Report to UNISON( We are Britain's biggest public sector trade union with more than 1.3 million members.)on Solidarity Delegation to Venezuela http://xr.com/adhf
Venezuela: Revolution brings massive social gains http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/726/37678
Years of Bolivarian Achievements http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:Gbrx2M9Bj6kJ:www.venezlon.co.uk/pdf/10_years.pdf+venezuela+achievements+united+nations&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=opera
http://www.venezlon.co.uk/pdf/10_years.pdf
Human Development Report 2009 http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_VEN.html
Hugo Chavez And The Rise Of
Black-Indian Power http://www.countercurrents.org/ven-katz221206.htm
Good Things Happening in Venezuela http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Parenti/GoodThings_Venezuela.html
Venezuela page http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Venezuela_page/Venezuela_page.html
Venezuelan lawmakers approve financial regulation law in first-round vote http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-16/venezuela-approves-financial-regulation-law-in-first-round-vote.html
National Assembly could pass all six popular power laws within next six months http://www.pr-inside.com/venezuela-s-national-assembly-could-r1781843.htm
Hugo Chavez: Accomplishments of a Rebel http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/chavez-accomplishments-of-rebel.html
Venezuela Corrupt?
"Transparency International" Has Some Questions to Answer Itselfhttp://www.gregpalast.com/venezuela-corrupt-rntransparency-international-has-some-questions-to-answer-itself/
Transparency International has listed Venezuela as one of the world's most corrupt.On what evidence -- You should know this: Transparency International is itself a corrupted organization - a kind of bribery cartel. One of its big benefactors is Balfour Beatty construction - Britain's 'Halliburton' - which has admitted to massive bribery
Transparency International - SourceWatchhttp://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Transparency_International
TI Venezuela & Links to Venezeulan Coup
According to a report in the UK's Guardian newspaper, "TI's Venezuela bureau is staffed by opponents of the Venezuelan government. The directors include Robert Bottome, the publisher of Veneconomia, a strident opposition journal, and Aurelio Concheso of the Centre for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge, a conservative think tank funded by the US government. Concheso was previously a director of the employers' organisation, Fedecamaras. The president of Fedecamaras, Pedro Carmo, led the failed 2002 coup and was briefly installed as Venezuela's dictator." [2]
Chávez and RCTV: Media Enemies at Home and Abroadhttp://www.mediaaccuracy.org/node/8
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has long been demonized by the Western media as a “leftist firebrand” (the U.K. Independent), “militaristic strongman” (Financial Times), and as “Venezuela’s demagogue” (The Washington Post).
(Media Accuracy on Latin America is a project of the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), an independent nonprofit organization and publisher of the NACLA Report on the Americas.)
A People's Health System
Venezuela Works to Bring Healthcare to the Excludedhttp://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Health/PeopleHealthSystem_Venez.html
Venezuela: Alo Presidente has become a school where auto-criticism is openhttp://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=86495
VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports: As President Chavez stated during his 'Alo Presidente' radio show today, the show has become a school. There was plenty of debate and auto-criticism in today's show when the President critiqued Ministers and his close advisers for what he called the "scant availability" not only to take notes but even worse, to follow up petitions and works.VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports: As President Chavez stated during his 'Alo Presidente' radio show today, the show has become a school. There was plenty of debate and auto-criticism in today's show when the President critiqued Ministers and his close advisers for what he called the "scant availability" not only to take notes but even worse, to follow up petitions and works.The President's critique was two-fold: why didn't the Minister meet up with Falcon to discuss the project and why the big difference in assessing costs?
Later, Chavez urged former Lara State Governor and current Minister of the Presidency, Luis Reyes Reyes to concert a move to secure union with current Governor Henry Falcon and warned them that the oligarchy are trying to set them up with rumors of divisions. Another discovery the President made today was to hear members of a local communal council tell him they had to travel to San Cristobal in the border state of Tachira to open their communal bank account with the state Banfoandes bank. The President quizzed Participation Social & Communes Minister Erika Farias about the bureaucracy and told her to start opening accounts in the recently nationalized Banco de Venezuela so that councils have easier access to their funds.Chavez denounced Banfoandes as holding large amounts of State money in private banks and wanted the bank director to get in touch with him. Yesterday, the Council of Economic Ministers met to discuss the situation of the banks and penetration by capitalists masquerading as Bolivarians.Another problem referred to was the fact that, while Chavez appoints ministers, the ministers appoint their own people as vice ministers ... some of whom are not up to the task they are entrusted with.
