Bad year for elections.

Think the US has got the biggest election in the world this year? Think Iraq is the sole cause of our high gas prices? Guess again. People in Venezuela waited over 10 hours to vote in the recall election against People's hero Hugo Chavez. The opposition failed, Chavez is still in office. Good for Venezuela.

If you don't know what the situation is in Venezuela, you should. They supply 15% of the US's oil, their impact is just as big as Iraq's. Who can blame you though, when CNN makes this a major headline for less than 12 hours. Check out this fascinating documentary that accidently covered the 2002 coup. Venezuela is a place you should watch for so many reasons, not only for the oil politics, the class struggles or how Venezuela is a microcosm for Latin America as a whole, but also as a glimpse into media and propaganda in a foreign country.

When I saw the documentary at SXSW, some venezuelan students were outside protesting the film. They were extremely intelligent, but they words seemed so clumbsy next to the schlock we get in American media. I asked if they had seen the film they were so strongly against, and they hadn't. You can't go away from the film and not be rooting for The People and against The Man, but funnily enough, the filmmakers kinda did just that. The most interesting observation they had is that Venezuela does not have an established party system yet, something to pit the issues against one another and check and balance it's economic needs with its social ones.