Construction of residences and roads – are the main tasks of Chavez government
September 27, 2008
Till now, about two million Venezuelans do not have decent residences - with conveniences, communications, infrastructure. Those, who visited Venezuela could see that the capital of the country, located in the mountain valley, is surrounded by clinging one to another and towering one above another «ranchos», as the unauthorized construction is called here, built by poor people, that is by «people with limited resources». Until late large cities in the valleys have been surrounded by accumulation of «huts» with earth floor. Another kind of «ranchos». To buy an old car or make an unauthorized connection to electric line have never been a problem in Venezuela, however, a lot of people could not afford to manage a construction or purchase a decent residence.
It is worth mentioning that those «ranchos» have not aroused any concern of the previous governments: the climate permits to live with a symbolic roof, electricity in «ranchos» is free (they steal it, and let it be so), they do not have to pay taxes – and generally, they all have settled pretty well, I wish they had our problems! Such things were usually heard from middle class people.
Chavez might be the first among the presidents, who is ashamed of these starling-houses above the capital. That is why, the first program, launched for housing construction, became the project «House in exchange for rancho» (Sustitucion de Rancho por Vivienda). One should be very blind not to notice the growing settlements of chains of new one-storied houses. Each of them is not less than 70 square meters with three bedrooms, kitchen-dining room, hall, two toilets with shower. All floors are tiled, sanitary equipment is also fully installed. Nevertheless, the opposition criticises for too slow pace of construction and even says about complete failure of the project (that is not confirmed by statistic data). With this, they hush up that social residences that were built during the 4th Republic, consisted of one room with holes instead of windows and without sanitary equipment!
Of course, in the overcrowded Caracas the project «House in exchange for rancho» is carried out slowly: there are no vacant pieces of land, and in its suburbs it is easy to notice new «unauthorized structures», with which the powers, by the way, wage a war. But the temptation to get a decent dwelling is so great! In addition, crowds of poor foreigners, tempted by bright perspectives of the Bolivarian revolution, keep on coming to the country. Dozens of thousands run to Venezuela from Colombia only! Undisguised sabotage of private industry of construction materials interfered with increase of construction pace. Transnational companies were not concerned of housing problems of Venezuelans, and construction materials, and first of all cement, was taken to the more profitable foreign market. Numerous warnings of Chavez have not been heard, which resulted in nationalisation of the cement industry (it was bought out, and not expropriated!).
Dwelling in Venezuela is built not only for the poorest. Bolivarian government allocates billions of «petrodollars» to housing construction. Two-storied «townhouses» and multi-storied complexes spring up all over. Some are very modest, others – are more rich. The specific goal of the government is to provide decent dwelling to every family within 10 years.
It is not a secret that among the wealthy layers of the society there are quite a number of those, who have several flats or houses. National housing programs, naturally, do not cover them. Neither are they financed by them! The opposition of the country intimidated that chavists would take away the «second» flats, would «put in tenants». In the neighbouring Colombia, thanks to purposeful efforts of pro-American press there has been created an «opinion» that it happens exactly like that in Bolivarian Venezuela. And it goes without saying, that it is hushed that the Chavez government for the years of its rule built more residences than it was built for 30 years of previous bourgeois-democratic predecessors. I would like to point out, that the volume of housing construction in Venezuela is measured in a number of flats or houses but not in square meters. Expensive elite dwellings can easily «merge» with abstract square meters, passing for the care about the housing needs of citizens.
Wrongfully someone may say that Chavez gives out everything for free right and left, thus bribing the masses. It is true that the poorest get houses almost «for free» - with state subsidy, 20 years credit, with delayed for three years payment, and in every separate case it is envisaged that quotas for payments should not exceed 20% of the family income. The most versatile variants, enabling the population to get houses and flats according to their means, have been and are being worked out. And here it is – the large scale national project! - in real, but not in demagogic implementation of Chavez and his team.
Recently, Venezuela has adopted a Residence law (Ley de Vivienda y Habitat) according to which, for example, one can get a 100% credit for procurement of residence! Before that the credit covered only 70% of property cost and required quite a considerable initial payment. There are also mixed credits, for example, for procurement of a plot of land and construction of a house there. National bank of housing construction (Banco Nacional de Vivienda y Habitat) also studies other models of crediting, payments for credit, delayed payments, etc. In general, in Venezuela they want every person with the most modest income to plan procurement of personal dwelling.
Another, no less important task of the Bolivarian government is improvement and development of infrastructure, first of all modernisation of old and construction of new transport trunk roads with prevailing focus on public transport. And it is stressed that the majority of transport systems use electricity or natural gas to minimize pollution of the environment.
In order to understand the scale of this construction, one should open the map of Venezuela. New underground lines are under construction in the capital, including those that connect it with the satellite-cities, as well as underground in such cities as Valencia, Maracaibo and Los Teques (two lines so far in each of them). New trolleybus and bus routes are opened. New means of urban transport has been made – metrocable, enabling to get to hard-to-reach districts of the capital, which are located on mountain slopes. Special attention is paid to construction of railways that are almost extinct from the map of the country.
A lot has been done and is planned to do for efficient passenger transport: tunnels, viaducts, electric lines are being provided throughout the country, streets and avenues are being modernised. For these programs the government has allocated more than 30 billion dollars.
And the deeds have proved, that it was not just wasting of huge sums of money. The second bridge across Orinoco has been built, construction of the third one is in progress. Built by Brazil state-of-the-art vehicle and railway bridges will give a new impetus not only to development of the adjacent to the river industrial zone, but to such remote areas as Venezuelan Amazonia and Gran-Sabana.
When under the blow of elements one viaduct that joins Caracas with the sea shore and its main ports – sea and air – collapsed, a temporary road was urgently made in the mountains, and then, in the shortest possible time they built a new vehicle bridge.
More further going plans envisage construction of a chain of bridges and a tunnel across the Maracaibo lake. But so far, it is at the stage of study, discussion and criticism.
In short, the words and deeds of Chavez are never at variance. Venezuela today is a big construction site.