Chavez: We Don’t Accept Any Type of Discrimination in Venezuela

Caracas, 20 Dec. AVN.- The president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, signed on Monday the decrees to enact the Debt Law 2012, the reform to the Medicine Practice Law, the Organic Law against Racial Discrimination, and the Law on the Rational and Efficient Use of Energy.

Concerning the Organic Law against Racial Discrimination, President Chavez said it aims to stipulate mechanisms to prevent, attend to, eliminate and punish racial discrimination in any of its expressions.

Further, Chavez said it guarantees that all people enjoy and exercise the rights and duties enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, international laws and human rights accords signed and ratified by the Republic.

After signing the legal instrument, Chavez said to his counterpart from the United States, who was interviewed on Monday by a Venezuelan newspaper, “Obama, you are always saying that we in Venezuela are damaging freedom and human rights. Just look at the way your police officers are targeting the youth; just go and see the racial discrimination among the people of your country … so you will not come and say that huge lie.”

Chavez said that in Venezuela, people are fighting for equality among black, white and indigenous people, “We are all the same. There cannot be and we do not accept any kind of discrimination in socialist Venezuela”.

8,000 Community Doctors

On the reform to the Medicine Practice Law, Chavez said, “We are approving a reform which boths the [opposition] so much because they say these people [over 8 thousand recently graduated community doctors] are not doctors. Now, this law embraces integral community doctors.”

Last November, the socialist party in parliament passed, in second debate, the bill to partially reform the Medicine Practice Law, aimed at including integral community doctors in the National Public Health System. On November 15, the plenary lifted the sanction in order to include several proposals on behalf of different sectors of the country in the final report.

The Medicine Practice Law  has remained unchanged since 1982. The career of Integral Community Medicine began officially in 2007, when the National Council on Universities approved its syllabus.

Other Laws

Regarding the Law on the Rational and Efficient Use of Energy, President Chavez said “we are winning the electricity battle.”

He took the opportunity to congratulate Minister of Electricity, Ali Rodriguez, the workers, and the Venezuelan people, though he called on people to continue raising their awareness on the waste of electricity.

The new law seeks to create a cultural change among the Venezuelan population by changing habits which cause the wasting of electricity, since Venezuela is the Latin American country with the largest consumption of energy per capita.

Meanwhile, The Special Debt Law for the 2012 fiscal year envisages an outlay of 27.43 percent of the overall resources, or 81.7 billion bolivares. Top priority areas for such expenses are the mass transport system, the national electrical system and the iron and steel sector.

The budget is 43% larger than last years, at Bs 293.5 billion ($US 68.2 billion), with 40% designated to social investment, and based on a price of $50 per barrel, economic growth of 5%, and inflation of 20-22%.

Edited and extra notes by Venezuelanalysis.com