The electricity crisis reveals the difficulties of the government to move its administration, in turn considered monolithic or inconsistent.
"We made mistakes: poorly executed projects, deadlines miscalculated, flaws in planning, in the maintenance ..." In late October, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez put his finger on the problems of the electricity sector, one of the strategic areas in the center of criticism in recent months. Despite huge investments ($ 5 billion between 2008 and 2009 and 20 billion for the next five years), power cuts are frequent in the country and the national electricity corporation (Corpoelec) is forced rationing in some areas .
According Angel Navas, president of the Federation of Workers in the electricity sector, this contradiction between massive investment and inefficiency is not unique to this area. "It happens in many institutions and state enterprises which make up the bureaucracy facts, lies and hidden problems in order to maintain its positions and privileges, "he says.
Social Control
The subject is particularly sensitive sectors are crucial affected, such as health (see below), justice, security, food production, the institutions and affects even the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV, chaired by Mr. Chávez), the first extraordinary congress to be held from 21 November to 13 December (1) , is already perceived by the base as a decisive moment in the definition not only the party itself but also the political process.
In the electricity sector, it required the mobilization of workers themselves to finally put the issue on the agenda and begin negotiations. The network problems have become so widespread that on October 21 Hugo Chávez decreed the creation of a ministry dedicated exclusively to electrical energy (this matter was previously jurisdiction of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum). In addition, a "strategic committee" was set up, just to clarify management Corpoelec, whose director is to be thanked.
question is whether a new department will solve the problems created by another department. Apparently aware of the limitations of the measure, the Venezuelan president has taken a step towards workers' demands and "instructed" that they may be incorporated directly in the management of the national electricity company. "They and they will be the main architects of the revival we need," he said.
The spirit of missions
The idea of active participation of the public and workers in decision-making is not new, it is very pervasive in official discourse. However, in practice, experiments have so far demonstrated the difficulties of putting into practice within the existing structures of the state. Officials holding a certain power are obviously in no hurry to lose it. In response, the lack of workers to organize and articulate popular policy at the national level is acute.
For Roland Denis, Vice-Minister of Planning and Development between 2002 and 2003 and leftist critic of government action, participatory politics that is ever present becoming increasingly frustrated by what he defined as "the bureaucratic machine, and economic oligarchy."
According to him, the best example of the effects of this brake bureaucratic social missions are driven by the government. "The missions were designed between 2002 and 2003 as the birth of a new state, a new power completely foreign to the bureaucratic logic. The social activists are incorporated them massively. But the huge financial capacity State recent years has given him tremendous power to co-opt labor activist. The missions have lost their vision of independence and break the bureaucracy, they are institutionalized. In general, we can say that bureaucracy has captured the language policy, program and imaging of hope that had developed (the struggles) in the years 1980 and 1990 in this country, "says analysis it.
Straighten bar
is in this context that are looming on the horizon of the parliamentary elections in late 2010. For the most critical battle promises to be tight and probably will be a key moment for the government of Hugo Chávez and the popular movement. Whatever the outcome, the opposition has everything to gain, since it has virtually no representation in the National Assembly today (to have boycotted the legislative elections of 2005).
Finally, after the PSUV is the National Union of Workers (UNT), which should hold its congress at the end of the year to try to overcome divisions and create a truly independent progressive union capable of weighing the claims and face bureaucracy. The process of social change feasible within the bourgeois state would meet its limits?
"We made mistakes: poorly executed projects, deadlines miscalculated, flaws in planning, in the maintenance ..." In late October, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez put his finger on the problems of the electricity sector, one of the strategic areas in the center of criticism in recent months. Despite huge investments ($ 5 billion between 2008 and 2009 and 20 billion for the next five years), power cuts are frequent in the country and the national electricity corporation (Corpoelec) is forced rationing in some areas .
According Angel Navas, president of the Federation of Workers in the electricity sector, this contradiction between massive investment and inefficiency is not unique to this area. "It happens in many institutions and state enterprises which make up the bureaucracy facts, lies and hidden problems in order to maintain its positions and privileges, "he says.
Social Control
The subject is particularly sensitive sectors are crucial affected, such as health (see below), justice, security, food production, the institutions and affects even the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV, chaired by Mr. Chávez), the first extraordinary congress to be held from 21 November to 13 December (1) , is already perceived by the base as a decisive moment in the definition not only the party itself but also the political process.
