CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has launched a wave of state-backed social programmes in the run-up to an October presidential election.
The leftist leader insists they are simply another step in his efforts to eradicate poverty in the OPEC member nation, but opposition critics say he is using state coffers to shore up support and extend his 13-year rule.
The following are the most important social programmes, or “missions”, created or expanded in recent months:
ASSISTANCE TO SENIOR CITIZENS:
In repeated TV appearances surrounded by grateful elderly Venezuelans, Chavez in December launched a programme called “The Greatest Love” to provide pensions equivalent to minimum wage, or around $360 a month, to poor senior citizens.
State media have been full of ads for the effort featuring a slow “bolero” theme styled on music often favored by grandmas and grandpas. Recipients are heard personally thanking Chavez.
“Get us more information – wherever there is a single Venezuelan without a pension, tell us, tell me, because justice must be done!” Chavez exhorted one crowd of seniors.
Many Venezuelan seniors have struggled to get pensions even though in many cases they spent decades working.
Some are victims of unscrupulous companies that withheld social security taxes for years but never made the corresponding payments. Close to a million people have registered for the program, which is available to women over 55 and men over 60.
STIPENDS FOR POOR CHILDREN:
Also created in December, the “Children of Venezuela” mission offers the equivalent of $100 per month for each child under 17 belonging to poor families.
The stipend also applies to pregnant women in poverty and low-income handicapped people of all ages.
In vast queues at registration points, nearly a million families have signed up to receive benefits. The government expects to spend a combined total of $10 billion this year on the programs for low-income children and senior citizens.
Though widely applauded in poor areas, some middle-class critics of Chavez say “Children of Venezuela” encourages dependency and could lead to an increase in teenage pregnancies.
HOUSING:
The Chavez administration is stepping up construction of homes to address a decades-old housing deficit that worsened in 2010 following floods that left more than 100,000 homeless.
At inaugurations of new housing units, Chavez has carried babies, kissed housewives and even offered up the presidential palace as a temporary residence for some families.
Venezuela is estimated to need another 2 million units to satisfy its population’s housing needs.
Under pressure to provide housing to families that have spent more than a year in improvised shelters, the government said its “Great Venezuelan Housing Mission” built 146,000 houses in 2011. The opposition disputes that figure, saying it has been inflated by including some touch-ups of flimsy slum dwellings.
This year the government estimates it will build another 200,000 homes for low-income families living in shelters or in rickety slum houses in danger of collapsing.
Chavez has hired Iranian and Chinese contractors to build apartments, which come equipped with home appliances and basic furniture. Investment in housing is seen at $14 billion in 2012.
WORKPLACE TRAINING AND JOBS:
A programme meant to cut unemployment by more than half over six years is promising to train and provide jobs for 420,000 people this year alone.
The “Wisdom and Work Mission” will pay unemployed Venezuelans to receive training in skills ranging from construction to information technology and help find them jobs.
Many of the workers will participate in state housing construction programs. The effort will also focus on increasing the availability of workers for oil field development projects such as those in the vast Orinoco belt, considered one of the world’s largest reserves of crude.
DISCRETIONARY ASSISTANCE:
Chavez has complemented these broader programmes with a flood of small spending measures targeting specific groups.
For example, the government gave a Caracas cooperative of taxi drivers, who are frequent victims of crime, direct access to a state-owned radio frequency to communicate with one another. That will replace a private service that had previously cost the group around $6,000 per month.
The government is building a visitors’ center near a jail in the interior to ease family visits to inmates, whose outrage at sub-human conditions of prisons last year overflowed into riots.
Such announcements have become routine in television broadcasts over the last several months.
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