Hola from Venezuela!

Primero (or however you say it), muchas gracias to La Belle for manning the helm of YWA. (Thank you till I can pay you better, sis.) I will read every post when I get back. I see at a quick glance, La Belle has posted on Condi´s hearing. We saw a few minutes of it at the airport in Miami. Ben Veniste was grilling her pretty good. At one point when she was running one of her spiels, he asked her another question, and when she said, ¨Let me make my point¨, he said, ¨I didn´t know there was a point.¨ Go Ben-V.

I don´t have a lot of time here at this moment. They are keeping us pretty busy on the tour. And the internet cafe is on the edge of a bad part of town apparently. The only chance we get to come here is at night, and I have to try to find someone to walk with me and take me back. Even with a large man tonight, we walked past the doorway, and just as we realized we´d missed the door, the cafe patron came running out with his little son and caught us. In Spanish that I could barely understand he told us not to go any further. I caught ¨don´t walk there any further in that direction ' it´s very, very dangerous.¨ He repeated it with great urgency. So you can see, I won´t be visiting with you much till I get home.

Still, the Global Exchange tour that I´m on has been excellent. The quality of the ¨lecturers¨ they´ve lined up for us has been superior. I´ll tell you a bit more about them later.

Today we visited the state owned TV station. (I can´t find the special keys on this keyboard, and some of them are in different places, so pardon any typos.) Three of the group who can speak Spanish were actually interviewed, and one of the women put John Kerry on notice. The cameras fixed on the rest of our group for a few moments, and when we watched it, we were in hysterics on the floor. We were all standing rigid like deers in headlights. The Venezuelans will now no doubt think Americans are zombies. You had to be there to see it. So now the CIA not only has our names, but all our pictures in a Chavista TV station slamming American foreign policy.

Those handcuffs may just appear when I get back to the states.

If that wasn´t enough, our group has a lot of old lefties...and I do mean old...one gentleman is 91 years old, two ladies are in their late 80s and there are several over 50...some young people, too, but when I say¨öld lefties¨, well....more later.

At any rate, there are two rallies tomorrow...one Chavista rally at the bridge where the coup began and Chavistas were assassinated in 2002...and one Opposition rally at another location. We are going to go to the Chavista rally, and perhaps to the other, but the old lefties have decided that we should carry a banner saying we Americans are in support of Chavez. Somehow, I don´t think that´s going to lessen the prospect of handcuffs. These guys also want to steal a sheet from the hotel to make the banner! Jeez. And I felt sorry for my niece traveling in a foreign country with teenagers.

I may see you again some day. There´s still hope.

Glorious Saturday is being celebrated at this moment with huge fireworks.

Tomorrow is another day.

For now, from Caracas....

Hasta la vista.



....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.