There is no freedom of speech, government, nothing. It is out of control corruption. Whatever it takes, we will get rid of this anarchy. You have to live what Venezuelans are living to understand. That is what happened to the deputies…. They held a National Assembly coup Assembly president, Diosdado Cabello declared a Fujimori type coup in which he eliminates the institution of parliament and that is quite serious. That´s when we realized our soul was asleep Not anymore. We have our soul, our hearts, and are well organized. I was called by “Misión Vivienda”, thank God and my president, the man with the courage to give us humble people decent housing I´m with all the revolutionary and patriotic women that want to defend this process. I will defend it with my life if necessary. Just yesterday the National Assembly was discussing the disarmament law, because Venezuela is the most dangerous country in all of Latin America. In Caracas alone this month there were about 500 homicides, we need the law. They´re giving us a so called salary hike of about 20% how are we suppose to live, we are starving to death As a Venezuelan I do not accept communism because I am not a communist. Simón Bolivar gave us our freedom Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías gave us our homeland. Long live Chávez! The thundering sound of casseroles heard through the windows of Caracas protesting the election results had ended. In its place fireworks and chavist hymns took the Venezuelan night in celebration of the revolutionary process Hugo Rafael Chávez had led until his death. We sought to take advantage of a tumultuous historical moment that could turn explosive at any moment. We wanted to understand the precedents. How did Chávez reach power and keept it, against all predictions, for almost a decade and a half? We also wanted to know what the Venezuelan´s expectations were regarding the continuation of the socialist process. On March 5, 2013 president Chávez’ death from pancreatic cancer was annouced, which some claim could have been injected by his enemies A multitude of Venezuelans took the streets to say goodbye to their commander president Who as head of the Venezuelan government for the last 14 years carried out a major process of social transformation and redistribution of wealth. Over thirty heads of state were present at the funeral. We started filming April 19th, the day Nicolás Maduro took office as president of the Bolivarian Republic, during a civil-military parade along the Founding Fathers Promenade. “I am the first chavist president, I am the first worker president in the history of this homeland. Before there was no worker president or a chavist president. We had a bolivarian revolutionary socialist president for the first time with Hugo Chávez. I hope to carry the patriotic values with dignity and make Hugo Chavez Frías’ dreams a reality The dreams of a great homeland secure, in peace, for the people of Venezuela. Chávez lives! The struggle continues!! Chávez lives! The struggle continues! Thank you very much fellow countrymen Cry out with vigor death to oppression with loyal countrymen, union is strength. Long live Venezuela my beloved homeland It’s liberator was Simón Bolivar Long live Venezuela my beloved homeland It’s liberator was Simón Bolivar We arrived in Venezuela with questions Why did the international press ridicule Chávez and does the same with his successor Nicolás Maduro and demonizes the Bolivarian Revolution not mentioning that international organisms such as the United Nations, recognize its achievements in the dramatic reduction of poverty and inequalities, access to health and education and the improvement of living conditions. The opposition media insists on questioning the validity of the Venezuelan elections while international observers reaffirm, election after election that, as ex- president Jimmy Carter stated they are among the cleanest in the World. The Venezuelan opposition and the national and international media perfectly align. When the opposition parties are in crisis, the media becomes the new political actor. In the vacuum left by the parties, the media tries to impose ideas and promote certain candidates. This resulted in a coup d’etat in 2002, against president Chávez, a media coup d’etat because its leaders tried to win support from the military by using manipulated television images. That is why we call it a media coup d’etat. The opposition media, 95% of the newspapers, act as Venezuela’s opposition spokesman. For example, the newspaper El Nacional is part of the Americas Newspaper Group, the GDA, with 20 Latin American newspapers as members. As part of the GDA, El Nacional becomes the principal source of information for the rest of the group. As a political actor, they will act as spokesman and multiplier of the same line of opinion internationally. The circle closes against the president of Venezuela, the hegemonic global press, together with the private hegemonic national press, and the opposition. For my research I interviewed journalists from GDA newspapers, La Nación from Argentina, or El Comercio from Ecuador, They admitted openly “Well of course, El Nacional is a political actor they are super biased”. But their main or only information source about Venezuela was in fact El Nacional. They use the newspaper as a source knowing it is in fact a political actor. Throughout the past century the Venezuelan left fought against dictatorships and the presidents of the so called fourth republic, during which dissidents where tortured and disappeared. I am Margariteño, born in a sea town called Juan Griego in Margarita Island in Nueva Esparta. I spent my childhood and adolescence in my town. Logically my first contact with life and nature was through the sea. I am a sea person. In fact, as a child I saw myself as a sea creature. I played at being a fish. We played there. I developed my abilities, my skills In its waves I learned to conquer fear, to be bold, to be daring. I became an outstanding swimmer in the whirlpools, surfing on the crest of the waves. In 1957, when I graduate from High School I decided to enroll in military school. Because my father was a political activist, in Acción Democrática, fighting against Pérez Jiménez´s dictatorship the general who imposed a dictatorship in Venezuela that lasted over