[Paisleychick-lj] Seeing Hugo Chavez live

[Beatrice M's blog]

[![][1]][2]   
[Hugo Chavez speaking][3]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

This afternoon I saw that Hugo Chavez was speaking in Buenos Aires tonight as a counter to George Bush's speech in Montevideo, Uruguay across the Rio de la Plata. I thought it would be cool to see him speak as I missed the chance when we were in Venezuela. We crossed paths in Merida, he spoke the morning we left to go to Puerto la Cruz. Seeing history in the making is invigorating, if a bit nerve-wracking. I figured out that the number 141 bus went from where we are staying in Palermo to the Football stadium near Rividavia. The bus ride was fairly quick and people helped me find the right stop. There was a crowd of people walking away from the direction I needed to go, so I thought I had missed the chance to see some history in person. Luckily, he's good for hours and just talks and talks and talks. Wasn't too late after all.  
  
  


[![][5]][6]   
[Crowd going wild][7]   
Originally uploaded by [blmurch][4]. 

Fighting my way through the crowd to try and take better photos was an interesting experience and I never really got close enough to take good shots, but you can check out what I did manage to capture on [the set on flickr][8]. He talked a lot about American imperialism and hypocricy and read from Simon Bolivar and Juan Peron's writings. The crowd loved him and was waving flags all over the place and shooting and clapping and eating his words up. It was amazing to see this history being made. I don't agree with everything he said, but seeing him live was a chance I couldn't pass up. I don't think that Bush got the same reaction from the crowd. There were large protests at his hotel last night. If it were a popularity contest I would say that Chavez won, hands down.  
  
You can see the [crappy][9] [movies][10] I took on YouTube. If you would rather just download the .mov files, you can [check][11] [them][12] out on archive.org.  


   [1]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/416077744_d5ecd6cd01_m.jpg
   [2]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/416077744/ (photo sharing)
   [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/416077744/
   [4]: http://www.flickr.com/people/blmurch/
   [5]: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/416078787_283a35ce0f_m.jpg
   [6]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/416078787/ (photo sharing)
   [7]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/416078787/
   [8]: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/sets/72157594579804212/
   [9]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCAgxOTp9PI
   [10]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUCnbcd3ZaA
   [11]: http://www.archive.org/details/HugoChavezInBuenosAires
   [12]: http://www.archive.org/details/HugoChavezInBuenosAiresMore

URL: http://paisleychick.livejournal.com/304831.html