Venezuela: Hugo Chavez now weighs in on being a "size activist"

Venezuela: Hugo Chavez now weighs in on being a “size activist”

chavez VENEZUELA: “Venezuelans, check yourself, you are way too fat”

Those were the — once again — wise words of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez on his very own 5 hour-long TV Show “Alo Presidente” broadcast every Sunday on National Television.

“Venezuelans are way too fat, well not the female ones, they are pleasantly plump. I don’t know what’s going on in this country, but people are fat, way too fat and that’s not a good thing.”

Those are the words of an obese Hugo Chavez.

Someone who has gained a tremendous amount of weight since he has been in power, living la vida loca and traveling all over the world, paid by us — our taxes, tears and pain…us, the people, the suffering people.

While he said such a ridiculous statement, we overweight Venezuelans are living in the most fat-phobic country, under the most abusive and unacceptable conditions, where being overweight is worst than being a drug dealer or a delinquent.

We are humiliated, abused and discriminated all the way and no one seems to care.

Hugo should find someone to tell him the truth.

The truth is that more than 80% of the Venezuelan population is “overweight” (this according to the paranoids).

What an interesting personality Hugo Chavez is: a Catholic-Budhist-Muslim and someone who has accomplished everything and practiced every hobby, career and occupation – according to his ludicrous stories.

Now, he’s a size activist too?

Instead of minding too much about our weight, Hugo should pay attention to the millions of homeless people who have nothing to eat, the thousands of kids living in the streets — what happened to the promise he made them ten years ago?

We have the highest rate of unemployed people in the history of the country, and a variety dramas unfold on a daily basis.

Forty radio stations and one TV station were closed. TV stations and newspapers are constantly under the scope. We still have currency restrictions ($400 for Internet purposes and $2500 per person per year) and now we must notify the government every time we are going to travel and tell them where and why so they can release to us a “currency coupon.”

If this wasn’t enough now, at this time of the year, four banks suffered a closed door intervention. This means that all the people who had any money in these banks are now poor as rats; they can’t touch their money at all unless a miracle happens.

The government has promised — as usual — that they will take care of the situation and the people responsible for this will pay, etc, etc, etc.

We all know no one is going to jail, people will lose their money — again at this time of the year — and no one will lift the tiniest finger to do anything about it.

In these times, our weight is the least of the worries that face Venezuelans.

About The author: Jennifer Barreto-Leyva lives in Caracas, Venezuela where when this 5″11 venezolana is not defending the rights of her clients as a lawyer or inspiring people as a motivational speaker, she is an outspoken defender on the rights of plus-size people. Since 1999, Jennifer has penned a regular column, Tu Rincon con Jen, for the only online site dedicated to plus size people in Spanish, gordos.com. Jennifer provides constant inspiration for women of all sizes at her blog, Facebook and MySpace pages.