ten years. My father was a political militant. On my 15th birthday he tells me absolutely everything he was doing, so I decided to become militant in the resistance against Pérez Jiménez. By then in Venezuela, the majority of the officers were the sons of workers and peasants. The army included many of the people’s sons. Acción Democrática and the Communist Party saw the possibility to fight the dictatorship from within the army. January 23, 1958 a civilian-military movement defeated the dictatorship of Pérez Jiménez. Thanks to that great effort. Subsequently a government junta was created in Venezuela run by the status parties. Acción Democrática, COPEI, URD, which were the most important influential political parties. Soon after, I requested a discharge from the army. I didn’t have a military spirit and had joined for political reasons. I wanted to study engineering at the Universidad Central, and become a civil engineer. Early on, we realized that Rómulo Betancourt had made a pact with imperialism while exiled in Washington, called the Punto fijo democratic pact. I was one of the young men caught up in that whirlwind. In Venezuela, when the political agitation becomes very strong and the MIR emerges the Revolutionary Movement of the Left, Acción Democratica´s only ideological division. I was a founding member of that party. I was also founding the party´s armed units to defend the people´s protests. Because, from the moment Rómulo Betancourt becomes president of the republic, he violated the constitution of ’62 and from then on suspended constitutional guarantees. There were many street struggles and demonstrations and the government responded with gunfire. With tremendous savagery. A good portion of the youth decided that if the government responds with gunfire we are going to arm ourselves for self defense. We founded the Armed Forces of National Liberation. When the FALN, was created two Armed Forces of National Liberation are created. One led by the Communist Party and another by the MIR, the Revolutionary Movement of the Left. I attest that the arms we used were taken from the enemy. Arsenal found Shootout with police, communist leader dies 80 detained for terrorism 5 prisoners escape from military hospital I was jailed four times I was brutally tortured and was able to resist because I was a young athlete, strong and muscular. My body is full of fractures and scars from torture, but my heart overflows with happiness for contributing to what we now have. I went to jail on four occasions one of them for seven years and eight months. I was rescued by the international Red Cross, because I was one of the most tortured prisoners and I had a renal injury that made me urinate blood. During the 1972 conflict while I was jailed in the San Carlos quarter, the international Red Cross intervened. We were victorious in defeating the government despite being in jail. At the time the political struggle in Venezuela had lost strength because Calderas’ government had been able to pacify a large group of comrades who decided to abandon armed struggle. I was not convinced and decided to keep fighting from jail. From San Carlos we kept the revolutionary flame burning in Venezuela. I was released in 1973 after seven years and eight months. I leave committed to rescue my comrades. As soon as I was released I contacted the rest of the comrades in the streets. We bring a group of experienced guerrillas from the mountains, from the east. In Caracas we started to work on the rescue. We were building a tunnel from inside the jail. It was 60 meters long starting in one of the pavilions where we already grouped the prisoners we wanted to rescue This was a very intelligent operation, we fooled the enemy and were able to group the 23 prisoners in one place. We completed it January 18, 1975. Since I can´t stay in the mountains for too long because I urinate blood permanently, I return and am captured again on May 11, 1975. Barely a few months after the escape, and I do four more years for those actions. I confess I completed the sentence with the greatest calm in the World. Because I had fulfilled my moral duty with the combatants who had fought by my side all those years. On February 27, 1989 popular violence erupted in riots, looting and confrontations with the state security forces in which 4,000 to 5,000 people died, although the authorities accepted only 300 had died. The government of Carlos Andres Pérez had announced a number of neoliberal reforms to please the International Monetary Fund, sinking the majority of the population into even more poverty. That was the last straw. The moment people said enough. And the Venezuelan left realized that, the spontaneous reaction could be transformed into a revolutionary political force. Between ’87 and ’89 there is a university student revolt almost at the national level. Over 70 students died in the streets. That student revolt built many bridges. Because, when we started to work with the neighborhoods of Caracas, a type of popular resistance began to develop. Small, very harassed, persecuted, repressed but in many ways a popular resistance developing in many fronts, with comrades belonging to leftist organizations of past failed armed struggles. So it had many insurrectional traces and people were working with those codes. When it happened, those organizations don’t create it in any way. February 27 appears, it happens as an event. They were there, they participated. And in fact, if it had lasted one more day, it would have turned into a political rebellion. The first symptoms were already there in the evening of the 28th. It was no longer about taking the washer, or taking the meat from the market. There were already movements against the powers that be directly. Partly inspired on the events of February 27 and 28, 1989, Chávez led a coup d’etat against Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992 that failed and sent him to prison. But it introduced him to the poor of Venezuelans among who, the young military officer caused a deep impression. Comrades, unfortunately for now, our objectives where not reached in the capital. We weren’t able to take over power in Caracas. During his jail term, his fame grew and became the hope of the poor. After being freed by Rafael Caldera, Chávez wins the elections of 1998. I’ve had to