Venezuela Inaugurates First Socialist City
The Venezuelan government, together with the private sector and international partners, is ļ¬nding creative solutions to the nationās housing deļ¬cit, including the construction of new, communal-oriented cities.

Pushing forward with its large-scale public housing program that seeks to construct two million new homes in the next 6 years, the Venezuelan government opened the doors of 602 apartments to needy families in the socialist city of Caribia last weekend.
The delivery represents part of Mission Housing Venezuela, a social program launched earlier this year with the explicit goal of eliminating the Caribbean nationās housing deļ¬cit, estimated at 1.5 million.
āIn the future, there will not be a single family that doesnāt have digniļ¬ed housing like the ones being handed over today in Caribia Cityā, President Hugo Chavez said during the inauguration ceremony on Saturday.
Broadcasting from the presidential palace of Miraļ¬ores in Caracas, the Venezuelan head of state praised his governmentās efforts in making affordable homes a reality, commenting that such a program would never be possible under a capitalist system.
āOnly with a socialist government would this be possibleā, Chavez afļ¬rmed.
A SOCIALIST CITY
Caribia City, a socialist megaproject ļ¬rst conceptualized by Chavez in 2006, is envisioned as a planned, holistic community, complete with schools, health clinics and employment opportunities for its residents.
With the recent birth of Mission Housing Venezuela, the cityās development has been accelerated as the social program incorporates the work of various ministries and building strategies to boost housing availability.
The government is planning a total of 1,400 new homes, totally furnished, to be delivered to residents of the city this year and a total of 20 thousand to be provided in the urban center by 2018.
Located in the sector Camino Los Indios just outside the capital of Caracas, the majority of the ļ¬rst residents to beneļ¬t from the initiative have been the victims of torrential rains that left more than 100 thousand people homeless at the end of last year, as well as those living in high risk areas too dangerous for permanent residence.
āIām happy and really pleased with this new homeā, said Jessica Suarez, mother of three, upon receiving the keys to her new apartment last Saturday. āNow weāre going to be able to start a new lifeā, she stated.
The new units are ļ¬nanced by the Venezuelan government with varying rates of subsidies including up to 100 percent, depending on a familyās income.
JOBS CREATION
āThe governmentās investment has been 2.9 billion bolivars [$674 million] up to this point and weāre approving another important allocation in order to accelerate the workā, Chavez said of his administrationās ļ¬nancial commitment to the project.
Ofļ¬cials report that each 3 bedroom apartment has a cost of 290 thousand bolivars [$67,000] and is being constructed by a Venezuelan-Cuban enterprise formed under the auspices of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americans (ALBA) regional block.
Nearly 2,000 Venezuelans have been employed by the project.
āThis is a city for the people⦠not for the machine of capitalism that allows a small group of people to beneļ¬t at the cost of the restā, Chavez declared on Saturday.
ANOTHER HOUSING INITIATIVE: PETROCASA
In addition to the acceleration of Caribia City, the Venezuelan government has also been speeding up its construction of Petrocasas to fulļ¬ll its housing commitment.
In the state of Carabobo, more than 27 thousand people have beneļ¬ted from the construction of 6,000 homes fabricated from materials originating from the nationās massive oil industry.
The idea of using the countryās dominant oil sector as a motor for housing construction was ļ¬rst proposed in 2004 as a way to adopt locally available materials to the needs of residents living in precariously built shantytowns outside major cities.
āPetrocasa comes from the idea of designing a construction system that can utilize the raw materials of the petro-chemical industry. For this reason, we sought out the best technology in the world, selecting it from Austria, Italy and Germany in order to create the machines and the designs to build the ļ¬rst Petrocasa factory in the state of Caraboboā, explained Enrique Majo, Director of the socialist business.
The homes are built with highly resistant plastic frames ļ¬lled with concrete, steel and iron girders.
There are currently three factories in Venezuela producing the Petrocasa ākitsā in the states of Carabobo and Apure.
The houses, which can be built in 10 to 12 days, are not āplastic homesā, Majo argued, but are of high quality, exceeding Venezuelan health and safety standards.
āThe Petrocasa system is in compliance with quality and safety standards. The residential units are anti-seismic, non-ļ¬ammable, durable⦠and hurricane resistantā, the Director assured.
Many organized residents, participating in the their grassroots community councils, have taken the initiative in preparing the grounds and erecting their new homes.
Neida Marin, a spokesperson for the community council Cacique Guacara in Carabobo, described the leadership role that activists have played in the transformation of their living environment.
āWe, the organized community, received the dimensions and proļ¬les of the Petrocasas and we created teams with the participation of men and women from the area. We put together our homes in stages and in less than a year we had an entire neighborhood builtā, Marin said.
The activist informed that 530 Petrocasas have thus far been constructed in her residential area, substituting what were once ļ¬imsy built shacks for new digniļ¬ed homes.
āThis neighborhood is the product of a big struggle. The community council got organized and formulated the project and with the assistance of [the state petro-chemical company] Pequiven and the institutions involved, we could solidify the construction of our homesā, she declared.
Initiatives like Petrocasas and Caribia City are part of the reason why the Chavez administration will meet its goal in the coming months of constructing 153,000 homes in 2011, Housing and Habitat Minister Ricardo Molina reported last weekend.
āOur conviction is that we will meet the goal because, according to our calculations, many homes are in stage of being ļ¬nished. Beginning in September, different construction processes throughout the country will be coming to a closeā, Molina stated.