In the electricity sector, it required the mobilization of workers themselves to finally put the issue on the agenda and begin negotiations. The network problems have become so widespread that on October 21 Hugo Chávez decreed the creation of a ministry dedicated exclusively to electrical energy (this matter was previously jurisdiction of the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum). In addition, a "strategic committee" was set up, just to clarify management Corpoelec, whose director is to be thanked.
question is whether a new department will solve the problems created by another department. Apparently aware of the limitations of the measure, the Venezuelan president has taken a step towards workers' demands and "instructed" that they may be incorporated directly in the management of the national electricity company. "They and they will be the main architects of the revival we need," he said.
The spirit of missions
The idea of active participation of the public and workers in decision-making is not new, it is very pervasive in official discourse. However, in practice, experiments have so far demonstrated the difficulties of putting into practice within the existing structures of the state. Officials holding a certain power are obviously in no hurry to lose it. In response, the lack of workers to organize and articulate popular policy at the national level is acute.
For Roland Denis, Vice-Minister of Planning and Development between 2002 and 2003 and leftist critic of government action, participatory politics that is ever present becoming increasingly frustrated by what he defined as "the bureaucratic machine, and economic oligarchy."
According to him, the best example of the effects of this brake bureaucratic social missions are driven by the government. "The missions were designed between 2002 and 2003 as the birth of a new state, a new power completely foreign to the bureaucratic logic. The social activists are incorporated them massively. But the huge financial capacity State recent years has given him tremendous power to co-opt labor activist. The missions have lost their vision of independence and break the bureaucracy, they are institutionalized. In general, we can say that bureaucracy has captured the language policy, program and imaging of hope that had developed (the struggles) in the years 1980 and 1990 in this country, "says analysis it.
Straighten bar
is in this context that are looming on the horizon of the parliamentary elections in late 2010. For the most critical battle promises to be tight and probably will be a key moment for the government of Hugo Chávez and the popular movement. Whatever the outcome, the opposition has everything to gain, since it has virtually no representation in the National Assembly today (to have boycotted the legislative elections of 2005).
Finally, after the PSUV is the National Union of Workers (UNT), which should hold its congress at the end of the year to try to overcome divisions and create a truly independent progressive union capable of weighing the claims and face bureaucracy. The process of social change feasible within the bourgeois state would meet its limits?
Note:
(1) The extraordinary congress of the PSUV began Saturday, November 21 and should extend until the first quarter of 2010.
(1) The extraordinary congress of the PSUV began Saturday, November 21 and should extend until the first quarter of 2010.
health system suffering from "ideological inconsistency"
"The government invested in health as no government had done before. But despite the considerable expense the answers are unsatisfactory " ( Photo: Seb ) The extension of the health system to the poorest of the population has been one of the first and most important challenges has assumed the Bolivarian government. According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), over 8 million people now enjoy the Mission Barrio Adentro medical attention and Venezuela intends currently about 9 % of GDP on health (against 2.3% in 1998).
Yet here too the challenges are evident: lack of qualified personnel, space available, equipment, coordination between different networks, projects paralyzed or opened in a hurry, etc.. To overcome this, October 8 last President Chávez announced the incorporation of 1,000 new Cuban doctors in Barrio Adentro program, of which 220 had already arrived in Caracas the day before.
But after Luisana Melo, MD a member of the Socialist Movement for the quality of life and health (Moscavis), the latest measures taken by the government are not sufficient to solve the structural problem. She believes that the fundamental obstacle is the lack of a true national public health system to coordinate and plan its own policies. "We currently have an impressive amount of sub-systems and systems of health benefits. Barrio Adentro in part but is a subsystem of more parallel to those that we already" .
There are indeed many networks: the Ministry of Health, the Venezuelan Institute of safeties Social (IVSS), each municipality has its own system, as well as each regional state, let alone private clinics and others. "This has been a major inconvenience for the construction and proper functioning of a national public health system," she insists.
Moreover, the central government contributes paradoxically to fund private health institutions through private insurance HCM (Hospital, Surgery and Maternity) enjoyed by public employees. "From the public money that goes directly into the coffers of the private system," Judge Ms. Melo, believes that this "enormous ideological contradiction" does not even guaranteed the right to health officials in the state. "Today the government invested in health as no government had done before. But since each investment is made in isolation, the results are reflected daily through considerable expense and unsatisfactory answers, "she adds. In addition, it considers that this funding model helps to reproduce the segmented germ of corruption.
According to Dr. Melo, "The State must deepen the progress made so far in health and respect what is established in the constitution, to whom he owes a debt of ten years ago that includes the enactment of a law of health, based on the principles of free , fairness and universality ".
Articles published in the Swiss daily Le Courrier November 14, 2009
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