Venezuela’s Chavez Announces Two New Social Programs and 14-Year Plan

During a campaign event on Sunday, Venezuela’s President Chavez announced the creation of two new social programs, known as “missions,” which will dramatically expand Venezuelan higher education and improve dental health care for the poor. The two programs will be known as “Mission Alma Mater” and “Mission Smile.” Also, yesterday, Chavez announced the development of a 14 plan for his government, should he be reelected on December 3rd.

Chavez explained that Mission Alma Mater would introduce expand existing fields and also create news ones, such as in the areas of security, disaster prevention, judiciary, health sciences, languages, and basic science, among others. For this purpose 16 polytechnic universities and eight technological university institutes will be constructed.

Already one trillion bolivares ($ 465 million) have been allocated towards the construction of these new universities.

The second new program, Mission Smile, will provide dental prostheses for poor Venezuelans who need these. It is estimated that as many as 10 million parts and complete pieces need to be manufactured. Also, new dental laboratories will be launched for this program.

In other plans, yesterday Chavez announced that soon he will unveil a new 14-year plan. “We are preparing ourselves for the launch of the National Simon Bolivar Project,” said Chavez, naming the plan after Venezuela’s 19th century independence hero and namesake of his government’s movement. According to Chavez, this project would begin on February 2, 2007, when he would be inaugurated for a second full term, if he wins the December 3 presidential election. This date would “initiate a phase of 14 years of work for the consolidation of the new period” in Venezuelan history.

This would mean that this phase would end in 2021, a year Chavez has often referred to as the year by which the “Bolivarian revolution” would be complete.