Students who attended former Catholic priest Charles Hardy's talk on contemporary Venezuela yesterday got a crash course on Latin America's most controversial country.

"I want to hit you on the head with a hammer," Hardy told students, making a motion with his hand as if bashing his own skull.

Hardy, who lived in a Venezuelan slum for 20 years, witnessed violent death, poverty and political turmoil on a daily basis in Latin America's most oil-rich country.

The lecture began with Hardy's story of bringing his friend's sister to a hospital during the 1989 riots, which were sparked by government-initiated price increases. While there, he saw a number of naked corpses.

"I know of 500 people who died," he said. "The government only released three names of people killed."

A sizeable portion of the hour-and-a-half-long talk was dedicated to discussing Hardy's distaste for the mainstream media.

"Everything in Venezuela is Chavez' fault," Hardy said, mockingly referring to the Venezuelan opposition: American newspapers and magazines like Time and The Wall Street Journal, whose objectivity he finds dubious.

Hardy referenced a scandal in 2002 when Chavez allegedly called President Bush an "asshole." However, the word he used in Spanish was pendejo, which simply translates to "idiot" in Venezuela.

"I heard a priest say 'no somos pendejos,'" Hardy said. "Would a priest say that to his congregation [if the word meant assholes]?"

For a short period at the end of the talk, Hardy fielded questions from students, all of whom exhibited a solid knowledge of Venezuela. When asked about the future of the Left in Latin America, Hardy predicted broad changes, especially in terms of trade.

"In area of trade there's now Argentine, Brazilian. ... It used to be all U.S. [products]," Hardy said, citing the changes in Venezuela's economy following its 2005 entrance into the Mercosur customs union.

"Next year there will be a summit between Latin American countries and African ones," Hardy said as he drew a map of the two landmasses on the chalkboard. "And that's (trade across the Atlantic in the Southern Hemisphere) threatening up here," he added, pointing to North America.

Ron Smith, a gradduate student who worked as a journalist in Latin America for four years, organized the discussion, which also served as a promotional event for Cowboys in Caracas, Hardy's new book.

"I'm fascinated by resistance movements all over the world, and, I'm fascinated by Venezuela's against hegemony," Smith said.

Reach reporter Jake Sommer at news@thedaily.washington.edu.