Great Missions Are the Core of Social Transformation in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) in the Che Guevara neighborhood, June 2024. Photo: X/ @ANNAVENCEDORA
July 23, 2024 Hour: 2:39 pm
Through missions and grassroots organizations, Venezuela is building a socialist, humanist, and direct democracy.
Despite the U.S. economic war unleashed against the Bolivarian nation, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has managed to promote projects that have enabled the construction of 5 million social housing units and food self-sufficiency in this South American country.
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In August 2023, Maduro visited the parish of La Vega to celebrate, together with community leaders, the ten-year anniversary of the Socialist System of Missions and Great Missions, through which Commander Hugo Chavez articulated the social policy of the Bolivarian Revolution.
“We have done so much with almost nothing. We have not allowed the U.S. criminal coercive measures, which were requested and supported by the local fascist right, to impede the development of the Missions and the Great Missions. With much perseverance, intelligence, and popular power, we have kept them alive,” Maduro said from the hill of La Vega.
The Community Participates in Policy Planning
The great missions guide the joint activity of institutions and the population according to a strategic design discussed and established jointly between communes, officials, and legislators. Their work has taken as a reference multi-annual planning such as the Homeland Plan 2019-2025. In turn, each mission is integrated by “vertices” that address specific areas.
Born in 2003, the missions develop both for the assistance and progress of the population and to advance in the strategic planning of the State. Such is the case of the AgroVenezuela Great Mission (GMA), which emerged in 2011 by initiative of President Hugo Chavez, who sought to reverse the dependency of the Venezuelan economy on income obtained from oil exports.
Since then, the GMA has been working to achieve food sovereignty and independence, an objective that has been reached since 97 percent of mass-consumed food is produced in Venezuela.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan Housing Great Mission (GMVV) has also had successful performance. In June, it completed 5 million social housing units delivered to citizens, the latest of which was inaugurated in the Che Guevara neighborhood of Lara State. Currently, this great mission is building 500,000 housing units expected to be delivered by the end of 2024. When this happens, the Bolivarian Revolution will have met 80 percent of the housing needs of Venezuelan families.
This process of constructing decent housing is also accompanied by the “New Tricolor Neighborhood” Great Mission, which organizes communities for the maintenance and improvement of urban spaces. Additionally, the Venezuelan state promotes the “Inside the Neighborhood” Mission, through which Cuban doctors attend to the health of citizens, and the Miracle Mission, which has performed over 7 million eye surgeries for low-income people.
The Missions Shape a Humanist Democracy
Currently, Venezuela has over 29 missions and great missions that are activated according to situational needs. In February, President Maduro launched the Venezuelan Youth Great Mission, which rehabilitates sports and cultural spaces and finances projects for young people seeking to enter the workforce.
The Venezuela Alive Great Mission aims to stimulate and promote popular culture and national identity, and the Equality and Social Justice Great Mission is aimed at protecting those sectors of the population severely affected by the U.S. blockade.
The Nation’s Grandparents Great Mission seeks to ensure the nutrition, health, and social protection of elderly people. While the Black Hipolita Mission focuses its efforts on the care of homeless people, the Robinson Mission works to eradicate illiteracy in this South American country.
Meanwhile, the Electric Venezuela Mission is oriented towards defending and transforming the national electricity system, while the “Whole Life Venezuela” Great Mission works to reduce the occurrence of risk situations related to crime, traffic accidents, disasters, or emergencies.
The Bolivarian Revolution has also consolidated the Humanized Childbirth Plan to guarantee the rights of children from conception and the Venezuelan Women Great Mission, which focuses on the health, culture, and participation needs of women.
“Through the missions and grassroots organizations, we are testing a new form of democracy in Venezuela. It is a socialist, humanist, and direct democracy,” President Maduro said.
Autor: teleSUR/ JF
Fuente: teleSUR