tolerate the largest international pressure, but I don’t mind. If someday I must dive into the fifth hell to defend the bolivarian people of Venezuela. Then I will go to the fifth hell to defend it form Satan himself. Out, out! Chávez, damn you, you said you weren’t going to suspend the guarantees, dog! The oligarchical opposition, not satisfied with the process of wealth distribution started by Chávez and fearfull of loosing more class privileges organizes a coup d’etat and places businessman, Pedro Carmona Estanga as president. It has been decided that the armed forces keep outgoing president Chávez in custody. Snipers, following orders from the conspirators fired against demonstrators of the opposition killing at least 11 people. The mass media manipulated the images to make it look like the “chavistas” were the ones firing against the demonstrators. Justifying a forceful change of government. President Chávez was kidnapped by the conspirators while the TV channels only transmitted cartoons. ” president, president, we will return ” “we haven’t left” The Venezuelan people took the streets again, this time to demand the freedom of their president backed by the popular outcry against the high military hierarchy, officers and soldiers, loyal to Chávez reinstated the president barely 48 hours after the coup. The strike is unstoppable “in other information the gas stations in the entire country started feeling the lack of fuel this Monday…” Between December 2002 and February 2003, Venezuela was paralyzed. The opposition declared a general strike followed by a strike from businesses, backed particularly by the oil industry. Oil stopped flowing during two months with dire consequences to the Venezuelan economy. The opposition did not achieve their objective, toppling president Chávez. Whose government fired over 17,000 oil workers who had been on strike. He restructured the state owned company PDVSA to guarantee control. And for that reason, the remaining days of my life are not mine, but they belong to the heroic people of Venezuela. I will live the rest of my life devoted completely to building the bolivarian revolution, and Venezuelan socialism of the 21st century…. In a transition process, where you are not destroying the old order in a violent manner but simply confronting it, competing with it, to surpass it You must make the process completely transparent. Firstly, decide which agents from the old bourgeoisie, from the small and medium businesses, are you going to deal with and for what purpose. What economic and political alliances will you build with them? It must be transparent and open, not in smoke filled offices of businessmen and state corruptions. But within parameters for the people to audit those agreements because they will fundamentally entail a transfer of capital. The state must relate at an equal level with the many community organizations. There are parts of communities that have to assume certain national challenges. Make decisions about production, organization, the development of heatlh elements elements in education, cultural elements. And what arrangement is reached with the Venezuelan state. The state starts to dissolve the traditional bureaucratic and corrupt state to develop a totally different relationship between the state and the people. Including elements from the small and medium bourgeoisie. In that manner isolating for good the banking and financial sectors who are not only choking the integral economic development, but also finance the conspiracies and the small right wing groups who are again becoming very hegemonic within the middle classes and the proof is the results of last elections. Until victory always! independence, socialist homeland! We shall overcome! Barely three months before his death, December 8, 2012, Chávez notified the Venezuelans his political will in a televised address. He spoke about what should be done in his absence. The path; political and economic independence, nutritional sovereignty and the people’s participation in decision making by means of the laws of of Popular Power and the Communal Councils Chávez outlined five fundamental objectives in his Homeland Plan: The consolidation of the national independence To continue the development of the bolivarian socialism as the road to happiness Transform Venezuela into a pacifying force in the region Become an international geopolitical stabilizing force and conserve life on the planet, stopping the predator development of capitalism and the devastating effects of the market economy. To reach independence and the development of the socialist project, the bolivarian government uses different research, production and food distribution strategies to guarantee nutrition sovereignty. We became excited about this in the Communal Councils, listening to our eternal commander Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías’ speeches. We started from not knowing how to grow a tomato, how a plant developes, or its characteristics, to where we are now. It started in cultural villages, we inserted the agro nutrition village. We took different spaces from within the Communal Council , around 10 to 12 Communal Councils from el Limón parish. We decided that it was the best, there were no major problems. It had been abandoned after the Limón tragedy. There used to be houses where we’re standing. Tragic flooding and landslides destroyed the houses and the land was abandoned. President Chavez always promoted the orchards, home growing and in the city what is called urban agriculture. When he started talking about that, we already were developing an urban agriculture. When he promoted it at a more generic level we had already advanced in what is called urban agriculture. This model promotes harmony between the environment and the community. Where there is an empty space, a space that can become unsafe, our duty as a community is to retake the space and transform it into urban agriculture. Agricultural Fair, Caracas We know that the seed is the basis of agriculture. In a handfull of corn seeds, the Mayas tell us, is contained all of humanity’s history because men and women are made of corn. Beyond that world vision and what it implies, all the wisdom of our great communities is concentrated in one corn seed. That was stolen by the transnationals, and six companies