[News] Venezuelans Protest Privatisation of Social Housing

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Venezuelans Protest Privatisation of Social Housing as Parliament
  Approves in First Discussion

http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11843
<http://venezuelanalysis.com/printmail/11843><http://venezuelanalysis.com/print/11843> 


By Rachael Boothroyd Rojas and Jonas Holldack

Caracas, January 30th 2016

Venezuelan housing rights groups took to the streets of Caracas on 
Thursday to reject the political opposition’s plans to privatise social 
housing.

Since launching its housing "mission" or program in 2012, the Bolivarian 
government, together with communities, has built more than 1 million 
homes for some of Venezuela’s poorest families.

But the recently built social housing is now under threat of being sold 
off, thanks to a motion pledging to privatise the houses introduced by 
the newly elected opposition-controlled National Assembly early in January.

Dubbed the Law for the Award of Property Deeds to the Beneficiaries of 
the Venezuelan Great Housing Mission (GMVV), the legislation was 
approved by parliament in initial discussions on Thursday. It will now 
go to second discussion where it will likely be passed.

“The majority opposition assembly is defending the rights of the banks, 
the construction and property lobbies that have been hit hard,” said 
marcher Kristal V, a member of the Pioneers Movement, to Venezuelanalysis.

“Nobody is going to privatise our right to housing, our right to be a 
socialist community. Today we are fighting for the right to urban soil,” 
she added.

The new law follows an opposition win at the country’s National Assembly 
elections on December 6th last year - when legislators affiliated to the 
Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) swept a two-thirds majority for the 
first time in over seventeen years.

The new majority allows opposition legislators to pass national 
legislation virtually unopposed in parliament and has led to a stand-off 
between the Bolivarian government and opposition controlled legislature.

On Thursday, protesters took to the streets to lend support to the 
government against the new legislators. They said the law was a direct 
attempt to eliminate the hard fought right to public housing in Venezuela.

“The approval of this law would be a huge setback to the advances made 
by the state to ensure the right to housing,” Juan Carlos R of the 
Settler’s Movement explained to Venezuelanalysis.

“We poor people do not need a house as a piece of merchandise, we need 
it to live in! It’s the bourgeoisie that has two or three houses which 
they buy and sell for business,” he added.

The mastermind behind the law, MUD legislator Julio Borges, has said 
that the new legislation will give residents the official property 
titles to the houses, allowing them to sell the state-built homes on the 
private market.

Until now, GMVV residents have been granted a Deed of Use legal document 
which gives them the right to the houses for life - but the homes can 
only be sold under specific circumstances and not on the private market.

The opposition move has been vehemently attacked by Venezuelan President 
Nicolas Maduro, who has vowed to block the legislation. He told 
opposition legislators that they would “have to overthrow” him in order 
to pass the motion in his annual state of union address.

Maduro’s government has promised to build millions more public homes for 
the approximately 50% of the population that currently lives in 
makeshift houses in the country’s shantytowns - also known as barrios.

For Borges, however, it’s not the role of legislators “to build houses”.

“My role is to give ideas for people to progress, and to that end we are 
doing what is correct.”

“There is no explanation why the executive would deny something that is 
as important to Venezuelan families, such as having the full deeds to 
the property they live in. Something that will mean that families can 
progress, inherit and sell these houses if they want to keep 
progressing,” stated Borges.

But the government and social movements argue that the homes should not 
have a speculative value, but rather remain as houses destined for 
families in need.

“They (the opposition) never supported the project of the GMVV, they 
protested when the state took over urban soil for construction and now 
their mouths are filled with hypocritical lies about democratising the 
right to housing. They never built a single home, and now they want to 
capitalise on this project,” explained Kristal.

For many other marchers on Thursday, the proposed law also leaves a huge 
question mark hanging over what options will remain for those 
Venezuelans who rely on the subsidised social housing.

Many fear they will be unable to access the houses once they are floated 
on the highly speculative and unaffordable private housing market.

“They want to send us back to the hilltops, that’s what they want,” said 
Ricardo Molina, who echoed several other protesters in describing the 
law as an attempt to re-gentrify exclusive areas of Caracas where blocks 
of social housing have been built - to the dismay of many middle class 
voters.

On Thursday, MUD legislators made no reference to the march, but 
confirmed that they will move ahead with the planned legislation - 
despite government and social movement opposition.

If Maduro blocks the law, it will then be passed to Venezuelan Supreme 
Court judges who will have to decide if it potentially violates the 
constitution.

But social movements aren’t leaving the future of the housing to chance, 
and they have pledged to continue resisting the proposed legislation in 
the streets.

“We will take over all urban land if the opposition nullify the laws,” 
stated Molina.

/Reporting by Jonas Holldack.
/
-- 
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