The lack of jobs was the biggest problem for 35.5% of the 1,000 surveyed in June, up from 26% in a similar poll last November, according to the report.
Unemployment is currently around 20%, compared with about 15% a year ago, as the government battles an enduring recession highlighted by the first quarter's 29% economic contraction.
The poll is bad news for Chavez who faces a recall vote after Aug. 19, the halfway point of his six-year term which runs through early 2007.
The left-leaning leader's critics fear he'll try to maintain his grip on power by delaying the vote until after Aug. 19, 2004. If he loses the referendum after that date, a vice president he appoints can finish out his term, instead of calling early elections. [End]
Alfredo Pena, mayor of metropolitan Caracas, is a fierce government opponent, who ironically depends for his financial resources on the central government. Caracas health officials say their budget has been cut by over 50 percent, with the result that their already over-burdened clinics are facing collapse. They suggest that this may be part of a plan to shift resources to the Cuban cooperation project.
Adding to the controversy are accusations that the Cubans are neither qualified to practice medicine nor familiar with modern pharmacology or treatment methods. There have been claims by Venezuelan doctors of serious malpractice that allegedly placed patients' lives in danger.
The Cuban personnel have not been required to validate their qualifications in Venezuela, and according to the president of the Venezuelan Medical Federation, Douglas Leon Natera, they are operating illegally.
President Chavez dedicated most of his regular Sunday radio and television show to denying these allegations. He added that the plan was to bring in a thousand Cuban doctors in all.***