in the world control 85% of the agricultural business. Well known names, with no intention of promoting them but to denounce that they have stolen that wisdom. Monsanto, Cargill, Syngneta, etc… I am a public servant of the Los Andes Dairy, a state socialist venture, nationalized about four years ago, part of the great Nutrition Mission. It was created in 2004, after Venezuela was victim of the food industry strike, product of the oil strike. The private food industry conglomerate closed, denying the Venezuelan people access to food. That is why Mercal Mission was created. Along with the nationalization and creation of new ventures, they are part of the state owned Nutrition Mission. Venezuela does not produce GMOs. And the discussion in not a technical one. Because ‘GMOs are not a technical problem they are a political one. And most of all an economic one. Why? While it is true that GMOs may have pseudo advantages from the production point of view, it is also true that it enslaves the farmer, who year after year has to buy the same seed and pays royalties for the GMOs. 14 years ago Venezuela decided to become a sovereign nation. The Homeland Plan, of which you have surely heard of, the first historic objective, (you must understand what historical objective means) The first historical objective for the venezuelan people is our independence. A way of consolidating our independence is with science and technology at the service of the people. Using seeds produced by the farmers at the service of the farmers. We do agricultural research Crop and animal research We study ways of improving crop production. Vegetables, cereals, legumes, and animal production; cattle, goat, poultry, pigs. We share our research results through organizations such as the CIARA Foundation. CIARA disseminates the information through courses and seminars. This way, small and large producers, farmers can benefit from the latest information and apply it to improve their production. As a result of our research, we produce seeds. These seeds are shared with small producers, with the help of the CIARA Foundation. This way, food is produced at a very low cost. These green houses were built as part of the Cuba-Venezuela treaty. We have other treaties with Brazil for the transfer of technologies, the EMBRAPA treaty. We also have the Chinese fund through BANDES, for the importation of technology. We bring people from countries like Cuba and Brazil to train us. We are also able to take courses in other countries and with that knowledge train others. In the background you are seeing one of the largest projects in Latin America and Venezuela. The goal is to produce 70 tons of fish annually. The species is Tilapia. The entire production will satisfy the protein needs of every inhabitant of the city of Caribia. We use five thousand families as a frame of reference. Each family will consume 12.5 kilograms of fish a year, their protein requirement. This socialist project is rooted in the People’s Power Law. As an organized community we abide by a set of communal laws. These include the Organic Law of Communes and the Organic Law of the Communal Economy. The Law of Communal Economy promotes the creation of direct socially owned businesses. This is such a project. In other words, The community, in collaboration with the state, manages the production processes. The Popular Power starts taking shape in the 1990’s. In the 90s, Neighborhood Assemblies started to appear in Caracas, promoting the Popular Assemblies. These assemblies started challenging themselves. Under the economic development law, an administrative management system is in place. 20% of all the surplus produced goes to an emergency fund for the producers. 70% is assigned to consolidate the project, or to develop other projects in the community that will help develop this one. The remaining 10% of the surplus goes to to the affiliation body. In other words, the Communal Council which is the central body where the community organizes. It consists of various committees. One of the committees directly related to this project is the Communal Economic Committee. As a socialist society and in the case of Venezuela we are building, those committees meet every week. These types of programs started developing with the electricity service, With the workers, how to organize the workers, mostly the unemployed. The unemployed organized in committees. The Popular Powers intervened with merchants, stores, bakeries etc. They basically forced them to hire the people from the neighborhood’s unemployed lists. The whole experience evolved and multiplied throughout the rest of the major cities in Caracas. The Popular Power started acting as an insurrectionist power by appropriating food. By doing so, it started acting as a power of legitimate expropriation. The position was this ” If I don’t have food to eat but others do, then they must share some of it.” The food is there, so I will go look for it.” Yes, there was looting but it was not done to keep the food. The food was taken from a super market to distribute it. A sense of direct action started to develop, a direct appropriation of those things that are absolutely essential to life. ” The number of deaths caused by the rain in Venezuela rose to 34 …” The poor people of Venezuela regularly lost their homes from overflowing rivers, floods and landslides. Their homes are built with inappropriate materials in land that is unreliable. Venezuela delivers a social interest home every three minutes. We visited three types of State supported housing: A residential complex in El Arsenal, entirely built by the State’s Housing Mission program; Caribia, a socialist conceived city functioning with socialist ideals; And a housing complex in El Algodonal, under construction, planned and built by its future residents following the Dwellers Movement sustainability model. For those who have been helped by the Housing Mission, it is means the dream of thousands of Venezuelan families who for years were moved to the hills, to inhospitable areas. That is what capitalism left us, the great construction companies. Without a good salary or economic position there was no other option. Those who couldn’t get a home loan from a private bank, had no other option but to accept the crumbs. The famous bathroom units that the government gave