President Hugo Chávez dedicated his life to the poor people of Venezuela. He transformed their lives and transformed their country.
On March 6, the day after his death, I spent 11 hours waiting with friends to pay my respects as his body was slowly transported through the city. It took much longer than expected, as hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets and the giant stadium where the procession ended to get a glimpse of the passing casket. The crowds sang and clapped along with popular songs about “El Comandante”, shouting: "Chávez lives, the struggle continues!" "The people united will never be defeated!" “I am Chávez!” When the body finally arrived at night in the National Military Academy for viewing, the line of people waiting was more than two kilometers (one mile) long!
Why did so many people go? Why were they willing to wait so long? And instead of being a somber occasion with everyone dressed in black, why did so many wear bright red T-shirts, or headbands with the national colors, and why were they singing and shouting slogans?



Two radio interviews of Dada Maheshvarananda with Maeve Conlan of KGNU Independent Community Radio in Boulder, Colorado, Dec. 11 2012 and Dec. 13, 2012. Listen
During the first semester of 2012, four graduate students of finance at the Universidad Nacional Experimental Simon Rodriguez did professional and community service internships in several projects of Centro Madre community center in Barlovento under the guidance of the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela. Students of Professor Dorkis Shephard and Dr. Diaz Mariña Ninoska aided in the development of this Proutist project that is recognized by governmental and nongovernmental organizations as a national model of small-scale sustainable agriculture and the production of fruit trees contributed to the development of important aspects of the project's financial situation. Research and reports by Alicia Gomez, Orietta Portales, Hernando Perez and Edit Valley significantly contributed to:

I enthusiastically and without any reservations whatsoever recommend the Prout house, Quinta Prout, as a place to stay in Caracas for an individual, small group or family, or a delegation. The staff and Prout, more generally, are committed to economic and social justice not just for the larger society, but they also demonstrate this in ways big and small every day by the way they treat all who visit and stay there.
Three new AIESEC volunteers have joined our staff for six weeks each. AIESEC is the largest organization of young people in the world, that helps members participate as a social volunteer in almost one hundred countries.
A conversation with Noam Chomsky about: The Occupy Movement, economic democracy and cooperatives, limiting the accumulation of wealth, consciousness raising, and Latin America.