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April 6, 2005
A "New Man"?
Yesterday, I spoke with a friend in Caracas about our ever closer trip around the world. Most of our discussion was about Venezuela and was quite fascinating. After the call, I was reminded of a WSJ article on an attempt in the country to make a "New Man". Obviously easier said than done, but bizarrely the attempt is being made. In the bigger picture, the article is quite a commentary on means and ends:
To Fix Venezuela, Ex-Guerrillas Want To Make 'New Man'
Grand Utopian Experiments Are Funded by Oil Money; A Boost to Chávez's Power - Job for a Former Kidnapper
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Trying to foment a Communist revolution here in 1976, Carlos Lanz and five other men kidnapped an American executive, who then spent much of the next 3½ years chained to a tree in the jungle. The revolution didn't arrive and Mr. Lanz went to prison for military rebellion.
Thanks to Venezuela 's fiery president, Hugo Chávez, Mr. Lanz is getting a second go at revolution in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter. Buoyed by oil billions and back-to-back electoral victories, Mr. Chávez recently gave the ex-guerrilla a new job: devising a plan for economic self-sufficiency in which selfless workers would labor contentedly in utopian cooperatives. Mr. Lanz says he wants to create nothing less than Venezuela 's "New Man."
"We are talking about the transformation of man's attitudes," says Mr. Lanz, now 60 years old, during an interview in his office high above the armies of peddlers who bivouac in Caracas's decaying city center. Among his goals: having Venezuelans eschew Pepsis and Big Macs for sugar-cane juice and Venezuelan-style pancakes called cachapas.
Posted by Peter Mork at April 6, 2005 7:34 PM
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