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<font size=3><br>
</font><font size=4><b>Chávez's Annual Address Includes Minimum Wage
Hike, Maintenance of Social Spending in Venezuela<br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>January 21, 2010 By <b>James Suggett</b> <br>
<a href="http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5077" eudora="autourl">
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5077<br><br>
<br>
</a>Mérida, January 18th 2010 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - In his annual
address to the National Assembly, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
announced a 25% increase in the minimum wage this year, promised that
funding to health care, education, and other anti-poverty programs will
not be cut, and spoke of the influence of both Christianity and Marxism
on his government's policies.<br><br>
"In the year 2009 we declared ourselves in a position of economic
defense, that we would do all we can to defend ourselves as a people,
guarantee employment, protect salaries, social security, and social
investment, which we define as of maximum priority," said the
president.<br><br>
Chavez alluded to his government's maintenance of social spending even as
it reduced the national budget by more than 6% and nearly tripled its
domestic debt in early 2009 in response to a sharp drop in the price of
oil, Venezuela's chief export, as a result of the world financial
crisis.<br><br>
14 million Venezuelans, who constitute approximately half the population,
regularly benefit from the government's subsidized and regulated-price
food production and distribution networks and food cafeterias, which
manage 27% of all Venezuelan food consumption, Chavez said.<br><br>
"We have to achieve the expansion of [the state-run food networks]
Mercal and PDVAL so that we continue to provide cheap and high quality
foods for the people," the president added, emphasizing that the
social programs must be "transitory" and channel people out of
poverty.<br><br>
"There is an important, appreciable difference between the poor of
the past and the poor who remain now. Now, they have food, medical care,
and free medicines," Chavez said, mentioning the expansion of
primary health care coverage to nearly 100% of the population. "Some
day, they will get out of their situation, through these transitory
programs."<br><br>
In addition, Chavez said the minimum wage would be increased by 10% on
March 1st, then by 15% in September. This will bring the minimum wage
from approximately 950 bolivars per month to nearly 1,200 bolivars per
month, and it comes in addition to a 20% minimum wage increase in
2008.<br><br>
The announcement came a week after the government initiated its a plan to
devalue the national currency and increase public investments in non-oil
exports and domestic manufacturing to substitute imports and wean off oil
dependence. It also came as Venezuela's cumulative inflation in 2009
decreased by nearly six percent compared to the year before, although it
remains the highest in Latin America.<br><br>
National worker unions, including the country's largest national union
federation UNETE, released several communiqués expressing their support
for the measures last week, but strongly urged wage increases to counter
the potential inflation caused by the devaluation.<br><br>
New Electricity Minister<br><br>
To improve the government's management of the current national
electricity shortage, Chavez announced that he will transfer his current
finance minister, Ali Rodriguez, to direct the Electricity Ministry,
which was created last month to handle the crisis. Chavez said he would
merge the Finance Ministry and the Planning Ministry into one, which will
be directed by current Planning Minister Jorge Giordani.<br><br>
Last week, Chavez asked for the resignation of his first minister for
electricity, Angel Rodriguez, after irregularities in the management of
programmed power outages nation-wide caused public dissent and confusion.
In his address on Friday, he reiterated that the government "does
not have any complex about recognizing errors. I became aware of a
reality, a poorly executed plan... in no more than 24 hours we rectified
it."<br><br>
Rodriguez will be charged with executing a series of electricity-saving
measures, including scheduled power outages, mandatory limits on
consumption and operating hours in public and private institutions,
public education and incentive for consumer conservation, and public
investments in energy production.<br><br>
Global Crisis<br><br>
What makes the current state of global affairs historically unique, said
Chavez, is that it represents "all crises united into one... it is
much more than an economic crisis; it is a moral crisis, a crisis of
values, that engulfs the entire world; it is a financial, food,
environmental, and climate crisis."<br><br>
This crisis is also "a demonstration that not only is capitalism not
the only alternative for humanity... twenty years have passed since the
‘end of history,' and this crisis is a demonstration that capitalism and
neo-liberalism constitute the most horrifying perversion!"<br><br>
Venezuela's construction of "21th Century Socialism," commonly
referred to as the "Bolivarian Revolution" in reference to
Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar, is responding to this
crisis with an approach that is influenced by both Christianity and
Marxism, said the president.<br><br>
"This revolution, and I say this as a Christian, is profoundly
Christian. Long live Christ the revolutionary redeemer!" Chavez
exclaimed. "Christ was a socialist, I believe it. Who could imagine
that Christ was capitalist? Christ was more radical than all of us
combined."<br><br>
Chavez mentioned the influence of other heroes from Latin American
history, including Cuba's Jose Marti, Venezuela's Francisco de Miranda,
and Nicaragua's Augusto Sandino, but he made special mention of German
philosopher Karl Marx, saying, "Marxism is the most advanced
proposal toward the world that Christ came to announce more than 2,000
years ago."<br><br>
Venezuela-U.S. Relations<br><br>
With regard to Venezuela's strained diplomatic relationship with its top
oil customer and political opponent, the United States, Chavez criticized
the administration of President Barack Obama for backing the coup regime
that overthrew Honduran President Manuel Zelaya last June, and for
unleashing "a thrust of seven stab wounds in the heart of Latin
America," in reference to the seven Colombian military bases that
the U.S. will use to expand its spying and military operations across the
South American continent.<br><br>
"As the months passed in 2009, the enigma of President Obama, an
enigma in which the United States people believed, crumbled to
pieces," Chavez said. "The events clarified the panorama for
those who might have had illusions about the new U.S.
government."<br><br>
Haiti<br><br>
At the start of his address, President Chavez asked for a moment of
silence for the people of Haiti who are suffering the deadly effects of a
series of recent earthquakes, with estimates indicating hundreds of
thousands of dead and missing.<br><br>
Chavez urged the world not only to provide aid to Haiti, but to ask,
"Why is Haiti such a poor country, why does its population depend on
family remittances from abroad for almost 50% of its income, why don't we
analyze the realities that led to the current situation in
Haiti?"<br><br>
Reading from a letter written by former Cuban President Fidel Castro,
Chavez said, "Nobody says a word to remember that Haiti was the
first country where four hundred thousand African slaves trafficked by
the Europeans revolted against 30,000 white owners of coffee and sugar
cane plantations, carrying out the first great social revolution in our
hemisphere."<br><br>
"Haiti is a net product of colonialism and imperialism over more
than a century; of military interventions and the extraction of its
riches," Chavez read.<br><br>
<br><br>
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