Delivery 4 thousand homes built under the Iran-Venezuela Agreementhttp://www.vtv.gob.ve/noticias-económicas/26635
These are not nuclear bombs, but solutions," says the village...Thousands of apartments created by the state in(Cojedes, Guarico, Monagas, and Portuguesa) to develop the intermediate shaft of Venezuela / In two months it is expected delivery 6 thousand homes more / They are subsidized and 20 years to pay very low interest rates /
Iran continues to support the program housing"Thank God, Iran is providing a service to the people of Venezuela in joint collaboration of both governments,"The Iranian program to build popular housing developments rose in Calabozo, Guarico, with 2662 units, in Maturin, Monagas, in 2448, in San Carlos, Cojedes, 2448; and Acarigua, Portuguese, 2,448. In each of these states are over one thousand apartments, which were awarded to the poorest. It is estimated that in two months, culminating 6 thousand moreChavez said that this program is a Christian Socialist. "The true Christian said this slogan, not the Pharisees who go there: To each according to his needs and from each according to their abilities. Karl Marx took that of Christianity, because Christianity and socialism go hand in hand."These are not bombs, but solutions through Iran," said the Venezuelan mother"The traitors, those who sold our nation in past to their northern masters they are gone. They are condemned to crawl like snakes for life. Whereas we'll fly like the Eagles, as has Iran since the Islamic Revolution broke out!" He said.
VZLA's reformed Communal Council Law aims to increase participationhttp://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=86371
Venezuelan revolutionaries in 2008 have given a dazzling performancehttp://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=86243
VHeadline commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: According to the proletarian media in Cuba "Venezuelan Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez asserted on Friday [November 20] that placing four banks in administration responds to repeated violations of the homeland and international law, jeopardizing the sector's stability."Administration" is a kind of takeover on entities that doesn't necessarily entail expropriation with payment of fair compensation or confiscation without such compensation ... many options are available in an administration ... Article 116 of the Venezuelan Constitution gives the State the right to confiscate "private property" of natural or legal persons where the source of the property is government corruption or drug trafficking.http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Venezuela#Chapter_V
The Friday press release from Finance Ministry didn't say exactly what the four banks were doing ... but the release makes it clear that the four banks were up to no good.
According to the release and press conference, the four banks -- Canarias, Bolivar, Provivienda, and Confederado -- "did not specify the origin of their funds, after increasing their capitals."
Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba: "Hugo Chavez is a good human being"http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/interviews/6981-piedad-cordoba-hugo-chavez.html
Sujatha FernandesSocial Policy in Chávez’s VenezuelaA Radical Alternative or More of the Same?http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/1101
The barrio Carretera Negra on the western edge of Caracas consists of a row of houses along a stretch of highway road, as indicated by its name, “Black Highway,” and along three smaller lanes, Oriente, 24 de Julio and Justicia. It is a Wednesday morning in the Carretera, and police officer Osvaldo Mendoza is unloading foodstuffs from the back of a government truck for the local soup kitchen, located in the front room of his house. “I was never a vecino (neighbor) who was very involved with the community because of my work,” Osvaldo told me. “But seeing the necessities of our communities, what I’ve seen as a police officer, the necessities you see in the streets, I offered my house when this opportunity came.”
In his Plan Bolívar announced in 2000, Chávez proposed short-term civic-military interventions to address the most urgent social problems. There was also a move to centralize social programs within large state ministries, as Norbis Mujica Chirinos observes (“Caracterización de la política social y la política económica del actual gobierno venezolano: 1999 – 2004,” Revista Venezolana de Gerencia 12, no 1, Enero-Abril 2006: 31–57). Chávez’s early period was marked by a contradictory orientation that combined macroeconomic adjustment policies with compensatory social programs, in contrast to the model of development he had proposed.
During this period, the Chávez administration collaborated with the World Bank, which continued its social programs in Venezuela. Shifts were taking place within leading development institutions themselves, away from the more aggressive structural adjustment policies towards “inclusive” Poverty Reduction and Good Governance goals. The United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) proposed a set of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, which included the eradication of extreme poverty, universal primary education and the reduction of child mortality, among other goals. The idea was that economic growth resulting from neoliberal market integration would not by itself reduce poverty, and there would need to be a commitment from poor countries and their citizens to address social problems.
