oil strike that crippled the country’s economy. This Sunday, the Venezuelan people will vote whether to allow the president to finish his term. Recent polls indicate that the majority of Venezuelans will once again vote in favor of their president.
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 Chávez."
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NOTE: The Venezuela Information Office is dedicated to informing the American
public about contemporary Venezuela, and receives its funding from the
government of Venezuela. More information is available from the FARA office
of the Department of Justice in Washington DC.
Venezuela Information Office
733 15th Street NW, Suite 932
Washington, DC 20005
tel: (202) 347-8081
fax: (202) 347-8091
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