people forty years ago. They were a standard size for every type and size of family. Take it or leave it. As an alternative, people built their own homes however they could. They were poorely built and dangerous, lacking support or crown beams. The government was in debt with the people. When our greatest, our giant, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, comes into power he realizes how grave the situation was. He was receiving thousands of letters requesting housing. He understood he had to think big, and created he great Housing Mission. I am from Paraparal, in the state of Aragua, a sector that was consumed by the lake. I am from Santa Cruz de Aragua, a high risk zone. We were 150 families. Thanks to our president Chávez and the great Housing Mission the 150 families now have our homes. I used to live in a little ranch. Thank God and our president who helped us go from living in a shelter to having our own home. I come from a high risk sector in San Vicente, located at the mouth of the Limón river. Through the Housing Mission, the four hundred families were allocated. Over 60 families were allocated to El Arsenal and Guacimal. My daughter and I rented a house. They would disconnect the water, the electricity the cable. They would do everything they could so we would leave. Thank God and president Chávez they gave this apartment to my daughter. We are 2,016 families allocated in this housing complex of El Arsenal, in Maracay , Aragua state. Hugo Chávez Frías overuled the military command and built houses for the people. We all have a decent home We now need to develop unity, commitment, community, and to make El Arsenal that great city, that beautiful socialist city our president Hugo Chávez Frías dreamed of. Caribia city is many things. The city of Caribia is an integral city. in addition to having housing We have what you can truly call social justice. We have health care, education, recreation, culture, sports, and attention to the human and spiritual aspect. There are 1,662 families, approximately 10,000 people. The project can house 20,000 families in 20,000 units for a total of 100,000 people. We offer three levels of education, Preschool, elementary and middle school. In addition to the educational missions, we have established the Robinson mission, the Rivas mission, and the Sucre mission. Within the school we also have INCES, a youth training program, and an afternoon program for the elderly. I’m truly happy, building with the people, organized in community, organized through that Popular Power. Because Caribia is the example to follow of a socialist city. To show the World that people can live under socialism. This land used to belong to the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, the businessmen that bet on the coup to overtake the government in 2002. Many years ago Polar industry was born here. The land was abandoned for 12 years. As members of the Pioneer Camps Movement, we made an inventory of the lands in our neighborhoods. And our political philosophy arises from need. We began 12 years ago as any organized community. We took a political leap and decide that the struggle was not only for housing, but a class struggle. It was the struggle of the blacks, indians, the marginalized, the landless. We framed our struggle within that class struggle. Not just in terms of small projects but political experiences. Going beyond construction to self sufficiency. So, these projects were built to fulfill our centuries old necessities. In 2002, when Urban Lands Committees Decree 1,666 was issued we weren’t part of the city. The green areas were the “barrios”. The “barrios” didn’t exist, only green areas. They isolated us in the “barrios”, because they needed us in the periphery as workforce. That’s why we proved that the people from the “barrios”, our families our ancestors, built the city during the day and the “barrios” during nights and weekends. There was no policy to endorse the “barrio’s” struggle. Every apartment has two bathrooms. The 54 units we are delivering in June and July, Building A has two bedrooms, two baths, living room, kitchen, dining room, laundry, a balcony. One parking per three families, because we understand not everyone can afford a car. We have parking for motorcycles which is what we mostly use in Venezuela. We have a square that will be called Plaza Hugo Chávez, because that’s were our commander visited us. We are building a boulevard, we have the “Simonsitos”, a pre school and kindergarden. Market, bakery, hair salon. We are building a TVComm as well. A building for the social productive not only to produce for the community but for our neighboring communities as well. There are 11 projects in Caracas with more more or less the same characteristics. They also have a communal room. It will have an auditorium, library, audio visual, we will have a radio station as well, info center, everything the community needs. When Chávez comes to power, there’s a shift in dynamics. The scenarios start to multiply. Health, education, water committees, bolivarian organization circles, Communal Councils come later, after a strong fight with certain bureaucratic hardliners that didn’t accept them. Internal networks, the beginning of popular and alternative communications. Forms of communications and productive powers emerge. The first self empowerment programs, land squatters, as in Yaracuy, Lara in the west and others in the east. The first collective industries start to appear, not always successful, they had problems developing again due to the imposition of political bureaucratic elements. Still, they have prevailed. This is Tiuna El Fuerte Cultural Park in a popular “barrio” of Caracas, El Valle, in the western part of the city. It was created in 2005, by a collective of street artist, musicians, circus performers, urban artists, who had been demanding a public space for artistic expression. For culture, encounters, youths expression, free from commercial interference. In the 90’s Caracas, like many Latin American cities, was an example of applied neoliberal models. Cultural spaces and policies were increasingly limited or at the service of private corporations. The cultural spaces were delegated to the eastern part of the city, eliminating in these areas, spaces for cultural encounters. When we started dreaming