Reason No. 3

Objective reasons and reasons of the heart.
It's easy to reply to the question, what's more difficult is to arrange the reasons. For me, there are two kinds. First, the objective reasons, which can be felt through the material improvements in the living conditions of our population, such as the steady increase in our minimum wage, the battle for attaining balanced economic indicators, the significant reduction of poverty and extreme poverty levels, the increasing empowerment of people, while dignifying our international profile and making sure that our voice is increasingly heard and recognised, without fear, in defending not just our own sovereignty, but that our great American brotherhood of peoples, etc.
All of these statements are probably better handled by other people, organizations, etc.
I would like to concentrate on the reazons of the heart, and that is what the opposition does not get; the fact that we have reasons of the heart to vote for Chavez.
Some of these reasons boil down to the fact that Chavez symbolises what for me is the most authentic expression of the Venezuelan character: a tireless fighter, unsubmissive, and at the same time with such a tenderness it sometimes turns into innocence; the best expression of Venezuelan frankness, which at times is shocking, but is always authentic.
I see him, and I see myself reflected in him. I see my brothers, my sisters, or in better words, I see the best of us reflected in Chavez.
Chavez is the idealisation of the father, the image of the mother. He is the person that pushes us not to give up, after everyone used to tell us we couln't make it.
He is the hope of better times. Not an illusion of hope, but hope in a very Venezuelan sense: that where "God helps those that help themselves"; where we recognise that we have achieved a great deal, but a lot more remains to be done.
He stands for the positive reaffirmation of aknowledging ourselves as different, now with a true respect for those differences; of knowing that we are Black, Amerindian, White, and at the same time one people.

I vote for Chavez because my mother, for the first time in her long 73 years, believes in politics and in political activism, and got up on the 10th of June to accompany the registration of Chavez at the CNE (National Electoral Council), because -for her- that's what she can do for him.

With Chávez I know we have achieved much, but with Chavez, I am also certain that we will achieve a great deal more, because that's what we decide; because we are now truly independent and sovereign.

Carmín Navas R.