The Bush administration is once again itching to do away with and effect regime change in Venezuela, writes Faiza Rady Last week, Venezuelan President Hugo made good on his promise to subsidise home- heating fuel for the US poor. Bronx Representative Joe Serrano, a Democrat, announced last Tuesday that he had clinched a deal with the Venezuelan-owned company Citgo to provide low- income Bronx residents with subsidised heating fuel. According to the terms of the agreement, poor residents will now be able to buy fuel at a discounted rate of 30 per cent. 's subsidy comes at a time when US companies have refused to lower their sales prices to poor communities and Congress has failed to grant heating fuel assistance to the needy. Some 45,000 low-income Massachusetts residents will also benefit from the deal, which will prevent them from freezing to death in the harsh New England winter. Though Republican politicians airily dismissed the Venezuelan president's gesture as a politically-motivated publicity stunt, South American analysts explain 's motivation in terms of his Bolivarian revolution. 's concern for the US poor is part and parcel of this ideology that promotes universal egalitarianism on the basis of "participative" democracy. This means, for example, that the Venezuelan people had a measure of control over formulating their 1999 constitution. First, the people elected a Constituent Assembly that drafted the constitution, which then had to be approved by a referendum. Chapter IV of the constitution decrees the citizens' right to participate "directly, semi-directly and indirectly" in the process of "establishing, executing and controlling the country's public administration". According to Article 62, the people's participation in all state affairs thus became a constitutional premise, aiming to transform profoundly unequal power relations which in the past had characterised Venezuelan society. Several mechanisms facilitating direct political participation are spelled out in the constitution, which include the people's right to directly participate in government by calling for different kinds of referendums. Legislation may be passed if parliament refuses to approve a bill; and the president, governors, MPs and mayors can be revoked from office upon completion of their mid-term tenure. In August 2004, the opposition used the latter type of referendum in an attempt to oust . They lost. Despite considerable US-backing and big money stacked behind them, the landowning and business elites were unable to outvote 's constituency -- the Venezuelan working class and the poor who make up an estimated 80 per cent of the country's population. In 2002 a military coup, also engineered by the rich and their CIA cohorts, failed for the same reasons -- hundreds of thousands of workers took to the streets of Caracas to reclaim their president as one of their own. So far the high-powered coalition of the rich, US friends and associates have been unable to defeat . In no less than nine elections and referendums, has consistently commanded up to two-thirds of the popular vote. This is because he has an impressive record as a poor people's leader. Before became president in 1998, few had access to even minimal healthcare in one of the world's oil-richest countries. Seven years on, and following a Venezuelan-Cuban oil-for-physicians barter, 70 per cent of the people have access to free healthcare. This is, in part, provided by some 20,000 Cuban doctors who are giving free medical care to the poor in city slums and the most disadvantaged rural areas. Dubbed the Barrio Adentro (literally: inside the neighbourhood) mission, the programme offers a 24- hour preventive healthcare service to people who had been deprived of medical care for the better part of their lives. " has given us our constitution, our democracy and for the first time, the oil money is going to us," Juan, a young politically-unaffiliated worker told John Pilger of the New Statesman. Juan's life was saved by a Cuban physician, the first doctor he had ever seen. "I've never been in a political party. I can only tell you how my life has been changed, as I never dreamt," saidJuan. Besides free medical care, the administration has provided free education for the poor. Since 1999, the government opened 3,750 "Bolivarian" schools, where in addition to free education, more than one million disadvantaged children receive two daily meals and two snacks. Adult education is mainly provided through programmes dubbed Robinson I and II, a reference to Daniel Defoe's tale of learning through exploration. Robinson I and II offer free literacy classes and primary education to all Venezuelans. Within a year and a half of 's access to the presidency, 1.4 million learned to read and write, and three million of the poor, who were previously unable to enter the educational system, enrolled in schools. Like in Cuba, illiteracy has been virtually wiped out in Venezuela. And it only took seven years. Food subsidies have also featured prominently on the government's agenda. At the entrance of every barrio (district) there is a state cooperative, where products cost 40 cents less than in commercial supermarkets. In addition, 45 per cent of Venezuelans receive subsidised food through special food programmes and government distribution centres. However, despite the government's efforts, food subsidies remain insufficient. A vast country with an abundance of fertile agricultural land, Venezuela still has to import as much as 70 per cent of its food stuffs. As always, the problem lies in the unequal distribution of land. Some 80 per cent of all cultivated areas belong to five per cent of producers, who leave about 30 million hectares to lie fallow. After last year's successful referendum, took on the big landowners saying that food sovereignty was essential to development in Venezuela. "The time has come to confront this historical problem, which is a real cancer. As long as there will be giant landholdings, we will not be able to progress in any development programme," proclaimed. Between 1999 and 2004, the government distributed two million hectares to 130,000 families. Since then, some additional 200,000 hectares have been given to peasant cooperatives with the aim of producing food stuffs, rather than sugar canes -- a traditional agribusiness cash-crop produce. A modern-day Bolivar, Hugo has caused the Bush administration major problems on the continent. 's successful model of participative democracy and grassroots socialism is spreading in South America. Earlier this year, a coalition of the Bolivian indigenous people's movement took to the streets and forced President Carlos Mesa to resign. Their demands include the formation of a constituent assembly modelled on the Venezuelan assembly, the expulsion of transnational water companies and the rejection of Bush's Free Trade Agreement for the Americas (FTAA) along with all other neo-liberal schemes. In next week's elections, Evo Morales, an indigenous former coca farmer and leader of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) stands a good chance to win the presidency. In Argentina, a coalition of social movements and progressive political parties toppled five US- backed neo-liberal presidents in 2001 and 2002. Since then, Argentina has defaulted on its debt -- steering an independent political course. And in Uruguay, the socialist Frente Amplio were voted into power in 2004. Winds of change are sweeping over South America because of , says the Bush administration. They may have a point. When Bush arrived in Mar del Plata, Argentina for the Summit of the Americas on 5 November 2005, the FTAA was not included on the conference agenda. Still, the Bush administration won't take the challenge lying down. Following their two failed attempts to oust by propping up the opposition, the administration is looking into other more sinister options. The Washington Post reported on 17 March 2005 that Felix Rodriguez, "a former CIA operative well connected to the Bush family" was part of a team of assassins preparing to kill the president of Venezuela. This is plan A. In case it fails, invasion is on the agenda. "I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela," said on 16 September. "We have documentation: how many bombers will over-fly Venezuela on the day of the invasion." Regardless of what happens, the Venezuelan people are prepared. "We will fight for Venezuela, for Latin American integration and for the world", says .