of building this cultural park in El Valle parish, we started speaking with many architects and they suggested building more blocks in an area that was full of them. From experience, we knew that life in a block is different to walking around in a “barrio”. It has alleyways, small houses, small markets. In it people are more in contact. We dreamed of creating a space were people could have contact with each other. We started looking at other ways it was done around the world. Starting this process of transformation and revolution, my brother and I who started this story, wanted to incorporate in it art, ecology, our roots. The project is located between a heavy traffic highway, the Intercomunal del Valle avenue (a symbol of modernism) and the “barrio”. This hybrid condition, superficial, undefined, is precisely an opportunity to create a city. We didn’t want a lot inserted within the city, nor to build a large three or four stories cultural center. Instead, we wanted to develop the infrastructure that would support of those activities. A less obvious architecture that could support the cultural activities. In that sense we have had to reprogram or rethink the way we make architecture and how the city is built. We started using containers, a type of industrial global trash. It is our main raw material for the construction of the space. We have built sound studios from containers, video editing rooms, community meeting rooms, where a young rapper, “salsero”, “reggetonero”, revolutionary or not, can make his record. In order to avoid air conditioner the skylights windows were installed. These railing were built with exhaust pipes. the green walls keep temperatures low so there is no air conditioner. We collect the rainwater for drip irrigation. By planting we have been able to transform this environment and lower the temperature, returning this land to its natural state. The idea is to create cultural parks with cultural infrastructure and transform an old parking lot into a cultural park. The Popular Power starts to develop as collective property. From decision making power over the basic elements of life, water, electricity, work, it starts developing into a productive power. Finally, into a power that starts to multiply and becomes decisive amongst much larger spaces including the city. Popular constituent processes such as Popular Councils, workers councils, municipal constituent assemblies, have the decision power in entire municipalities As a consequence, the concept of the commune emerges. Up til now, the communes had been relegated to the same political control. But in any case, the communal ideal of self government, of worker self government is openly envisioned. And mentioned thousands of times by Chávez. We entered the flatlands, at the foot of of northern Andes, to learn about the El Real Commune in Barinas, a new productive community and model of social organization. Our first struggles forming the commune started around the year 2009 in our parish. We held many meetings with producers revising the organizational system. Today I work as a teacher and belong to the finance committee in this Communal Council, the Virgen del Real. The democratic revolutionary process has allowed the communities to organize and conceive the selection of the people that lead us in a different way. The Communal Councils emerge from the community members’ sense of belonging. We select work commissions. We present the nominations to the provisional electoral commission.This commission is in charge of the selection process. Then, elections are convened and the members of the community vote to elect their Communal Council. The Communal Council’s creation is framed in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s constitution, A series of laws that government drew to legally empower this popular power. These laws empower them to take actions framed in the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. I have been in charge of this poultry and fish complex since 2010. It was the idea of the ministry to deposit funds for the Communal Council San Lorenzo. With these funds we developed this complex. Originally the funds were for six lagoons, but we made ten. Also a shed for 600 egg laying hen, we ended up building one for 2,000. Since then we have been working mostly with the black pacu, because we are in dire need of a vehicle to distribute the products. But we have been selling to the community. A spokesperson from each Communal Council always visits and are on top of things. There is a couple that lives here and takes care of the place. Most of the decisions are taken in citizens assemblies. In every lagoon we place 2,000 fry and in about six to seven months we take out adults that weight approximately 800 grams to a kilo. We distribute them to the community, we sell them and then replant the lagoons. Four people work here, two care takers and the two of us that always oversee everything. And the rest of the people of the Communal Councils that come when it is time to take out the fish. They help, collaborate, and the work gets done. What projects have been completed by the Communal Councils? Housing development. The Communal Council I belong to, obtained agricultural machinery through the government federal council. We got a tractor, a dredger, a reaping machine, an hydraulic shovel, a cannon. Funds were also set aside to build a warehouse to house all of it. The purpose is to help the small farmer who doesn’t have the machinery needed to prepare the land. This is how we guarantee our community’s food sovereignty. We have also built 27 houses, as Communal Council, we handled the channeling of a sewer that passed through the community. We were able to cover and repair the sewage system. The Communal Council has worked in many other projects that have assured the community’s well being. I am in charge of finances in the Communal Council. I am in charge of purchasing, basically in charge of everything. There are three of us with authorized signatures but the truth is they just sign the checks and so long. If I have to go to Guanales, I go on my own, wherever we have to go, I go by myself. They trust me and know I won’t get them in trouble. So, I take care of all the finances. Right now I think we need a project for the road. You saw how bad it is. I hope we can