In December 2002, the World Bank proposed an Interim Country Assistance Strategy (ICAS) designed to help Venezuela meet the MDGs by 2015. This included a $60.7 million Caracas Slum Upgrading Project with the state institution Fundacomun. The WB also committed funds to public health services, urban transport and finance.
The Turnaround: Social Policy Post-2002
However, by 2002-2003, the Chávez government was ready to make a break with its predecessors’ social policies, including its ties to the WB and international agencies. This was partly related to the opposition’s attempted coup in April 2002, the work stoppage by oil executives from the state-owned oil company PDVSA on December 10, 2001, and the lockout a year later, which resulted in the dismissal of 18,000 employees. Following these events, Chávez took control of the oil company and made internal structural changes, giving his government more leverage over funds. The growing independence of the Chávez administration was also a consequence of the spectacular rise in oil prices, from US$24.13 per barrel in December 2002 to $84.63 in December 2007, that made more funds available to state coffers.
In July 2002, the government proposed a Plan Estratégico Social 2001-2007 (PES), which aimed to broaden social rights, reduce income inequality, and promote collective and public ownership. At the center of this new social policy were the missions, a comprehensive series of publicly funded and administered poverty alleviation programs. Two of the main goals of the missions were introducing universal education and health care. This was initially done by bypassing the established institutions and setting up programs in the barrios through a parallel set of institutions. The missions were introduced at the time when Chávez was facing a recall referendum, leading some to see them as part of an electoral strategy.
The key educational missions included adult literacy and elementary education programs Mission Robinson I and II, work-study program Mission Ribas, and a university program, Mission Sucre. Unemployed and informal groups were incorporated into these programs in large numbers as both instructors and students, helping to partly alleviate poverty by providing them with small stipends for their involvement.
In mid-2003, Chávez introduced the Barrio Adentro program of local health clinics, staffed by Cuban doctors, in 320 of Venezuela’s 335 municipalities. By mid-2005, he had added another two programs, Barrio Adentro II and III for additional medical services. In March 2005, there were over 5,000 Health Committees, which were created to supervise and help out with the Barrio Adentro program.
In addition to educational and health programs, Chávez encouraged barrio residents to create a range of committees and cooperative organizations. In a 2002 executive decree, Chávez established the basis for Urban Land Committees, in order to redistribute and formalize land deeds. Since most dwellings in the barrios were constructed through a process of massive squatting as people moved to urban centers from the countryside, few home owners possessed deeds or titles to their land. In March 2005, there were more than 4,000 Urban Land Committees in the urban capitals of Venezuela, which had distributed about 170,000 property titles.
The Chávez government also set up soup kitchens, where needy children and single mothers from the barrios received one free meal a day. During 2004, there were 4,052 soup kitchens established in Venezuela. Mission Mercal was a series of subsidized supermarkets also designed to improve nutrition.
The Balance Sheet
So what is the balance sheet for the Chávez government? Despite problems with implementation and other limitations to Chávez’s social policy proposals, there have been significant departures from previous Venezuelan governments and from the MDGs proposed by international agencies and foundations.
In a talk at Brown University in February 2008, political scientist Julia Buxton argued that the development agenda of the Chávez government emphasizes sustainable economic growth based on technological innovation, macroeconomic policy management and basic social services provision. Fiscal and monetary policies are compatible with social policies. There is a disproportionate focus on the poor and a redistribution of assets and land. Buxton suggested that all of these factors differentiate the agenda of the Chávez government from the targeted poverty reduction approach associated with MDGs, which still retain a jaundiced view of the state, focus on private sector and trade led growth, measure development by economic and not social indicators, and lack any emphasis on land redistribution.
Under Chávez, there has also been an attempt to divide up the national territory. Post-2002 social policy focused on creating a protected zone where the welfare apparatus could be cushioned off from global markets. Funds are channeled directly from PDVSA to the various missions. PDVSA manages a yearly fund of some US$2,000 million from oil revenue, all of which is all channeled into social programs. But other zones continue to function with foreign and private capital, in varying degrees, including culture and communications, mining and hydrocarbons, and the manufacturing sector.
