AP INTERVIEW: Chavez Connects With Poor

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez greets a pedestrian as he drives a four wheel drive during a road trip through the Venezuelan Apure State on Saturday, June 9, 2007. Chavez clasped hands and planted kisses on cheeks, heads and hands of the people who turned out in the pouring rain to see him _ an emotional connection that he called the driving force behind the socialist revolution that has pitted him against Washington.(AP Photo/Fernando Llano) (Fernando Llano - AP)

MANTECAL, Venezuela -- The Toyota 4Runner pulled to a stop on the country road and a tinted window rolled down. Passers-by gawked, then broke into a run, screaming "president!" when they realized Hugo Chavez was at the wheel. "I love you!" cried a middle-aged woman with tears in her eyes, thrusting a fistful of flowers into the car.

The president clasped hands and planted kisses on cheeks, heads and hands of the people who turned out in the pouring rain to see him _ an emotional connection that he called the driving force behind the socialist revolution that has pitted him against Washington.

"What hurts me most is poverty, and that's what made me a rebel," Chavez said during six hours of conversations with The Associated Press on Saturday during a road trip across the southern plains, a helicopter flight and a visit to a cattle ranch.

Throughout the trip, as he sipped coffee and sang folk songs, he stopped to talk with poor men and women of all ages who crowded around his car. Many asked Chavez for help _ to build a home, to arrange medical care _ and Chavez barked out instructions to his aides, who jotted them down.

At one stop, a boy peered into the car and asked Chavez for money.

"It isn't good for you to be asking for money," the president replied. He then bought some tropical fruit called quenepa from another boy in the group, and asked about their homes and schools.

They live in shacks and have no school computers, so Chavez offered houses and technology _ and more.

"Do you have water? Do you have books? ... That's the kind of help we can give you, the revolution gives to you. ... The day will come when kids don't have to sell quenepa fruit anymore."

Government statistics show poverty has declined during Chavez's eight years in office, and he rattled off lists of other improvements, from hospitals to new roads.

But his opponents charge he has accomplished little considering the billions of dollars in oil proceeds flowing into the country.

Although he is satisfied with his progress, Chavez said: "I'm not singing victory yet. It's a long road."

Chavez defended himself against opposition allegations that he is trying to be president-for-life, saying he will only stay on if re-elected. He has pledged constitutional reforms that if approved in a referendum would eliminate term limits, allowing him to run again in 2012.