Chavez gives kids lessons on socialism as Venezuela celebrates Children's Day

Hugo Chavez on Sunday urged kids to embrace socialism, raising the ire of educators and parents who turned back the Venezuelan president's earlier proposal to rewrite textbooks to add socialist doctrine. Chavez celebrated a Venezuelan holiday promoting children's welfare by telling a group of adolescents to become socialists with the monk-like mission to serve the poor that was espoused by Cuban revolutionary Ernesto «Che» Guevara. «We must study socialism,» said Chavez, telling the children they should read Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels _ authors of the «Communist Manifesto» _ along with other socialist thinkers. Capitalism «exploits children, confuses and poisons them,» he said.