The eventful and tumultuous rule of Chavez, who was elected President of Venezuela in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 and 2006, implemented many Bolivarian Missions that were successful in combating disease, illiteracy, malnutrition, poverty, and other social ills. He also successfully initiated several reforms aimed at improving the social welfare of his people including land transfer programs, a free government funded health care system and free education up to the University level. These reforms helped in lowering the infant mortality rates by 18% between 1998 and 2006, reduced inflation by 12.3% with improved economic growth and increased enrolment in primary school enrolment of millions of students.
In 2003 and 2004, Chavez launched a number of social and economic campaigns as he struggled to maintain popular support including Mission Robinson, Mission Sucre and Mission Ribas (for providing free education for millions of Venezuelans), Mission Guaicaipuro (to protect the livelihood, religion, land, culture and rights of Venezuela's indigenous peoples), Mission Vuelta al Campo and Mission Barrio Adentro (constructing, funding and refurbishing secondary and tertiary public health care facilities and construction of thousands of free medical clinics for the poor), Mission Arbol (an environmental program of reforestation) and Mission Mirinda that established a National Militia.
He also enacted food and housing subsidies. In 2008, 62.9% of Venezuelans have bought subsidized food from the Food Market Network (Mercal). He also formed 100,000 cooperatives during the past few years that are the centrepiece of President Hugo Chavez's new socialist model to create jobs and redistribute this oil-rich country's wealth. The government offers cooperatives exemption from all taxes as well as interest-free loans. The movement is changing the nature of Venezuelan society, putting quality of life and "solidarity" above the profit motive.
Due to his reforms, family income among the poorest stratum grew more than 150% between 2003 and 2006. According to official sources, the percentage of people below the national poverty line has decreased significantly during the Chavez years, from 48.1% in 2002 to 12.3% in 2007. Since 1999, 2.7 million Venezuelans no longer are impoverished, 437,000 in 2008 alone; extreme poverty stood at 42% earlier in the 1990s; today it's 9.1%. The government earmarked 44.6% of the 2007 budget for social investment, with 1999-2007 averaging 12.8% of GDP. GDP growth rates were 18% in 2004, 9% in 2005 and 9.6% in the first half of 2006, with the private sector growing at a 10.3% clip.
In March 2006 the Communal Council Law was approved, whereby communities that decide to organize themselves into a council can be given official state recognition and access to federal funds and loans for community projects. This skips the local and state governments that are perceived as corrupt. From 2004 to the first half of 2006, non-petroleum sectors of the economy showed growth rates greater than 10%. Datos reports real income grew by 137% between 2003 and Q1 2006. Unemployment dropped by 7%. The World Bank calculated a 10% drop in poverty.
He attained all this progress in the midst of constant threat, coup attempts (including a failed attempt to overthrow him in April 2002), assassination attempts general strikes and lockouts conducted by the corporates and the elite with the support of foreign masters. In return for the conspiracy hatched by the superpower to overthrow his government, he responded by initiating a program to provide cheaper heating fuel for low-income families in several areas of the US. The program was expanded in September 2006 to include four of New York's five boroughs, earmarking 25 million gallons of fuel for low-income New York residents at 40% off the wholesale market price. That quantity provides enough fuel to heat 70,000 apartments, covering 200,000 New Yorkers, for the entire winter. Chavez also offered heating oil to poor, remote villages in Alaska. In 2007, Chavez signed a deal with Ken Livingstone, then-Mayor of London for a similar program.
Chavez placed greater emphasis on alternative economic development and international trade models, and organized the countries of Latin America against neoliberal model of economic development and supported these countries in the form of extremely ambitious hemisphere-wide international aid agreements. On April 30, 2007 Chavez announced that Venezuela would be formally pulling out of the IMF and the World Bank, having paid off its debts of around $3 Billion five years ahead of schedule and so saving US $8 million. Chavez then announced the creation of a regional bank, the Bank of the South, and said that the IMF and the World Bank were in crisis. Chavez has acted against the Washington Consensus by supporting alternative models of economic development, and has advocated cooperation among the world's poor nations, especially those in Latin America.
Hugo Chavez took an unrelenting stand against the American hegemony and the brutalities shown by the Zionists and the Imperialists. The recent expulsion of Israeli Ambassador from Venezuela and the breaking of ties with Israel for the genocide against the people of Gaza were much appreciated throughout the world. He has remained a symbol of resistance against the brutalities and oppression and has been the voice of the downtrodden and the oppressed. In a famous speech that was received with wide applause at the UN on 20th September 2006, in which he called the former US President as the 'devil', he strongly attacked US policies and its current pattern of domination, exploitation and plunder of the peoples of the world. Due to his strong stand against the brutalities of Imperialists and Zionists, he has been considered a hero of the oppressed throughout the world including Middle East. During the brutal attack on Gaza by the Zionists, Deputy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hamas Government, Dr. Ahmed Yousef sent an open letter to Hugo Chavez in which he stated that "Throughout history, in a just conflict, there always emerges a champion, a single hero who, by his actions, embodies all the virtues the masses aspire to. You have demonstrated that you are such a man".
South America Shows The Way
Hugo Chavez along with his counterparts, Eva Morales of Bolivia and President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and counterparts in Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, have together been challenging the superpower next door and its neoliberal and imperialist policies. They have also been providing an alternative economic model for the global economy that is infected by financial recession. The recent World Social Forum that was held in the Brazilian city of Belem with the theme 'another world is possible', was well received as an alternative to World Economic Forum being held at Davos. Most of the South American presidents attended to promote Latin America as a model for global economic development and co-operation. In this conference Hugo Chavez strongly criticized the global capitalist system for the current financial mess. He stated, "In Davos, the world that is dying is meeting, here the world that is being born is meeting." It was a true portrayal of the failing capitalist system and a desire for a better world order.
Venezuelans will be participating in a referendum on February 15th to vote on whether he can contest for elections when he completes his second term of office in 2013. Whether he wins the referendum or not, he has already taken his place in history as a great leader who courageously fought the seemingly omnipotent imperialists and their allies and at the same time brought progress and sustainable prosperity to his people by eradicating poverty through equitable distribution of wealth.
Congratulations...Hugo Chavez. We Salute you.
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