Chávez stressing social programs - ...aimed at training ''new voters''

CARACAS - It drizzled slightly as Ana Arcia stood in line for the low-priced chicken doled out by Venezuelan soldiers under one of President Hugo Chávez's most popular social assistance programs. But she was patient.

''Chávez keeps his word,'' Arcia said. ``We have a humble president who is from the people and for the people. We have these programs now because of him.''

As opponents push closer to a recall referendum against the president, Chávez's popularity has been rising on the wings of several new government programs -- estimated at up to $2 billion -- that teach adults to read and provide cheap food and free primary healthcare.

While Arcia views the new programs as the work of a president who keeps his promises to carry out a ''revolution'' on behalf of Venezuela's poor majority, cynics say he's trying to buy the votes of the needy.

If the votes are Chávez's aim, it seems to be working. Polls show the president, whose approval hit a low of about 30 percent last year, is today inching toward 40 percent. His popularity in poor neighborhoods is even stronger.

''My husband didn't know how to read and write. He didn't get past first grade,'' Arcia said, adding that she works for one of the 1,000 Cuban doctors offering free healthcare to slum-dwellers. ``Now he reads better than me.''

Chávez was elected in 1998 on a promise to rid the nation of decades of corrupt and elitist rule. He initially enjoyed an astounding 80 percent approval rating, but his policies and attacks on the media, business and the church drove many into the opposition. The past 19 months have been marked by a failed military coup, massive opposition rallies, a two-month general strike and now a signature drive demanding a recall referendum.

Government insiders say that the strike, which cost the economy $6 billion, nevertheless created a windfall: By firing 18,000 employees of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the percentage of oil profits has shifted away from the state oil company to government coffers.

o Mission Rivas, aimed at getting high school dropouts to earn equivalency degrees.

o Mission Sucre -- a new university and $100 in monthly stipends for 30,000 high school graduates shunned by pricier schools. The location: former PDVSA offices.

o Barrio Adentro, 1,000 Cuban doctors who offer primary healthcare in urban slums.

o An increase in the minimum wage and a three-month Christmas bonus for government employees.

''What you have is an aggressive strategy to increase social spending,'' said Luis Vicente León, a political analyst and pollster. ``It's interesting that many of these programs began in July -- right when [Chávez] dropped several points in the polls. At the very least, it's suspicious.''

León calculates that Chávez has offered $2 billion in new programs this year. In one six-week stretch, his ventures totaled $1 billion.

Skeptics of Chávez's claims of good intentions got a boost when Education Minister Aristóbulo Istúriz accidentally said on a radio and TV program that the Mission Robinson plan is aimed at training ''new voters.'' He meant readers.

Opponents also allege the government has deliberately created lengthy sign-up lists for the various public aid programs, in order to scare people on the waiting list away from the petitions for the recall referendum.

What is noteworthy, León added, is that none of the government's programs do much to boost the many economic indicators that have fallen during Chávez's five years in office.

''Who said there has been an increase in social spending?'' quipped Hegat Pérez as he stood in line last weekend to sign the petition for a recall referendum on the president. ``If there had been, you wouldn't see all these people in this line.''

Others disagree. ''There has been an enormous increase is spending,'' said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, a Washington think tank. ``Chávez is finally starting to deliver. School lunches, land reform -- these things add up.''

Weisbrot also scoffed at the suggestion that the programs are a plot to buy votes.

''Some people want to call it a bribe. It's also him keeping his promises,'' he said. ``If George Bush wants to get votes with a national healthcare system, they wouldn't call that a bribe.''

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Venezuelans pass a truck decorated with an image of President Hugo Chavez at an army food market set up in one of Caracas' main avenues in Venezuela, Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003. Chavez's government announced that it was selling tons of basic staples at reduced prices at markets across the country while the opposition conducted a signature drive to demand a referendum on his presidency. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

I dated a Venezuelan guy when I was in college. He was in Maracaibo during Chavez's coup attempt in the early 1990s. His brother-in-law is an officer in the Venezuelan army and told stories that would make your hair turn white. My ex-bf remembers crouching in corners in his mom and dad's apartment as fighter jets streaked over the city and machine gun fire peppered the sky. He said once when he peeked out the window, he saw an army transport vehicle stacked with dead bodies. He estimated maybe 60-70 dead stacked one on top of the other in it. His brother later told him that a few thousand people were killed in that coup attempt. My ex thinks that Chavez is the epitome of evil.

I found this on the aborted 1992 coup attempt that says that only 80 people were killed. I had a few Venezuelas who were miles from Caracas (in Maracaibo, near Colombia) that say that those figures are complete and total B.S.

This is a page about the two coup attempts in 1992 in Venezuela...one obviously orchestrated by Chavez, the other strongly suspected to be orchestrated by Chavez.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_161.shtml

Venezuela police deal out death, citizens say*** The government is carrying out a "criminal policy of extermination," said former Supreme Court judge Jorge Rosell, who resigned his position in protest. "They see the crime problems in terms of war." The government denies such a policy exists. The office of Venezuelan Attorney General Isaias Rodriguez, a former Aragua labor lawyer, declined repeated requests for an interview.***

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