Alek Boyd at VCrisis has an interesting item up about his trip to the slums of Caracas.

You know, THOSE slums, the pivotal no-man’s-land where no one is safe, but everything hinges on, in December’s coming Venezuelan presidential election. Chavez is a populist and has maintained power on the backs of this poor vote.

Alek chats up these Chavista voters over in their icky, scary, horrible red tumbledown cinderblock slums, and has a lot of photos. These conversations are much more interesting firsthand from the Chavistas themselves than filtered through the santized prism of the western Sandalistas, who often claim to represent them.

See the photo essay and read what it’s like to talk to a real live Chavista in those slums in this item here.