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Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced that he is considering ending patents on medicines and other products in his nation. He claimed, “[a] song is intellectual property, but an invention or a scientific discovery should be knowledge for the world, especially medicine.” Chavez has embraced a form of socialism and dismantled many aspects of the private sector by nationalizing many industries, in the face of Western, especially US resistance. But he has been and still is popular with his people. Last week, the Venezuelan legislature approved a bill that would pave the way for the government to take a 50% stake in the country’s oil industry. Venezuela is the world’s Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States. Chavez’ main platform has been based on spreading the country’s oil wealth equally among all Venezuelans, a goal that has not been very popular among wealthy Venezuelans, oil corporations, and the US government.

In fact, on April 11, 2002, Hugo Chavez was briefly ousted in coup that was rumored have US involvement. The coup was dramatically reversed 2 days later after hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the street in protest and the national guard decided to remain loyal to Chavez.

The Revolution Will Not be Televised is the dramatic story of the coup up front and center by two film makers, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O’ Briain who happened to be filming a profile of Hugo Chavez at the time of the coup. The film was first broadcast in Europe in February 2003 and since then has aired on a variety of international TV stations including the BBC, ZDF (Germany), Arte (France), and NPS (Holland) as well as at numerous international film festivals. In Venezuela the film had its first airing on national TV in April 2003. The film has notably not been shown on US television. It was screened in a small handful of US theaters. It is not available on Amazon.com either and is only available through KPFK.

Thank You Gifts:

Revolution Will Not Be Televised – DVD – $100

Open Veins of Latin America – Book – $90

Revolution Pack (Book+DVD) – $170