o Mission Robinson, a $34 million project to teach one million people to read.
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.
SLIP OF THE TONGUE
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. ***