In conclusion, in a Chávez era, we see both continuities and ruptures with the past. In the field of social policy, the Chávez government has managed to create an alternative system of welfare intervention and redistribution that conflicts with the neoliberal policies of his predecessors. At the same time, the Venezuelan economy continues to be dependent on a boom-bust cycle of fluctuating oil rents and an export-oriented model of development, and it faces unfavorable external conditions due to the strength of IMF conditionalities and fiscal austerity policies across the rest of the continent. It is unclear whether Chávez’s policies are actually creating an anti-neoliberal challenge that could counter the strength of the global market.
For many residents of the urban barrios, such as the Carretera Negra, programs such as the Soup Kitchen have brought immeasurable changes to their lives, not only in terms of material gains, but in terms of the personal sense of empowerment that results from involvement in community-based work. Carmen Teresa, one of the women involved in the organization of the soup kitchen summed it up: “I am forty-something years old, and never in my life have I cared about what was happening in my country, and I’m saying my country, but also my Carretera where I live. It’s like I am fulfilled. This work fulfills me. I want to be involved in everything, I want to participate in everything, I really feel that someone needs me and I can do it.”
Sujatha Fernandes is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Queens College, CUNY. She is the author of Cuba Represent! Cubans Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures (Duke University Press). She is currently working on a new book about urban social movements under Chávez, based on her field research in Venezuela.
Programs in the Americas Venezuela (codepink)http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/
Community-based health care missions now bring medical services to poor neighborhoods. Educational programs are putting millions more children into new schools, while new university opportunities are providing higher education to Venezuelans previously shut out of the system. At the same time, women, indigenous peoples, and Afro-Venezuelans are gaining stature and rights, while a high-profile agrarian reform campaign is giving poor farmers access to land.
Venezuela is also becoming a leader in regional integration, particularly in the promotion of viable alternatives to corporate globalization and the "free trade" economic model. The proposed Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) would prioritize regional cooperation to strengthen Latin American economies. Venezuela also helped create the Bank of the South, an alternative source of funding for development in Latin America, TeleSur, a Latin American news channel, and PetroAmérica— the first fully integrated, Latin American oil company.
But these ambitious programs, and Chavez's call for the creation of 21st Century Socialism are controversial. The Bush Administration -- which endorsed the coup d'etat against Venezuelan democracy in 2002 - continues in its rhetorical and funding efforts to discredit the government's legitimacy both at home and abroad. The U.S. media routinely labels President Chavez a 'dictator' and 'demagogue.' At the same time, political polarization continues to rack Venezuela as the opposition struggles to create an alternative to the chavista program.
VENEZUELA: Significant decrease in povertyhttp://www.greenleft.org.au/2005/646/33549
Venezuela’s poverty rate is expected to drop from 47% in 2004 to 35% by the end of 2005, according to figures from Venezuela’s National Institute of Statistics (INE). The figure was calculated to be at 38.5% half-way through this year. Venezuelanalysis.com reported on October 14 that the INE revealed “critical poverty, the level at which people can’t afford to cover the basic needs, dropped to 10.1% in the first half of 2005, down from 18% the previous year”.
Statistics reveal that unemployment also dropped from 12.1% to 11.5% between August and September this year. Unemployment was above 14% in September 2004.
The significant reduction in poverty is due to a combination of 17% economic growth during 2004, and the economic policies pursued by the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez. On October 18, the government presented a 2006 budget of US$40.5 billion, 27% higher than the previous year, with 41% committed to social programs. Public spending has more than tripled since Chavez was elected in 1998.
The government has rejected the US-backed policies of neoliberalism and instead focused on redistributing the nation’s oil wealth to the poor via a series of government-funded social missions. These missions have brought education, health care, heavily subsidised food and other benefits to the poor. The government has also launched a crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, using the increased revenue to raise the minimum wage. As a result of the crackdown, for the first tome in almost a century the majority of state revenue has come from taxation rather than oil.
Mission Barrio Adentrohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Barrio_Adentro
Mission Barrio Adentro (English: "Mission Inside the Neighborhood") is a Bolivarian national social welfare program established under current Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. The program seeks to provide comprehensive publicly-funded health care, dental care, and sports training to poor and marginalized communities in Venezuela. Barrio Adentro features the construction of thousands of iconic two-storey medical clinics—consultorios or doctor’s offices—as well as staffing with resident certified medical professionals. Barrio Adentro constitutes an attempt to deliver a de facto form of universal healthcare, seeking to guarantee access to quality and cradle-to-grave medical attention for all Venezuelan citizens.
