Chavez at the final rally of the recall referendum campaign, is greeted by Madres of Plaza de Mayo's Hebe de Bonafini.

Credit: Venpres

Caracas, Venezuela. Aug 13, 2004 (Venezuelanalysis.com).- U.S. Reverend Jesse Jackson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Historian and writer Howard Zinn, activist Naomi Klein, and others sent a letter to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offering their support ahead of the upcoming recall referendum.

A copy of the letter is below:

August 12, 2004

Dear President Chavez,

We are writing to express our solidarity during this important moment in Venezuela’s history. It is our hope and expectation that, on August 15, you will once again win an electoral mandate from the Venezuelan people to be their president.

The world knows that you are achieving something remarkable in Venezuela: you are investing your country’s vast oil wealth in ways that benefit everyone, not just small minority of well-connected elites. Over the last year your government’s literacy campaign taught one million Venezuelans to read. And today, millions of others are benefiting from the governments investment in job training, small businesses and health care.

We are disturbed by our own government’s interference in your internal affairs. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a group funded by the U.S. Congress, has financed radical opposition leaders in their efforts to cut short your term. Some of the individuals funded by the NED participated in the April 2002 coup attempt against you.

Polling done by both the Venezuelan government and its opposition shows that you will defeat the recall referendum on August 15. We have every expectation that on August 16 Venezuelan relations with the U.S. government will begin to improve.

We are committed to doing what we can, as U.S. citizens, to heal those relationships and encourage Congress and the White House to see Venezuela not only as a model democracy but also as a model of how a country’s oil wealth can be used to benefit all of its people.

Sincerely,

Reverend Jesse Jackson

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Dr. Howard Zinn

Edward Asner

Dr. Saul Landau

Naomi Klein

Doug Henwood

Dr. Blase Bonpane

Liza Featherstone



Biographies of Signers

Reverend Jesse Jackson

Civil rights leader and former US Presidential Candidate

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Represents Ohio’s Ohio’s 10th District in Congress. Ran for president in 2003-04.

Dr. Howard Zinn

Historian and Playwright. His A People’s History of the United States is an international bestseller.

Edward Asner

An accomplished television and movie actor whose career has spanned more than 3 decades, Asner has also been a long-time activist.

Dr. Saul Landau

Internationally known scholar, author, commentator, and filmmaker. Winner of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, and an Emmy Award for "Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang."

Naomi Klein

Award-winning journalist and author of the international best-seller No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies.

Doug Henwood

Editor and Publisher of the Left Business Observer, and author of After the New Economy and the best-selling Wall Street.

Dr. Blase Bonpane

A journalist and author, Dr. Bonpane is the director of the Office of the Americas.

Liza Featherstone

Journalist and author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of A Movement.