Free Venezuela Podcast with Luis Ugalde

Free Venezuela

Today Andrés Correa interviews Venezuelan priest and professor Luis Ugalde. A highly respected voice among social and political analysts in Venezuela, Luis Ugalde is the former rector of Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, and currently serves as the Director of the Center for Educational Planning and Reflection of the Jesuits, and the Central Conference of Jesuit Provincials in Latin America. He has pursued and graduated with degrees in Philosophy, Literature, Theology and Sociology. Speaking today as a Doctor in History, his viewpoint is that of a specialist in the Social and Economic History of Venezuela. In this podcast he speaks about the attacks from Venezuelan government to the Catholic Church over the last 15 years, and points out that, even though there are elections, there is no real democracy in Venezuela. Professor Ugalde also denounces the government’s use of the school system to indoctrinate the population ideologically, a population that continuously resists these attempts. He projects a very difficult year for the Venezuelan economy, and argues that the silence of the OAS about the "hegemonic will" in Venezuela is due to the country’s mass imports from Brazil as well as the government’s numerous irresponsible donations. Nevertheless, having studied several crises as a former member of the Social Equity Forum of the Inter-American Development Bank, he remains optimistic.