An evening with Hugo Chavez

The Journalist, the monthly magazine of the National Union of Journalists, covered Hugo Chavez' visit to London and mentioned its support for the Hands Off Venezuela campaign.

Kay Shelley joined the throng to find out why the leader of Venezuela was the hottest media ticket in town.

Everybody who was anybody wanted to squash into London's Camden Centre near King's Cross to hear the President of Venezuela in person — Gareth Peirce, Bianca 

Jagger, Jon Snow, Jeremy Dear. But you don't have to be a human rights lawyer, a Nicaraguan celebrity, a Channel 4 jour­nalist or even a trade union leader to warm to Hugo Chavez.

Affable, chatty, jokey and touchy-feely - he patted his host Ken Livingstone so often that the Mayor of London started to look like a tomato - Hugo Chavez dominated the platform at the Camden Centre where a hastily convened public meeting had attracted 5,000 applicants for fewer than 1,000 seats.

Despite tight security, there was a party atmosphere, as musicians, leafletters and stallholders chanted his name, waved banners, said they loved him. In his slightly awkward English, he told them he loved them back.

And why not? A man who uses oil revenues to help the poor at home and abroad, achieves 100 per cent literacy in less than ten years, and was saved from a US-backed coup by his popularity, has got to care about people.

The chance to hear him speak in person during his private visit to London seemed too good to miss. Anyone who thumbs his nose at Bush can't be all bad, but what was the truth about the man who provokes diatribes in some newspapers and profound admiration in others?

Dodging back and forth over a huge range of topics, conveyed by earphone translation from Spanish to English, he repeatedly engaged conversationally with his audience, joking about his enemies, combining entertainment with serious talk of democracy. If he was dissembling, he was doing it in a superbly clever way.

Humanity needed socialism, he said. Perhaps we should all wear badges saying: "I'm a socialist - touch me, and I'll infect you!" We were charmed by his charisma. My only problem was that he can talk for longer than Ken Dodd (three and a half hours, with one glass of water and no toilet break).

Was he really a mate of Saddam Hussein? He quickly nailed that one, put about when he was meeting successive world leaders in his role as chair of OPEC. Was he close friends with Castro? Well, of course, because they're both dedicated to raising standards and fighting the same imperialist power.

Chavez is no fool. At least three times he mentioned the possibility of assassination by one of his many enemies. No-one knows how long he will survive. Which is why the occasion was not only very important to history, but probably unique.

We may not see his like again. Something to tell the grand­children. And a cause for regret that some journalists may be contributing to his demise. Funny, isn't it, how South American dictators get away with murder for years, but along comes a democrat and swathes of the press savage him.

ADM backs 'Hands Off' Campaign 

The NUJ'S recent annual delegate meeting agreed to support the Hands off Venezuela campaign and to build links with trade unions in the country. Book Branch's Sylvia Courtnage told delegates the government was transforming workers' lives with improvements such as the eradication of illiteracy. "The US hates what is happening there," she said. "The Venezuelan people are preparing a defence against threats from Bush and Condoleezza Rice."