EDITORIAL
Welcome President Chávez
We warmly welcome you, President Hugo Chávez
Frías, to New York--a city of immigrants and other
working people who have more in common with the Venezuelan
people than with the imperialist government in the White House
and Congress.
We have been following the progress of the Bolivarian
Revolution since you were first elected in 1998. Your victory
brought hope to Latin America and the world. The people who
will be welcoming you to this country will be thinking of all
the accomplishments of that revolution.
Since 1999, 20,000 new homes have been built and another
10,000 rebuilt by military programs. Three million people have
been able to have clean water for the first time.
Two-and-a-half million acres of productive land have been
distributed, along with credits, technical support and
equipment, and 30,000 land titles given to people without
property in the urban areas. More funds for education meant 1
million more children joining the education system, with the
hiring of additional teachers. The Bolivarian school model was
established in 3,000 schools, bringing two meals a day, art,
sports and recreation programs to children.
One million people joined literacy programs. New Bolivarian
public universities are opening, offering tens of thousands of
scholarships to the underprivileged.
Hundreds of thousands of people in poor neighborhoods where
no medical facilities had ever existed before are being treated
by volunteer Cuban doctors through the Barrio Adentro Program
that provides one doctor per 200 families. Infant mortality and
malnutrition have dropped significantly.
There has been significant improvement in the environment
and the protection of community fishers. A new program exists
to provide food free of cost for the poor over the next several
months. This program will render emergency assistance to
homeless children and adults as well as seniors and pregnant
women.
All these steps forward have been accomplished while the
revolution was defending itself against imperialist assault.
Three times U.S. imperialism and the Venezuelan oligarchy tried
to remove you from office.
First the April 2002 coup attempt that failed as millions of
Venezuelans intervened. Then the bosses' lockout and oil
sabotage during the winter of 2002-2003. And lastly, the
referendum this summer, when your landslide triumph was your
third election success in the last six years.
We not only followed those events, but as revolutionaries we
went out into the streets throughout the country together with
Venezuelans and others to protest against U.S.
intervention.
And we pledge our continued anti-imperialist support and
defense of the Venezuelan Bolivarian struggle.
Reprinted from the Sept. 23, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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Email: ww@workers.org
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