get the funds. Thanks to Commander Chávez, the farmer has great participation in this project. He taught us to live all of this. It is a beautiful thing. Before, we had no participation. And now, we have learned to live in a community, united. Members of the commune start missing each other if we don’t see each other for two days, because we have learned to live as a group. The Cuban and Venezuelan states have established a series of health agreements. One of them is ” Barrio Adentro”, offering primary care to the poor “Barrios” of Venezuela through clinics in remote areas. Before, the poor people of Venezuela had two options of health care. Go to one of the dilapidated hospitals, or to private clinics, where they would be charged fees they couldn’t afford. Starting in 2003, the Cubans sent a flotilla of doctors. This was a revolutionary experience. The doctors settled in people’s homes. This organizational structure was very revolutionary because the doctors were the people’s primary care doctors. They could see those doctors whenever they wanted, any time, twenty four hours a day. This has changed, the cuban doctors have clinics in the poor communities of Venezuela. People don’t have to travel far to be taken care of. Three blocks from where they live, there is a “Barrio Adentro”. The other international service is “Misión Milagro”, a program where patients with cataracts and other vision problems are taken to Cuba and operated on free of charge. Patients with cataracts have gone to Havana, have recovered their eyesight and were not charge a cent. And the third part of that agreement is the Cuba-Venezuela Integral Health Agreement. Under the agreement, people with serious health conditions go to Cuba to receive free treatment. Another part of the agreement is the formation of students in integral medicine. Training students in community health, medicine that puts the social service aspect of medicine above its traditional for profit aspect, graduating greedy burgoise doctors. In Venezuela, since we are in a revolutionary process in a germinal stage or in transition, there are three coexistiing health systems. We have the conventional health system, with the large hospitals, and small ambulatory system. They are hospitals that depend on the Health Ministry. There is a second health system which is “Barrio Adentro”, with the Cuban medical services in cooperation with the Venezuelan government. The third health system is the private system. The Venezuelan citizens have those three options. Considering this is a transitional stage, it must evolve towards a sole health system. Because the coexistence of those three systems in one is non-viable, it’s unfair. It’s an aberration that there are still people charging for medical services and others that offer health care as a public service. The Venezuelan state has to resolve this enormous contradiction. I’m hoping in a few years public health service or social medicine will prevail. Then I told him, you Venezuelan doctors cure your children and the rest who are not family, well drop dead. I sat her down and told him run the tests on my child, it’s an emergency. They gave me the results the next day at 10 a.m. Was that emergency treatment? You bring them a prescription from the “Barrio Adentro” doctors and it´s unbelievable that the Venezuelan doctor doesn’t know how to read it. Where are their ethics and knowledge? Thank God, our president Chávez gave this to us. And thank God my daughter is alive today because the Cubans cured her. This simply started as a dream, from a need. The idea is to continue rehabilitation in Venezuela and not having to travel to Cuba. It saves costs of housing for the person being treated and the person who accompanies them. The Bolivar and Martí Foundation was created in 2003 in Caracas to care for the patients that used to be taken to Havana. From the year 2000, comrades have been coming from Cuba to both Foundations, in Caracas and here in Barinas, which are the two that exist. We always try to bring a multidisciplinary group. Two or three rehabilitation therapists, a doctor, a speech therapist, a nurse, an occupational therapist. A complete multidisciplinary team, to follow up all medical cases from Cuba and follow up here as well. Up to now everything has turned out marvelously and the results palpable. Five years later Admiral Carmen Meléndez had the idea of building a foundation in her land, in her childhood home. This was her gift to the town of Barinas. That’s how the Bolivar and Martí Foundation, in Barinas was created. In 2007 we started with only 310 patients, from October to December. Up to today we have treated 13,000 patients, a great outcome. The statistics are impressive. I believe this is the best prepared Venezuelan center. We have the best personnel, best infrastructure, no others can compare. There are other places, but the cost is high. We do not charge one Bolivar, nothing. We charge the patient nothing, Not even a photocopy, we provide the patient everything. This collaboration means a lot since our country has always been example of solidarity with the people of Latin America. It has been beautiful to share our knpwledge. So may people in town have welcomed us affectionately. They are very grateful, and that is the most important and precious thing we keep in our hearts. San José de Barlovento is inhabited by descedants of maroon slaves, runaway slaves that hid in the forest where they started cultivating cocoa in small farms. Our grandparents had no land, they didn’t own the plantations. But when the president wins in 1998, he declares free land and free men. From then on in Barlovento, producers started to get their agrarian letter, their land title. It took close to two years, but today 97% of the farmers have the land title that entitles us to the land and the cocoa farms. The cocoa producer has a serious problem. When he has the cocoa harvest he cannot find a buyer on time. They sell it today, but it could take a month before he finds another buyer. And the private company lowers the price. The Socialist Cocoa Corporation prices it at 30, they’re probably paying 30 these days, If they pay 30, then the private producer lowers it to 20. They price it at 20 or 18. In order to collapse the plant, that’s another system. To bring down the small producer, who can’t