DIASPORA DIGEST
VenezuelaÂ’s Black Vote
by Roy Levy Williams
NNPA

ANALYSIS

Venezuelans went to the polls in record numbers this month to
overwhelmingly vote for President Hugo Chavez. More than 80 percent of
registered voters in Venezuelans voted in what the U.S State
Department called a “democratic process” and an international
delegation of monitors confirmed as “a free and fair election.”

As one of the NAACPÂ’s official monitors, what I believe to be a lesser
known story is the power of the Black vote in that election. According
to Jesus “Chucho” Garcia, a dynamic Afro-Venezuelan leader,
approximately 30 percent of Venezuelans are people of markedly African
descent. And as is the case in this country, the majority of these
Afro Venezuelans are at the bottom of the economic ladder. But over
the past few years, they finally see hope.