The Latin American branch of the World Health Organization and UNICEF both praised the program.[1][2] According to WHO statistics infant mortality fell from 23 to 20 in males and 19 to 17 in females per 1000 births between 2003 and 2005. [5] [6] In addition, Russian representatives have visited Venezuelan neighborhoods in order to study Venezuelan public clinics and Russian officials are considering implementing a similar program in Russia.
Of a planned 8500 Barrio Adentro I centers, 2708 had been built by May, 2007, using an investment of around US$126m, with a further 3284 under construction.[3] As of 2006, the staff included 31,439 professionals, technical personnel, and health technicians, of which 15,356 were Cuban doctors and 1,234 Venezuelan doctors.[4]
Venezuela´s Barrio Adentro: participatory democracyhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/13726576/Venezuelas-Barrio-Adentro-participatory-democracy-southsouth-cooperation-and-health-care-for-all
Mission Robinsonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Robinson
On the first anniversary of Mission Robinson's establishment, and to an audience of 50,000 formerly illiterate Venezuelans, Hugo Chávez Frías stated in the Teresa Carreño theater in Caracas that “it was truly a world record, in a year we have graduated 1,250,000 Venezuelans".[1] On 28 October 2005, Venezuela declared itself a "Territory Free of Illiteracy", having raised the literacy rate to 99% according to initial government statements by graduating 1.4m Venezuelans from the Mission. The standard for a country to be considered free of illiteracy being 95%.
Venezuela within the framework of the Tenth Anniversary of the .... enrolled in Mission Robinson II to complete their elementary educationhttp://www.un.org/esa/socdev/csd/2005/Statements/Venezuelaeng.pdf
Bank of the Southhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_the_South
The ultimate goal of the Bank of the South is to include every state within the region of South America. It has been established because of disapproval of the protocol of the World Bank and IMF, in particular the enforcement of unrelated free market reforms on countries seeking emergency loans.[3] It also represents an attempt to achieve regional independence and endogenous development. The program would lend money to any nation involved in the construction of approved programs, and without conditions traditionally attached to such loans, such as deregulation.
The Bank is intended as an alternative to borrowing from the IMF and the World Bank. Hugo Chávez has promised to withdraw from the IMF and encourages other member states to do so as well, Indeed Latin America's dependence on the IMF fell dramatically between 2005 and 2008, with outstanding loans falling from 80% of the IMF's $81bn loan portfolio, to 1% of the IMF's $17bn of outstanding loans.[4] Brazil and Argentina are also refusing to borrow from the IMF again. In 2005, Latin America made up 80% of the IMF's lending portfolio. With Latin American countries refusing to continue dealing with it, that percentage dropped to 1% by 2007.[3]
It is proposed that all member countries contribute fairly equal shares to the Bank's initial capital of fourteen billion reais (seven billion dollars) so that no member state will control a dominant share. Argentina joined with Venezuela to officially propose such an initiative, but Brazil also became a major player
The concept was first raised during the first presidential campaign of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in 1998.[4] The concept was originally launched in 2006 in cooperation between Venezuela and Argentina, led by their respective Presidents Hugo Chavez and Nestor Kirchner.[2] In April 2007, Brazil agreed to join.[6]
In May 2007, a meeting in Quito led to the official creation of the bank, and was said to indisputably signify another step towards Latin American integration.[5]
Seven South American nations met in Rio de Janeiro on October 8, 2007, to plan the beginning of the Bank. It was announced that the Bank will be headquartered in Caracas, Venezuela, and would begin operations on November 3, 2007; this was later postponed to 5 December 2007,[7] and then to 9 December 2007.[8] Representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela were present at the meeting. All 12 South American countries will be eligible to borrow from the Bank.[9] In a surprise move, Colombia formally requested membership in the bank on 13 October 2007.[10] As of April 25, 2008, the bank was still awaiting its member nations to have their local legislatures approve their individual capital investments. Member voting rights were yet to be determined at that time.[11]
In March 2009 a number of Latin American nations agreed to contribute $7 billion towards the bank's start-up capital. Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil are to contribute $2 billion each, and Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay agreed to contribute varying amounts to provide the remaining $1 billion.[1]
On Saturday, September 26, 2009, the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela signed an agreement establishing the South Bank with an initial capital of 20 billion U.S. dollars. Leaders including Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner formally signed on to the pact and announced that the starting capital would be $20 billion. It was unclear how much each country would contribute, but under the previous $7 billion figure announced in May, Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil were to have each pledged $2 billion, while Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia were to have chipped in smaller amounts.
