Ah…That Chávez!

Economics and Finances 

1. Liberation of the country from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
2. Increase in the international reserves
3. Reduction of the public debt from 47.5 to 25 points (2003-2006)
4. Elimination of the tax on bank debiting
5. Creation of the large banks: of the Treasury, of Development, and of the South

Petroleum

6. Recuperation of the oil industry
7. Recuperation of OPEC as an organization that defends the price of oil
8. Liberation of state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) from the securities commission of the United States, paying the corresponding debt (26 billion dollars)
9. Increase in the oil reserves with the recuperation of the Orinoco Oil Belt

Agriculture and Production

10. Rescue of lands for agriculture and their handing over to the peasantry
11. Diversification of production: creation of factories for the production of tractors, bicycles, and automobiles as well as cement in association with Iran

Health

12. Creation of a new National Health Service (Inside the Barrio Mission)
13. Equipping of hospitals with incubators and other sophisticated equipment
14. Construction of Children’s Cardiology Center
15. Thousands of people with their vision recuperated (Miracle Mission)
16. Reduction in the infant mortality rate by 27 percent
17. Increase in the life expectancy rate to 73.18 years of age
18. Construction of the first Popular Indigenous Clinic in the state of Apure and an extensive network of outpatient clinics for the indigenous

Women

19. Creation of National Institute of Women (Inamujer)
20. Creation of the Simoncito program (attention for children from before birth)
21. Extension of the period for maternal lactation which forces employers to give more weeks to working mothers
22. Support for 200,000 mothers with economic difficulties (Mothers of the Barrio Mission)

Education

23. Bolivarian University in all states (over 800 graduates as upper-lever technicians) as well as the University of Sports, in Cojedes
24. Opening up of bachelors degrees for thousands of people, with more than 200,000 graduates to date (Ribas Mission)
25.  Literacy achieved by over 1.5 million people, for which UNESCO declared the country free of illiteracy
26.  Recuperation of over 100,000 education campuses
27. Creation of 58,236 new schools
28. Creation of 255 technical-training schools where 203,000 students study: the goal is to reach 500 of these schools for 500,000 students
29. Publication of over 50 million books distributed free of charge so as to increase the people’s cultural level
30. Equipping of the country’s public libraries
31. Creation of over 6,000 bolivarian schools and 75,000 classroom libraries
32. Payment of all debts to teachers and substantial increases in salaries
33. Elimination of tuition fees for state-operated schoolhouses

Poverty, Work, and Housing

34. Reduction of critical poverty from 80 to 30 percent (1998-2007)
35. Attending to hundreds of people, including children, living on the streets (Negra Hipólita Mission)
36. Network of Feeding Houses for those in need
37. Declaration of workplace immobility, to impede firings
38. Program for the substitution of shacks for houses
39. With benefits, the minimum wage of a Venezuelan worker amounts to 638 dollars per month (8,000 Mexican pesos)

Services

40. Increase in the number of people that today have drinkable water and electricity
41. Creation of the PDVSA Social Districts to assist hundreds of communities throughout the country
42. National plan for gasification (natural gas piped directly to communities/homes)

Communication

43. Creation of Telesur and the Bolivarian News Agency (ABN)
44. Approval of the law for social responsibility in radio and television
45. Placing in orbit of the Simón Bolívar satellite, for the development of tele-medicine, tele-education, and for information independence

Environment

46. Increase to 6,700 birds in the population of Caribbean flamingos, species considered to be in danger of extinction
47. Planting of 20 million trees since 2006 (Tree Mission)

Security

48. Increase in the number of people affiliated to Social Security, as well as in pensions for the elderly
49. Payment of all debts to professors, doctors and retirees
50. Retirement for catholic school teachers at ‘Faith and Happiness’ who for 50 years had not received retirement or bonuses
51. Construction of penitentiary cities intended to resolve of prison problem

Armed forces

52. Independence of the Armed Forces from the influence of the School of the Americas (SOA)
53. Exit of Yankee technicians that conducted espionage in the barracks as well as diversification in the markets from which arms are purchased

Integration

54. Entry into Mercosur
55. Creation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the People’s of Our America (ALBA) as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)

Politics

56. Increase in the self-esteem of the Venezuelan people
57. Establishment of the country’s sovereignty
58. Glorification of the history of popular and national struggles
59. Effective democracy

José Steinsleger is a writer and journalist. He is a founding member of the Latin-American Federation of Journalists (FELAP, 1976), of the Latin-American Agency of Special Information Services (ALASEI-UNESCO, 1984) and the movement, “In defense of humanity” (Mexico, 2003). Since 1996 he maintains a regular column in the Mexican daily La Jornada. He is also author and co-author of several books on the Latin American historical political reality.