Poverty and Exclusion Reduced by Venezuelan Government Missions | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela |Axisoflogic.com

Editor's Comment: This report briefly describes a few of the amazing achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution under the administration of President Chavez. We witness the fruits of these missions every day here in Venezuela. This information stands in contrast to the many ways in which President Chavez and Venezuela is being portrayed by the PBS Frontline show which will be aired in the United States this evening. In the show, Public Service Television selects only opposition leaders for their interviews and the disinformation that follows. PBS "cherry-picks" a few programs which haven't fared as well as others and a few of Venezuela's poor who occasionally "fall through the cracks" as the capitalists are fond of saying about the millions of oppressed disenfranchised in the United States.

This shameful and unethical "documentary" by PBS omits all of the wonderful achievements of the Chavez administration including new housing for the poor; price controls which provide affordable basic foods to all Venezuelans; 16 quarters of consistent economic growth; diversion of petroleum profits from the transnational corporations to the Venezuelan people; a massive and efficient system of free health care; free, quality eye and dental care; quality university education, free to everyone; a nationwide literacy program that took Venezuela from an 80% illiterate country to full literacy in only 6 years; a modern, new national railway system; development of agriculture for food independence; protection for single mothers; low interest business loans for women entrepreneurs; a participatory democracy with free and fair elections; protection of free speech, even for the anti-government, private media that dominates the airways and print media and a plethoria of other benefits all due to President Chavez and his administration.

The PBS portrayal of Venezuela and of President Chavez is a carefully crafted media attack on Venezuelan socialism and a very personal assault on President Chavez himself. Their very need to produce this deceptive media show demonstrates the failure of the political and economic structures of the ruling class in the U.S. It is also another demonstration of PBS' abandonment of any pretense to journalistic integrity as they work arm in arm with the U.S. government in their continuing imperial attempt to recover control of Latin American wealth. Read more about the success of the Bolivarian Revolution under the government of President Chavez below.

- Les Blough in Venezuela

With 30 social programs (missions) underway, the Bolivarian government is defeating the causes and consequences of poverty and exclusion inherited from the 4th Republic.

These programs range from primary health with Barrio Adentro I, the first mission created in 2003 with the help and participation of thousand Cuban doctors, to the organization of the people’s power with the April 13th Mission.

Other Venezuelan social programs include food security, health, social economy, protection of poor mothers, and the recovery of idle lands, among others.

The List

This is a brief list of the different social missions, their goals and field of action:

Food: Food security.
Alma Mater: Construction of new universities.
Tree: Environmental conservation.
Barrio Adentro I: primary health and medical care.
Barrio Adentro II: health care and rehabilitation in hospitals.
Barrio Adentro III: Consolidation of the hospital network.
Barrio Adentro IV: specialized hospitals.
Sports Barrio Adentro: Sports and recreation.
Che Guevara: Social economy.
Science: promotion of science and technology.
Culture: promotion and development of the people’s culture.
Guaicaipuro: care provided to indigenous people.
Identity: issuing ID cards.
José G. Hernández: Protection provided to people with disabilities.
Madres del Barrio: Protection provided to mothers living in extreme poverty.
Miracle: ophthalmologic health care.
Miranda: organization of reservists.
Music: children and youth orchestras and chorus.
Negra Hipólita: protection provided to homeless people.
Piar: organization of mining.
Energy revolution: rationalization of energy consumption.
Ribas: high school and professional education.
Technical Ribas: technical training.
Robinson I: literacy
Robinson II: elementary school
Smile: dental care.
Sucre: access to higher education.
Villanueva: housing and habitat.
Zamora: recovery of idle lands.
April 13th: organization of people’s power.

Conquered Victories

The Venezuelan government’s actions and the missions have achieved many victories over poverty and exclusion.

In the health field, for instance, the children mortality rate, which was 19.0 percent per 1,000 children born alive in 1999, was reduced to 13.7 percent in 2007. Noteworthy, children mortality rate in 1990 was 25.8 percent.

Barrio Adentro I and II missions have performed over 700 million medical activities and procedures (consultations, emergencies, rehabilitation, tests, among others) in poor slums through 4,469 health care centers all around the country.

Barrio Adentro I has saved 104,247 lives.

Before the Bolivarian Revolution, this health system, which distributes over 120 kinds of medicines for free, did not exist.

Education

According to figures issued by the Ministry of People’s Power for Planning and Development, the Bolivarian government incorporated 1,100,000 people into higher education between 1998 and 2007.

In 1998, 668,109 students were enrolled in Venezuela’s universities. Up to 2007, 1,796,507 students were enrolled; that is to say, 1,128,398 more students.

Another important figure is pre-school education enrolment. Between 1988 and 1989, the schooling rate in the pre-school education system was 40.3 percent, while between 2006 and 2007 it reached 57.6 percent for a total of 687,464 additional children.

Other figures confirm how exclusion has been reduced in the education field: 3,412,760 (wo)men have graduated from educative missions, in addition to over 1.5 million people who have learn how to read and write, and 1,169,398 Venezuelans are studying in these missions.

Food

According to the Planning Ministry, 13 million people benefit from the three networks comprising Mission Food: Soup kitchens, Mercal (markets), Supermercal (supermarkets), itinerant markets, community markets and Pdval markets.

This food network gathers 22,703 food stores, where half of the population (almost 14 million Venezuelans) buys subsidized high-quality foodstuffs, thus guaranteeing the Venezuelan people’s food security.

Social investment

Exclusion and government is fought in Venezuela from two flanks. The first is the government’s institutional actions, according to which the people’s needs and the solution to their problems takes precedence thanks to the right distribution of public expenditure.

In 2007, the Bolivarian government’s social expenditure grew to 59.5 percent.

In addition, the Bolivarian government counts on the 30 missions underway.

The missions are financed by Petróleos de Venezuela, S. A. (PDVSA) and the National Development Fund (FONDEN), which was created in 2005.

The FONDEN was created with an additional US $ 6 million contribution from Venezuela’s international reserves and oil income surplus.

These resources are aimed at financing far-reaching social and productive investment projects in fields such as infrastructure, health, environment, energy, defense, basic industries, education, agriculture and special, strategic situations.

Source: Ven Global News (MINCI)