BY ANDY McINERNEY
When Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was first elected in 1998, millions of the country's poor and working-class people put their hopes in him to build a government capable of advancing their interests. Four and a half years later, despite fierce resistance from the South American country's US-backed capitalist elite, the Chavez government continues to address the needs of the 80% of the population who live in poverty amid vast oil and mineral wealth.
July 5 is celebrated as Venezuela's Independence Day, commemorating the day in 1811 when Simon Bolivar declared independence from Spain for the region that now includes Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Chavez has named the movement that his election campaign launched the "Bolivarian Revolution", invoking Bolivar's legacy of national liberation and Latin American unity.
This July 5, tens of thousands of Chavez supporters took to the streets of the capital Caracas to celebrate the accomplishments of the Bolivarian Revolution. President Chavez took the opportunity to promote the Plan Barrio Adentro (Into the Neighbourhood Plan).
Plan Barrio Adentro is an ambitious program aimed at addressing the needs of Venezuela's poorest citizens. It began with a literacy campaign targeting 1 million Venezuelans who cannot read or write. This campaign involves the ministry of education, the National Institute of Cooperative Education and the Venezuelan armed forces.
"In the first stage, in July, we will teach 120,000 people to read and write", announced Chavez. "We are going to wage this battle by land, sea and air, and we will reach every person who needs our help."
Named "Mission Robinson" after Samuel Robinson, Simon Bolivar's teacher, the campaign involves at least 50,000 volunteers, as well as some incentives for families that participate, like small loans from state-owned banks. Prisoners who help fellow prisoners learn to read and write may earn reduced sentences.
One component of the literacy campaign will be the donation of "family libraries", containing 25 books of Venezuelan and Latin American literature, to 550,000 children who complete the sixth grade.
Another aspect of the Plan Barrio Adentro is a wide-reaching healthcare program, also aimed at the poorest neighbourhoods in the country. Fernando Bianco, president of the Metropolitan Medical School in Caracas, told the July 6 Hello President radio program that the plan intends to reestablish "the primary healthcare system in the country, which is non-existent". The plan would assist over 1 million people.
Key to both aspects of the Plan Barrio Adentro is the solidarity of the Cuban people and government. For example, the healthcare program will benefit from 300 more Cuban health professionals deployed in the poorest neighbourhoods — bringing the total number of Cuban medical personnel in Venezuela to 800, according to a July 7 Xinhua newsagency report.
The Cuban government will also provide 80 education specialists, and materials, for the literacy drive. "An 'army of light' is working for us in Cuba", Chavez announced on July 2, "rapidly producing copies of videos and reading primers... In addition, President Fidel Castro ordered the donation of 50,000 TV sets, which we will use in the program, the first 23,000 have already arrived."
The Venezuelan ruling class, which still holds a virtual monopoly on the media and major parts of the economy, has attempted to demonise the Plan Barrio Adentro. Acting on these provocations, right-wing thugs firebombed a mobile health clinic in Caracas on July 7. To date, however, the Venezuelan revolution continues to advance.
The Plan Barrio Adentro is a sign that the Chavez government is deepening the working-class basis of the Bolivarian Revolution, strengthening its roots among the most oppressed — and gathering strength against the forces of counterrevolution that continue to try to topple the Chavez government.
[From the US socialist weekly Workers World. Visit <http://www.workers.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, July 30, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.