Venezuela notes

After three years of hibernation, Venezuela notes is waking up!
First, I'd like to announce the publication of my new book, Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba Are Changing the World's Conception of Health Care, which will be available from Monthly Review Press at the end of this month (May 2011).  To accompany...

The articles below were written in 2007 and 2008, but were reposted in November 2008 so they can be read together as a group and in the order in which I wrote them. 

(originally written in June of 2007)
This is a confrontation that has been brewing for 45 years: the United States versus
Cuba. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been acting more and more belligerent, as if they believed that their WMDs, the most deadly collection of "weapons of mass destruction" in the world, are superior to Cuba's own brand of WMDs....

(originally written in October of 2007)
Jonas, left, with his brother and his father
Jonas lives on a tiny dairy farm on the hill above Monte Carmelo. His father is intensely proud that his son is studying to be a medical doctor. “He’s only in his second year,” he said, “and already he sees patients.”...