If you are interested in traveling to Venezuela on a VSN delegation, please send your name, dates you'd be available to travel, and contact information to VSN<at>afgj.org.

We're Back from the VSN Delegation to Venezuela!
June 30 to July 8, 2007
Venezuela
Coming Soon! Report on what went on during the delegation's trip!

Experience the Bolivarian Revolution this summer!
August 1-11, 2007
Student Delegation to Venezuela

WHO: College students

WHAT: This delegation will give students the opportunity to experience the Bolivarian revolution first hand. The group will meet with government and opposition leaders, visit urban and rural communities to experience the many social programs, such as Barrio Adentro, the health project involving thousands of Cuban doctors who live and work in very poor communities. They will also visit new cooperatives, community television and radio stations, dance to the vibrant rhythms of Afro-Venezuelan drums, and help out at a coffee farm. Several days will be spent with a home stay in a rural community of the state of Lara. During this time students will be able to choose a hands-on experience in health, cooperatives, education or music.

WHY: The dramatic changes taking place in Venezuela have captured the world's attention. The self proclaimed "Socialism of the 21st Century' is aimed at redirecting the country's oil wealth to its citizens. Radical health, education, economic and agricultural reforms have brought both
enthusiastic praise and vociferous criticism. To the underprivileged of Latin America, whose ranks are swollen after a 20-year neo-liberal fiasco, President Hugo Chavez is a hero, one of the few world leaders to put people before markets. To others in the Americas, especially the Bush Administration, Venezuela is considered "dangerous," a new Cuba. This delegation will allow students to make their own decisions about this controversial new model for a nation - is it hopeful? Worrisome? Successful? Dangerous? Inspiring?

WHEN: August 1-11, 2007

COST: $1,200 (includes: accommodations, meals, in-country transportation, reading material,
honoraria for host communities, speakers, and organizations). International airfare not included.

The delegation will be led by Lisa Sullivan and her daughter Maia Rodriguez. Lisa has lived in Venezuela for 20 years, and is the Latin America Coordinator for School of Americas Watch. Maia grew up in the barrios of Barquisimeto, Venezuela before heading to Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she is currently a second-year student.

Interested?
Contact: Lisa Sullivan: lisavenezuela<at>gmail.com
or Maia Rodriguez: rodrima<at>earlham.edu

Venezuela Solidarity Network and MITF on the Americas Delegation to VENEZUELA
Labor, Ecology & Indigenous Peoples Day!
October 6-16, 2007
Delegation to Venezuela

This September we will travel from Caracas to eastern Venezuela with experienced trip leader and long-time activist Lisa Sullivan. We'll see the sweeping changes taking place in the "Bolivarian Revolution." Participants in the delegation will witness the "proceso" of change in education and literacy, health care and living conditions. We'll learn about the new experiments in citizen participation, cooperatives, and worker-run factories. There is a palpable sense of energy, hope and creativity taking place in Venezuela which is flowing beyond its borders.
After the landslide re-election of President Hugo Chavez last December, the new phrase guiding the country is "turning on all the motors of Venezuela's Socialism of the 21st century." This delegation will give participants both the overview of current directions, and a focus on two areas: labor and ecology.

Caracas and the East
In Caracas the group will meet with government and oil industry officials, and visit social programs in the hillside barrios. We will then travel east to the Afro-Venezuelan region of Barlovento to visit a cacao plantation and take a boat ride to observe the "spectacle of the birds" in the mangroves of Tacarigua de la Laguna. Further east, near the centuries-old former capital, Cumana, we will visit fishing cooperatives and enjoy the stunning eastern shores.

Orinoco
The second half of the trip will take place in Guayana in the southeast, home to Venezuela's most important natural resources and industry. Delegates will travel by boat down the tranquil Cano Manamo river to visit fishing communities of the Warao, Venezuela's second largest indigenous group. We
will then ferry across Latin America's second largest river, the Orinoco, under whose shores lie the world's largest oil reserves. Across the river, the group will spend a few days in Ciudad Guayana a city searching for its identity between its stunning natural beauty and its growing iron, steel and aluminum industry.

Optional Destinations
For those who want to experience the exotic beauty of Angel Falls, the world's longest waterfall, or visit the ancient geological formations of the Gran Sabana and indigenous Pemon communities, we encourage you to add some personal travel days after the delegation. We will end the trip in Ciudad Guayana, which is the jumping point to these destinations.

Application
Cost for the ten-day trip is $1450, including most meals, lodging, and all in-country travel, as well as the return flight from Ciudad Guayana to Caracas. It does not include airfare to and from Venezuela.

For more information and an application, please call Venezuela Solidarity Network 202-544-9355 or send an email to VSN@afgj.org.