UNASUR started plans of integration through infrastructure cooperation with the construction of the Interoceanic Highway, a road that intends to more firmly link the Pacific Coast countries, especially Chile and Peru with Brazil and Argentina by extending highways through the continent, allowing better connections to ports to Bolivia and the inner parts of Argentina, Peru and Brazil. The first corridor, between Peru and Brazil, began construction in September 2005, financed 60% by Brazil and 40% by Peru, is expected to be ready by the end of 2009.
The South American Energy Ring (Dutch: Zuid-Amerikaanse Energiekring, Portuguese: Anel Energético Sul-Americano, Spanish: Anillo Energético Sudamericano) is intended to interconnect Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay with natural gas from several sources, such as the Camisea Gas Project in Peru and Tarija Gas Deposits in Bolivia. Though this proposal has been signed and ratified, economic and political difficulties in Argentina and Bolivia have delayed this initiative, and to date, this agreement remains more like a protocol than an actual project, since Chile and Brazil are already building LNG terminals to import gas from overseas suppliers.
SUCRE (currency)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUCRE_(currency_of_the_ALBA)
Mission Habitathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Habitat
Mision Hábitat ("Mission Habitat") is a Venezuelan Bolivarian Mission that has as its goal the construction of thousands of new housing units for the poor. The program also seeks to develop agreeable and integrated housing zones that make available a full range of social services — from education to healthcare — which likens its vision to that of New Urbanism.
According to Venezuela's El Universal, one of the Chávez administration's outstanding weaknesses is the failure to meet its goals of construction of housing. Chávez promised to build 150,000 houses in 2006, but in the first half of the year, completed only 24 percent of that target, with 35,000 houses.[
Axis of Logic: Chavez Re-launches Venezuela’s Flagship “Barrio Adentro” Healthcare Programhttp://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_57184.shtml
Venezuela's oil wealth funds social programshttp://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/08/Worldandnation/Venezuela_s_oil_wealt.shtml
VENEZUELAhttp://www0.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/csd12/statements/venezuela_2904.pdf
Venezuela has already accomplished
the Millennium Development Goal related to safe drinking water, with an average
of 88% of coverage, and we will are committed to attain the same goal in
sanitation before 2010. By this time Venezuela will account coverage of 99% in
safe drinking water and sanitation in urban areas, and 90% in rural and remote
areas; likewise, waste water treatment will reach 40%. In order to realize these
goals, we have made significant investments in the order of 3,500 million dollars
Successful Fight against Drug Trafficking, Transnational Organized Crime RequiresInterlocking National, Regional, International Strategies, Third Committee Told Debate on Crime Prevention, Criminal Justice, Drug Control Concludeshttp://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/gashc3948.doc.htm
JORGE VALERO Venezuela said the fourth largest drug seizure in the world took place in his country, which demonstrated its commitment to fighting the drug trade. As a neighbour of one of the largest cocaine producers in the world, Venezuela was used as a transit point for the transport of drugs to lucrative markets in the United States and Europe. Venezuela used various forms of technology to fight drugs, including by setting up radars to trace air flights and installing body scanners at airports. The Institute of Scientific Research, the National Drug Office and the National Guard had developed equipment to identify different types of drugs. That test cost only 9 cents, replacing narco tests that cost $7.50 and whose sale was suspended when Venezuela ended the interference of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration in its internal affairs. Venezuela also had superior drug incinerators -- ecological ovens -- that could destroy 125 kilograms of drugs per hour.
He said, in 2009, state security bodies had destroyed 47 tonnes of different types of drugs transiting through Venezuela from Colombia. This year, 10 drug barons were extradited to the United States and Colombia, and 14 last year. Venezuela’s achievements were recognized by the United Nations, as reflected in its choice as host for the nineteenth World Anti-Drug Summit from 28 Sept to 2 October, where 77 countries and 9 international organizations were present. Participants talked of new drug trafficking routes, resulting in an important agreement between nations of Latin America and the Caribbean with the countries of West Africa to train officials in drug detection and provide technology for real-time communication in the course of fighting drugs. Consumer and producer countries should cooperate on the principle of shared responsibility. But, there was no need for the presence of foreign powers to fight drugs in Venezuela, since it had enough experience of its own.
