Tourists And The Two Venezuelas

Charter buses arrive in Caracas, Venezuela just as in any other tourist hot-spot – except, as CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports, these buses are dumping Americans off in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the world.

In Caracas, Venezuela – where a radical blend of capitalism and Socialism is enticing a new breed of reality – some tourists are looking for the next great revolution.

Seventy-four year-old Nacy Singham is one of a growing number of politically-minded, unabashedly leftist Americans, who came here with a group called Global Exchange.

"I can't get over the incredible enthusiasm," she said, "The engagement of people looking for solutions for their own problems."

The architect of it all is President Hugo Chavez – a larger-than-life figure who is less than friendly with the United States.

Funded by Venezuela's vast oil wealth, he's instituted a bevy of new social programs in an effort to "equalize" society – just like Fidel Castro.

For the first time, he's providing low cost food, medical care, housing and education to his country's poor families.

Trevor Gardiner – a high school teacher from California – said for a country this rich, it's about time.

"The people, who have had very little historically, are starting to come up and starting to be educated and starting to be given more resources," Gardiner said.

Chavez is eager to take the credit for the improvements. Tourists are shown a string of community TV and radio stations – all built and paid for by the government – where volunteers cheer the revolution on.

But people at the radio station say none of it is censored. That's proof in some people's minds that Chavez is no dictator.

Ask a one of the volunteer broadcasters if he feels free to say anything he wants, and the answer is, "Yes, we have never had this freedom before."

The cult of celebrity around Hugo Chavez has to some extent romanticized the revolution to a whole new generation of Americans, but it would be impossible for any tourist to come here without being exposed to the other side of Chavez.

Most of Venezuela's major newspapers are openly hostile to Chavez, as are four out of the country's five television networks. That's more proof, some say, that Chavez is tolerant of freedom of speech.

But democracy activist Maria Machado thinks it's a sham. She said Chavez persecutes those who organize any opposition to his government.

"The government has been able to put in place a system of true terror throughout society, to all levels," she said.

She should know. As leader of a volunteer organization called Sumate, she's been charged with treason for taking money from the U.S. to help encourage democracy here.

"There are two Venezuelas, Those that are conscious of what's going on, and those that haven't realized it yet."

Venezuela remains divided to be sure – torn between those who think Chavez is either leading a grand socialist experiment and those who think he is a despot in the works.

And, these Americans are coming here to see and hear for themselves in a Latin America which, these days, is anything but quiet.