A Hopeful People

IN RESPONSE TO an invitation from Fundlatin, a Venezuelan ecumenical human rights organization, I joined a delegation of Catholic, evangelical and Protestant Christians in April 2006 to witness the dramatic changes taking place in several of Venezuela's poorest barrios. The heath care and economic cooperatives are connected to over a dozen other new "Bolivarian missions" that include education, housing, nutrition, indigenous rights, science and land reform measures. The Preamble calls on the "protection of God" and "the historic example of our liberator Simon Bolivar" to "establish a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal, and decentralized state" that "guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality."