The government of Hugo Chávez has accumulated an unprecedented shortfall in housing construction. The floods of late 2010 have only exacerbated the situation. ( Photo: Seb )
Caracas, crowded city where only the motorcycle taxis escape the gridlock. City of inequality also between the districts located in hillsides and areas where grouse rent a small apartment can cost more than six times the minimum wage. Heavy rains that hit throughout the country in late 2010 have laid bare one of the contradictions of the Bolivarian government. While it claims to constantly support the poor, he was the least productive of the past 40 years housing. Indeed, previous administrations had maintained an average of 67,000 units per year. Since 1999 the executive of Hugo Chávez has never exceeded 30,000 annually.
Many laws, few buildings
In mid-December, the National Assembly granted Chávez a new law enabling him to legislate by decree for 18 months. Officially, the government hopes to solve the problem of 130,000 people affected by rains and now sheltering in makeshift camps (schools, public buildings and even some hotels requisitioned). For example, the Comandante approved in January, through the enabling legislation, a law worthy of shelters, to ensure acceptable living conditions for homeless families. However, one can question the usefulness of adopting a law to ensure such measures.
Furthermore, enabling also to quickly adapt the legislation to recover many under-utilized land, especially in urban areas. However, if this could be sensible in the context of a planned housing policy over the long term, it appears here as a new decision in a hurry to catch up and produced a deficit of several years.
In the case of the capital, the authorities of the Mayor of Greater Caracas (at the hands of the Opposition) allege that since 2007, the Executive has promised to build 55 000 houses and did complete actually barely 1000. For its part, the NGO Defence of Human Rights denounced Provea in its annual report (2009-2010) the lack of transparency in the housing figures presented by the government. The organization ensures that "for the third consecutive year, the report of the agency responsible for coordinating housing policy does not present data updated housing deficit in the country. The last known official figures are from 2007, and felt the lack of housing 2.8 million.
Article published in the "Seen from America" fortnightly Swiss The Anti-Capitalist, February 3, 2011
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