Page One Daily News
VENEZUELA - Che and Marx, Venezuelan Heroes

* VENEZUELA

Che and Marx, Venezuelan Heroes
The Venezuelan educational calendar includes the commemoration of these two historical figures

The calendar for the new 2009-2010 school year in the states of Miranda and Tachira highlighted the anniversary of Argentine guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara’s death as a historical day and notes Karl Marx's work, according to daily newspaper El Nacional. Leonardo Carvajal, spokesman for the nation’s Civil Assembly Education Association, described such choices "as an aberration and against the interests of the Bolivarian ideals expressed in the Organic Law of Education" by overshadowing the works and actions of local heroes with two such remote figures in relation to Venezuela’s history. "Marx was Simón Bolívar’s most vilified figure, which he described as the most dastardly villain, brutal and miserable," said Carvajal in an interview with the newspaper. The school calendar notes the Feb. 4, 1992 coup attempt against Carlos Andrés Pérez as The Day of National Dignity. It also christened April 12 and 13, 2002, when a coup overthrew the president, as National Dignity Week. It is not the first time that Chavists have proposed a re-reading of Venezuela’s contemporary history in light of the events that made Hugo Chávez known. Eight years ago, the education authorities tried to ignore the legacy of the AD and Copei parties in the construction of Venezuela’s democracy. The controversy forced the government to back off.
15-Oct-2009 05:10pm