I am president of the Société Bolivarienne du Québec. In our work, we are affiliated to the international Hands Off Venezuela campaign. Our goal is to raise awareness, especially amongst workers and students, about what happening in Venezuela. Our main task is to promote the social benefits of the Bolivarian revolution and the mobilization to counter the attacks of imperialist forces against Venezuela.
Recently, Hands Off Venezuela and our NGO, the Société Bolivarienne du Québec, merged. Our movement includes workers, students, Quebeckers, Canadians, immigrants and aboriginals. Many languages are spoken in our diverse organization. I will read from our mission:
The Société Bolivarienne du Québec/Hands Off Venezuela is a non-profit, intercultural and independent organization dedicated to information and emancipation of the people, and guided by the liberator Simón Bolívar, and to an internationalist fight against new liberalism which is inspired by the ideals of self-determination for Latin American peoples, social justice, Latin American integration and respect for the ancestral rights of aboriginal peoples and the environment.
In broad terms, this is what our organization is about. Our main area of activity is to circulate information.
I would like to sketch out rapidly the context of the situation in Venezuela. In that country, the Punto Fijo pact was signed 40 years before Hugo Chávez was elected. Two political parties, COPEI and AD, were sharing the power in alternation every four years. In the 1980's, there was a major uprising which led to the events in Caracazo. A strong military repression left 3,000 dead.
Shortly after that, Hugo Chávez Frias stood for election, and he was elected in 1998. Hugo Chávez and his government recovered the natural resources of the country, especially oil, in order to fund social programs, among other things, in Venezuela. After he came to power, the opposition tried several times to remove him. In 2002, a coup lasted for three days. It had been fomented by the Venezuelian elite and funded by the American CIA. The coup was widely supported by the opposition media which were broadcasting cartoons while the events unfolded.
In 2002, a sabotage attempt targeted the oil industry. There was also a destitution referendum in 2004. Part of the Venezuelan people submitted a petition signed by more than 10% of those on voters lists. They were requesting a referendum in order to destitute the president. They failed, the president being supported by 58% of voters. Since 2004, the media, mainly, are trying to suggest the Venezuelan government lacks legitimacy, and they are supported by several countries, including Canada and the United States.
The movement in Venezuela is now striving to improve life conditions for the majority of Venezuelans. The people wrote a Constitution in 1999, and it was supported by a large majority. Several bilateral agreements have been signed with various Latin American countries. It led to the creation of ALBA, which is in fact an agreement between countries that share their knowledge on integration, solidarity and reciprocity. It is not a military or economic agreement, but rather a social agreement and a knowledge sharing agreement. It is a matter of sharing and not competition, as opposed to the FTAA which our governments recently tried to put into place.
Thanks to all of this, many improvements were achieved in Venezuela. From 1997 to 2009, the level of extreme poverty went down from 20.3% to 7.2%, and the poverty rate dropped from 50.4% to 28.5%. UNESCO tells us illiteracy disappeared from that country since 2008.
The Constitution of the Bolivarian revolution provides many rights for the Venezuelan people. The Venezuelan State is required to respect and protect human rights by doing what is needed to make them a reality and providing the related services. After that, various missions were undertaken in Venezuela.
I will enumerate a series of rights and give a few examples of missions and statistics on results that have been achieved.
We have the nationality and citizenship rights. As a matter of fact, 70% of Venezuelans did not have any identity documents, and 90% of those without them were part of the working classes. Through the Identidad mission, Venezuela distributed 8,710,404 identity cards to people in the country, which allowed them to vote and do their civic duty.
Then we have civil rights. The government made massive investments in community media in order to compensate for the opposition monopoly of the media. In Venezuela, 90% of the media are privately owned. Something is changing, and communities are being empowered. They can broadcast information on what is going on in the community, take part in public debate, and affirm their presence in the public sphere. Training is being provided to use cameras and radio equipment. They also have more and more radio stations and community space.
As concerns sexual orientation, a bill on gender equality is being examined in parliament. It provides for same-sex marriage and inheritance between partners of same-sex couples.
And now, political rights. Since 1998, there have been 14 electoral processes, including several presidential, municipal and legislative elections. They also had several referendums, including one on the new Constitution and one on the destitution of the president, which was voted down. Later on, there was a referendum on constitutional amendments. The people voted no a first time, but agreed the second time. As concerns elections and referendums, Venezuela accepts its mistakes, and then corrects them or tries to improve.
The present government in Venezuela is a majority government, with 60% of the vote. To promote peoples' involvement in politics in Venezuela, community councils have been set up, meaning that people in a municipality meet and act as a political entity, that they interact with other communities and the Venezuelan State, the government of Venezuela. Decisions are made. They also have budgets. These councils are almost like parallel town councils. This is meant to empower communities.
Concerning social and family rights, the Barrio Adentro mission, amongst other missions, is very popular in Venezuela. Thanks to this mission, Cuban physicians, especially, have been sent in poor wards in Venezuela to provide health care that is free, universal, specialized and modern to the Venezuela people. They also have the SUMED mission, which provides free pharmaceutical products. Thanks to the Miracle mission, people with vision problems could be operated on. The Negra Hipólita gave some support to drug users and the homeless. The Madres del Barrio mission brings economic help to single mothers by giving them food.
In Venezuela, the infant mortality rate dropped 7.7% since 1998, and life expectancy gained 1.7 year. Other missions were undertaken after the food crisis in 2008. The MERCAL mission, for example, and the public concern PDVAL distributed food to over 8 million people. The Bolivar plan uses Venezuelan soldiers to build schools and houses, distribute food and provide vaccines to the Venezuelan people. For example, the percentage of those with access to drinking water was raised from 82% to 94% between 1998 and 2009. The percentage of people with access to the water distribution service went from 64% to 84%.
As I said earlier, Venezuela has eradicated illiteracy since 2008. The graduation rate increased to 60% at the preschool level, to 91% at the primary level, and to 58% at the university level. Education is free, universal and compulsory at the primary and high school level.
Economically, as I said earlier, the level of extreme poverty has been very much reduced. The human development index went up from 0.6798 to 0.8263 since 2007. Also, the Gini coefficient measuring the gap between the rich and the poor has dropped from 0.98 to 0.393. Compare this with 1999. It was 0,572 in Colombia and 0.98 in Venezuela. In 2005, the Gini coefficient was up 0,184 in Columbia, which means economic disparity had worsened.
