The main road that links the airport to Caracas is out of action due to a collapsing bridge. This means that you take a two hour taxi ride over the mountain into the city. This is very instructive. The road is lined with barrios which are much shabbier than anything I’ve seen in Mexico and of a sort that does not exist in Cuba. What you notice is the vast number of people selling things, though the value of their entire stock is seldom more than five or ten pounds.

It’s here that the support for the revolution is most visible. Lots of slogans and murals. We spent today wandering through the city and met up briefly with Kate who contributed something to last month’s Socialist Resistance and a couple of comrades from HOV whose flight to Bolivia tonight has been cancelled.

Madrid 1936

I think I’d been expecting a city that resembled Madrid in 1936. It’s not like that this week though. The rich are organising their protests and are still in control of Caracas. The influence of American capital is very visible (not least in the environmental catastrophe of a very comfortable hotel in which these lines are being written.)At the moment the revloution feels confined to the poorer parts of Caracas and some rural areas.

The atmosphere here is much less heavy than in Mexico City, though the noise and pollution are fairly similar. This theory will be put to the test tonight when we go off in search of the bus station and a restaurant.

The big local story is the kidnap and murder of three brother from a well off family. Several businesses and private buses have “en luto” (in mourning) displayed on them. The church and the right are using the killing to mobilise anti-government demonstrations in the flash parts of town, some of which have been pretty violent.

Haphazard planning

Stockholm is my kind of town but I think that I’m going to see if I can wangle a leave of absence from work to spend a few months here. There is something exhilarating about being in a city where a revolutionary process is taking place in front of your eyes and it seems foolish not to take an opportunnity to participate in it.

I hoping to meet a couple of Cuban doctors tomorrow and get into the barrios. However the detailed planning for this is very vague. Tomorrow is their day off and it demands on what Kate can manage.

It’s an exciting place to be and I only regret I’m not spending longer here and that my advance planning was so haphazard.

I’ve bought 5 Chavez t shirts. Let me know if you want to reserve one.