Reply #35: AP Interview: Chavez Connects With The Poor'

[Cleita]

Thanks to Cal04
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x287409

AP INTERVIEW: Chavez Connects With Poor

Monday June 11, 2007 4:31 AM


AP Photo XCAR105, XCAR103, XCAR106

By IAN JAMES

Associated Press Writer

MANTECAL, Venezuela (AP) - The Toyota 4Runner pulled to a stop on the country road and a tinted window rolled down. Passers-by gawked, then broke into a run, screaming ``president!'' when they realized Hugo Chavez was at the wheel. ``I love you!'' cried a middle-aged woman with tears in her eyes, thrusting a fistful of flowers into the car.

The president clasped hands and planted kisses on cheeks, heads and hands of the people who turned out in the pouring rain to see him - an emotional connection that he called the driving force behind the socialist revolution that has pitted him against Washington.

``What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what made me a rebel,'' Chavez said during six hours of conversations with The Associated Press on Saturday during a road trip across the southern plains, a helicopter flight and a visit to a cattle ranch.

Throughout the trip, as he sipped coffee and sang folk songs, he stopped to talk with poor men and women of all ages who crowded around his car. Many asked Chavez for help - to build a home, to arrange medical care - and Chavez barked out instructions to his aides, who jotted them down.

At one stop, a boy peered into the car and asked Chavez for money.
More at http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6699483,00.html