Poverty in Latin America Continues to Decrease for the Third Consecutive Year - ECLAChttp://www.caribbeanpressreleases.com/articles/940/1/Poverty-in-Latin-America-Continues-to-Decrease-for-the-Third-Consecutive-Year---ECLAC/Page1.html
http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/4/27484/P27484.xml&xsl=/dds/tpl-i/p9f.xsl&base=/tpl-i/top-bottom.xsltThe Social Panorama of Latin America 2006, released today by ECLAC's Executive Secretary José Luis Machinea, also gives estimates of the magnitude of poverty for 2006. Its projections for this year estimate that the number of people living in poverty and extreme poverty in the region will continue to decline to 38.5% (205 million people) and 14.7% (79 million).
These figures indicate decreases in rates of poverty and extreme poverty in numerous countries in the region, as compared to 2001 and 2002. The most significant improvements occurred in Argentina (26% poverty rate in 2003-05, compared to 45.4% in 2000-02) and Venezuela (37.1% in 2003-05, compared to 48.6% in 2000-02).
Debating Venezuela's Progress http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64459/bernardo-alvarez-herrera-and-francisco-rodrÃguez/revolutionary-road
This much is undeniable: poverty has decreased in Venezuela under Chávez's administration. According to the 2007 Social Panorama of Latin America, a report released by the United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, between 2002 and 2006 Venezuela decreased poverty by 18.4 percent and extreme poverty by 12.3 percent, an achievement second in the region only to that of Argentina. The report attributed these dramatic decreases to "rapid GDP growth and the ongoing implementation of broad social programs" and recognized that the "swift pace of progress considerably brightens the prospects for further reductions in poverty and significantly increases the feasibility of meeting the first target associated with the first Millennium Development Goal."
According to the Central Bank of Venezuela, social spending as a percentage of all government spending grew from 38.6 percent in 1997 to 44 percent in 2007. Looking more broadly, figures from the National Budget Office show that social spending accounts for a higher percentage of all spending than it did in 1992 -- Rodríguez claims otherwise -- or during the oil-boom years of the 1970s. But more important is that since 2003 the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, has contributed significant sums to social programs -- a point that Rodríguez ignores. In 2004, PDVSA announced that it would spend $1.7 billion a year on social programs, a sharp increase from the $400 million it had been spending in years past. In 2006 alone, it contributed $13.3 billion, or 7.3 percent of GDP, to social programs. According to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, when PDVSA's contributions are factored in, social spending during the Chávez administration has grown by an incredible 314 percent per person in real terms.
Venezuela's social programs, many of which have been funded by PDVSA, have been both effective and popular. Rodríguez seeks to dismiss them by quoting isolated and questionable statistics, but he fails to fully consider the gains they have achieved. According to the Central Bank's System of Social Indicators, school attendance at every level increased between 1998 and 2006, and today nine times as many children have access to free meals at school. Through the health mission Barrio Adentro, doctors located in Venezuela's poorest communities have provided more than 200 million checkups, saved over 47,000 lives, and overseen 3,100 births in the 715 different offices and specialized clinics built throughout the country. The treatment provided to HIV/AIDS patients is indicative of the larger commitment to health under the Chávez administration: whereas in 1999 only 335 patients received antiretroviral medications, in 2006 the number was over 18,000. The many social missions have been so well received that during the 2006 presidential campaign, the opposition candidate Manuel Rosales pledged to keep them in place if he won the presidency.
Policies enacted since Chávez was elected have also helped redistribute the gains of Venezuela's record economic growth. Unemployment is down, employment in the formal sector is up, and the minimum wage has increased notably. More important, income has grown fastest for Venezuela's poorest. According to the polling firm Datanalisis, from 1998 to 2006 Venezuela's poorest sectors saw an increase in income of 445 percent, and the wealthiest saw a gain of 194 percent. These gains have come despite a concerted effort by certain sectors of the opposition to throw the country into crisis in 2002 and 2003. In a shocking omission, Rodríguez does not mention that the sabotage of the oil industry in late 2002 and early 2003 bled Venezuela of 24 percent of its GDP. By comparison, during four years of the Great Depression, the United States lost 29 percent of its GDP.
