2008 Woodie Awards
Venezuelan ambassador speaks to students, community members
Venezuela is eliminating poverty, achieving democracy, ambassador says
By: Matthew Stone, Editor in Chief
Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: News
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Poverty will only disappear if the poor become empowered, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States said last Friday. Charity is not enough in the fight against poverty because poverty signifies a lack of power, the ambassador, Bernardo Alvarez, said.
"This is thinking outside the box. Even some of the leftist thinkers are shocked," Alvarez said before an audience of students and community members in Macalester's Weyerhaeuser Boardroom.
Alvarez visited the Twin Cities at the end of a tour through the northern Midwest and parts of Canada. He and his delegation had plans to attend last Friday's match up between the Twins and the Detroit Tigers at the Metrodome following the address.
Alvarez noted that even as relations between the United States and Venezuela have frosted over in recent years, the two countries share baseball as a tradition. Major League Baseball teams count 57 Venezuelan players on their rosters, he said.
The Venezuelan ambassador was the third diplomat to visit campus last week, which began with convocation appearances by Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Walter Mondale '50, a former ambassador to Japan. Mondale returned to campus earlier this week, on Monday, to speak at a Mideast Peace Summit with an Israeli Knesset member and a Palestinian legislator.
In a speech that lasted more than an hour, Alvarez called the Venezuelan government's efforts at eliminating poverty through "Socialism of the Twenty First Century"-as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and supporters label their political philosophy-a "power struggle." The result of that struggle will be a more participatory democracy, Alvarez said.
"We think representative democracy is good. But, first, it does not help correct inequalities," the ambassador said. "So, we are trying to go for a different model."
Alvarez called the Venezuelan government's issuing of identification cards and documents to the country's poor a key step in including that sector of society in a democracy. It is also a symbol that the poor have been left out in the past, he said.
"This is thinking outside the box. Even some of the leftist thinkers are shocked," Alvarez said before an audience of students and community members in Macalester's Weyerhaeuser Boardroom.
Alvarez visited the Twin Cities at the end of a tour through the northern Midwest and parts of Canada. He and his delegation had plans to attend last Friday's match up between the Twins and the Detroit Tigers at the Metrodome following the address.
Alvarez noted that even as relations between the United States and Venezuela have frosted over in recent years, the two countries share baseball as a tradition. Major League Baseball teams count 57 Venezuelan players on their rosters, he said.
The Venezuelan ambassador was the third diplomat to visit campus last week, which began with convocation appearances by Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and Walter Mondale '50, a former ambassador to Japan. Mondale returned to campus earlier this week, on Monday, to speak at a Mideast Peace Summit with an Israeli Knesset member and a Palestinian legislator.
In a speech that lasted more than an hour, Alvarez called the Venezuelan government's efforts at eliminating poverty through "Socialism of the Twenty First Century"-as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and supporters label their political philosophy-a "power struggle." The result of that struggle will be a more participatory democracy, Alvarez said.
"We think representative democracy is good. But, first, it does not help correct inequalities," the ambassador said. "So, we are trying to go for a different model."
Alvarez called the Venezuelan government's issuing of identification cards and documents to the country's poor a key step in including that sector of society in a democracy. It is also a symbol that the poor have been left out in the past, he said.
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