Caracas, Feb 3 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez began today his tenth year in power engaged in a revision, rectifying and boosting process that puts to the test his assertion as a strategist who is comfortable in a counterattack situation.
Miguel Lozano
Chávez, el contraataque del décimo año
Chavez assumed the Presidency on February 2, 1999, after winning elections with a little over 50 percent of the votes and the proposal of a more just society in the rich oil country ridden with poverty for most of the population.
In the opinion of the President, what then began was the dismantling of a neocolonial system ruled by a super-rich minority dependent on the United States.
That oligarchy, said Chavez in a speech to the nation on occasion of the ninth anniversary of his mandate, took over all the powers of the nation and played the role of pawn of the US empire, following its orders.
As a result, despite the enormous wealth of Venezuela (fifth oil exporter of the World), the country he inherited in 1999 expressed extreme differences as 50.2 percent of the population in poverty and 42.5 percent in misery.
Nine years after, misery was reduced to 9.4 percent and poverty is estimated at 33.7 percent.
The leader believes that was possible not only for the oil revenues, but because those resources for the most did not go to the hands of transnational companies.
Another cause is the social focus of state policies that allowed to engage in numerous programs of social benefit, the so-called missions, to convey health services and free education for millions of Venezuelans, among other results.
One of the myths used by the opposition to downplay advances is the argument of oil price increases. which is still lower than the hike of the 70s, when the barrel of oil went from 2 to over 30 dollars (15 times) while the most recent increase took prices from 10 to 65 dollars on the average.
Now 90 percent of the oil income stays here and does not only stay but is used in the people s Benedit, says Chavez.
Advances includes the eradication of illiteracy, and the Venezuelan president admits that errors have been committed like the ones leading to the defeat in the referendum on his proposal of constitutional reform last December.
This led Chavez to introduce his Project of the 3 Rs: Revision, Rectification and Relaunch of his mandate, in the midst of a tough opposition campaign trying to deny any of his government s accomplishments.
The alternative, the old, perverse, anti Christian, inhuman and savage capitalist system, which abandoned the people, grabbed most of the nation s resources and allowed them to escape abroad.
The 3Rs is a kind of halt along the way that will be defined by the elections for governors and mayors next November.
The followers of change in Venezuela will be put to the test in those polls for their unity, their ability to understand and recover.