The policies of the Chávez administration have served to help lower poverty, increase access to necessary social services, and better distribute Venezuela's resources. But more than trust the numbers, one can turn to public opinion to verify this. According to a 2007 Latinobarómetro report, Venezuelans rank their country among the most democratic in the region, second only to Uruguay. On a number of measures -- equality between the sexes, the protection of private property, equality of opportunity, solidarity with the poor, social security, employment opportunities, and even income distribution -- respondents ranked Venezuela highest in the region. When asked how their families' economic situations would be in 12 months, 61 percent of the Venezuelan people said "much better" or "a bit better," higher than the figure for Brazil (60 percent) and the regional average (46 percent). On education and health services, 64 percent and 74 percent, respectively, expressed their satisfaction.
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Bolivarian School Opened Juan José Guerrero in Lara Statehttp://www.vtv.gob.ve/noticias-nacionales/28419
The institution was built with an investment exceeding 13 million bolivar fuerte / The structure has 16 classrooms, 7 workshops, 7 laboratories in chemistry, biology, physics, among others, also has green and recreational areas/plus educational workshops will reduce the dropout rates in Lara region.
He emphasized that this inauguration is part of Simón Bolívar's unique plan designed by the Revolutionary Government, which aims to expand, build and repair more than two thousand rehabilitation od educational spaces nationwide.Hugo Chavez is going to go down in history as a great, significant leader and president for Venezuela. That said, I am not particularly fond of President Chavez’s rhetorical approach. He is a wild man, but one needs to be a wild man to do what he did. Hugo Chavez came in as president of Venezuela back in 1998 following a long line of terrible presidents who corrupted the government and disenfranchised the people. Luckily, the people were fed up and they voted Chavez in overwhelmingly. At the time, Chavez wasn’t anti-American, but after 9/11 he made a statement, to paraphrase, something along the lines of: “I hope this will help America look at itself and its role in the world.” That statement really ticked off the Bush administration and they immediately went after him. In 2002, the CIA orchestrated a failed coup attempt and Chavez bounced back into power with renewed vigor. He took to the streets to defend Venezuela. He even had his own private security forces stationed around the presidential palace. At the time, the United States was so overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan that we couldn’t do anything about it. Normally, we’d call in the big guns and that’s that. But our hands were tied, and as a result we inadvertently encouraged other Latin American countries to run on these tickets that strongly opposed the unfair practices of the U.S. corporations.
Nobel economist endorses Chávez regional bank plan http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/oct/12/venezuela.banking
The Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has endorsed an ambitious plan by Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, to create a pan-regional bank for Latin America. Professor Stiglitz, a Washington insider and former World Bank chief economist, said the Bank of the South would benefit the region and give a welcome shakeup to western lending institutions.
greg palast ''chavez continues to stall world bankers agenda'' http://www.prisonplanet.com/jones_report_110402_palast.html
Michael Parenti -- Venezuela part 1!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enMs7tCvLwk
Michael Parenti -- Venezuela part 2! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ7na2Ds88o
Chavez is a threat because he offers the alternative of a decent country http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=269
Jewish Banking
and
Financial Manipulations http://www.doeda.com/jewishbankers.html
On December 9th standing before the flags of their countries the Presidents of Argentine, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela along with the representative from Uruguay gathered in Buenos Aires and signed the founding charter of the Banco del Sur or the Bank of the South.
The Bank of the South will allow the participating governments to use a percentage of their collective currency reserves to strengthen Latin America's economy and promote cooperative development. It plans lending as early as 2008 with about 7 billion dollars in capital.
By itself the Bank represents a serious challenge to US dominated institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Inter-American Bank (IDB) as part of a larger trend it signals a major break from the policies of "Free Trade" neo-liberalism that dominated in the region through the eighties and nineties.
The bankers of the south are keenly aware of the significance of this break. In the words of the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, the" Bank is aimed at freeing us from the chains of dependance and under-development".
President Chavez who regularly clashes with the Bush administration, took over ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips' stakes in multi-billion dollar heavy oil projects in Venezuela's oil region last June.
9/11 Hero Supports Venezuela's National Assembly resolution on 9/11 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3874
The Devil V.S. John Perkins http://www.malibumag.com/site/article/the_devil_vs_john_perkins/
There is no question a revolution is happening in Latin America. Nine countries have voted to stand up against the corporatocracy and vote indigenous leaders into office.
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