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2008 "The Year of Solutions," Says Chavez
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Venezuelanalysis - Jan 11, 2008
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3057
2008 The Year of Solutions to Persistent Problems,
Says Venezuelas Chavez
by Gregory Wilpert
Caracas, January 11, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - President Chavez
concluded his annual report to Venezuela's National Assembly with a
call for 2008 to be a year of "solutions" to the persistent everyday
problems of Venezuelans, such as crime, food shortages, corruption, and
bureaucracy.
Chavez's accounting of the previous year started out with a number of
reflections on the recently concluded release of hostages held by
Colombia's FARC guerilla group. According to Chavez, he is working on
"a formula for the liberation of more hostages" as part of an overall
effort to help achieve peace in Colombia.
While discussing Colombia he also issued a forceful call to the
Colombian government and to other governments in the region to
recognize both of the country's guerilla groups, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)
as insurgent groups and not as terrorist groups.
"They are not terrorist groups, but armies that occupy territory in
Colombia, that have a political project that must be respected," said
Chavez.
With this statement Chavez broke protocol that he maintained a long
time, to not issue a declaration on how his government would classify
the Colombia's rebel groups.
Chavez then proceeded to review the positive developments in Venezuela
during 2007 and particularly highlighted the 2007 Latinobarometro
survey, which asked Latin Americans a wide variety of questions about
how they feel their democracies and economies are doing. In almost all
categories Venezuela is at the number one or two position with regard
to its population's satisfaction. For example, 52% of Venezuelans say
their economic situation is going is "good" or "very good," more than
any other Latin American country.
Part of the reason for the high level of satisfaction, explained
Chavez, is that Venezuela's economy has undergone its longest period of
economic growth in a generation. Over the past four years, said Chavez,
the economy has grown an average of 11.8% per year.
The only dark cloud on the economic horizon was inflation, which had
reached 22.5% in 2007 and averaged 19.6% for his entire presidency.
Chavez pointed out, though, that this annual average inflation rate was
still less than half the annual average inflation rate for the previous
two presidencies. During the presidency of Carlos Andres Perez
(1989-1993) inflation averaged 45.3% and during the presidency of
Rafael Caldera (1994-1998) it averaged 59.4%. Also, in contrast to
earlier presidencies, the minimum wage has increased faster than
inflation, so that the take-home pay of most Venezuelans is higher
today than it was when he took office.
Also, Chavez highlighted that unemployment hit its lowest level ever
since unemployment records have been kept, dropping down to 6.3% in
November 2007. This is 2.5 points lower than in November 2006.
A key achievement that Chavez highlighted was the increase of
Venezuela's official oil reserves, which went up by nearly 20 billion
barrels in 2007. Comparing Venezuela's known oil reserves to previous
periods, Chavez pointed out that Venezuela had only 26 billion barrels
in 1987 and 76 billion when he came into office in 1999. As of 2007,
though, Venezuela has about 100 billion barrels of officially
recognized recoverable oil. The project to certify Venezuela's Orinoco
Oil Belt is to double the official oil reserves to 200 billion by the
end of 2008 and triple them to 313 billion by the end of 2009. This
would give Venezuela the largest oil reserves in the world, with
slightly more than Saudi Arabia's reserves.
Turning to Venezuela's Church authorities, Chavez severely criticized
Cardinal Jorge Urosa, who had asked Chavez to broaden the amnesty he
had declared on New Year's Eve, which released many participants in the
2002 coup attempt from prosecution. Chavez said that Cardinal Urosa
wanted the amnesty to include those accused of violating human rights,
to which he said, "I cannot give amnesty to those being processed
crimes against human rights. I would have to be imprisoned if I did
that."
He then turned to the Pope's ambassador, who was in the audience,
saying that the Nuncio's residence is harboring a criminal, referring
to Nixon Moreno, whom the police have accused of raping a woman.
Moreno, though, says he is innocent and is being prosecuted for his
opposition political activism, as a student leader in the state of
Merida.
Reaffirming his belief in Christ, Chavez said that the reign of Christ
must be here on earth, "in equality and in socialism," not in the
sky/heaven. Also, the upper church hierarchy is not the voice of God,
but "the people are the voice of God."
Chavez then addressed the opposition in general, saying that if they do
not organize a recall referendum against him in 2010, he would do so
himself. Along with such a referendum, he would then also propose a
"small" amendment to the constitution, to eliminate the two-term limit
on the presidency. "I believe this is necessary," he said, "with all
the faults this might have."
In an unusual turn for someone who rarely speaks from a written text,
Chavez concluded his annual report by reading something he wrote the
night before. Here he particularly referred to the errors and failures
of the past year, saying that he realizes that there is an "ill feeling
[among the people] due to the contradiction between the words of the
leader and the reality." The Bolivarian Revolution must recover trust
that has been lost.
There are many serious problems "that continue without resolution,"
said Chavez. In particular, these problems involve those of
bureaucracy, inefficiency, and corruption. He then asked, "Why has a
revolutionary government not been able to resolve the terrible
situation of the prisons? Why does crime continue? Why does smuggling
continue? ... Why haven't we been able to put an end to corruption? ...
Every day we must ask ourselves these questions."
"This must be the year of solution to the everyday problems" of
insecurity, corruption, bureaucracy, and shortages, concluded Chavez.
*
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