compete. Because a small producer processes about 20,000 kilos daily. That is the problem we face. We will be taking all of the Venezuelan cocoa harvest to the plant being built in Río Caribe. Our cocoa is distributed at the Mango Coita socialist cocoa plant, where we take the cocoa bushels. That is where the chocolate powder, butter, and all the cocoa derivatives are produced. We used to sell the kilo of cocoa for up to 2 or 3 Bolivares, The highest would be 10 Bolivares. The only one who raised it a bit was Carlos Andres Pérez, and only for a year, and at 1,000 Bollivares per kilo. Just for a year. Then Luis Herrera plunged the price. If they had been people with more clarity of mind they would have told the president of FONDA, no I won’t accept the measly price you pay the producers.They should realize that if they gave a credit, damn, give them half up front and later the other half of the money. They can’t be splitting it in small payments. Maybe now when they pay again, it’ll be another tiny installment. How can anyone work like that? We can’t. The producers end up loosing the harvest again and in debt with the government. This is unnecessary if they would only pay us the money at once. But they pay the complete amount to the counter revolutionaries. 10, 20, 100 million Bolivares. They pay them. If they have 5, they raise it to 10, so they have enough money. But us, the Chavista asshole producers, we just get the hand outs. It is definitely a tough internal struggle, for the workers to gain control of the production areas that include 4,000, 5,000, and over 10,000 workers, as in CIDOR. You may find all human myseries, they are not idyllic spaces. People are confronted with themselves and their limitations, with its own fears, with their own arrogance, their own individualism. Leaders start to emerge, start trying to impose themselves, the internal corruption. Privilege relations emerge with certain power. In the end, that is the revolution, we are not talking about a perfect bible or the road to heaven. That is our contribution to the world, my friend, If we do it wrong, we do it wrong, in any case, forgive our mistakes. But that’s where we’re at, in that process, You will see it throughout the country. In that sense, the Popular Power is a resistance power, against the old order, the old values, the old traditions. Against the loss of identity of concrete bases upon which a country can be built. A nation, a Motherland as some call it. Not only a Fatherland but a Motherland as well. In other words, how can we restore a mother. We met Pepe in the Tacarigua lagoon , a spaniard from Sevilla in love with the Bolivarian Revolution. When I arrived here I saw the heavens opening. Because here there was a constant battle. I was tired of hearing about soccer in Spain, I am a soccer fan, but all you would hear in the lines, at the bakery, the bus, was soccer, soccer, soccer. By God, doesn’t anybody see that they are ripping us off, and we are screwed? And that we are living in misery because of our politicians? And that made me fall in love from the moment I got here. With anyone, anywhere, in any strata you can talk and practice politics. Not only to talk politics but to practice it. Each one at his own level, we all participate. The revolutionary, the non revolutionary, the so called “ni-ni” neither one nor the other. We all participate in the day to day. From the moment you get on the bus. I was amazed, when I arrived I thought, shit, this country is magical. What’s going on here? There´s something important going on here. I was lucky to meet my wife and the mother of my two children, and everything became easier. Because distance hurts, my entire family is over there, and it is hard in many occasions, the contrasts. When I decided to come over here about seven years ago, “Where the hell are you going with that nut Chávez, what are you getting into? Your going to hell, you’re crazy!” Now friends call me and ask, how are things over there? Things aren´t that bad? In those seven years we have gone through extremely important changes. Because when you´re from another country, it is difficult to understand how a person can be idolized, how he becomes almost a semi god. I’m lucky to be able to understand through personal experience, why people love him so. Because they were excluded, to the point of not having identity papers and now they participate. Beyond the physical resources, they participate, they’re somebody. People have a conscience, that we only wish could have a portion of it in other countries. As I was telling you, they sell laws at the metro. Imagine someone at the Madrid metro selling laws. Who the hell would buy a law in Madrid, my God, he would starve. I have spent the last 27 years of my life working as an artisan. The work I do in pro of the artisan movement, has a strong link with my political conscience. Why? The artisan movement is the mode of production per excellence of the working class. It’s the only mode of production where the dominant classes have never been able to pocket its surplus value. Because in the artisan mode of production the artisan is not only the owner of his work force, but he is also the owner of the means of production. At this time there is a revolution principle we need to reinforce. Even though Chávez didn’t like discussing it and he might have had many differences with currents like ours, at the end his statements were clear. The power of the people, the Popular Power, the revolutionary power that we could eventually develop from organizing and from the poor classes, can only be done outside the state. It’s impossible to do within the state. You then have a political bureaucratic crust, that has lost contact with that process. So the best thing we can do at this time, even the comrades that are in the government, is to transfer the largest number of decision making elements to the organised people. Starting for example, with the social missions. the nutrition programs, development programs, self defense included. Communications. many elements. At the same time, the people must take the reins of this process. It’s the only way out. This of course is not a matter of decree. It is a matter of preparing the political circumstances. Because a crust, secluded in itself, condensed in a type of core, now called political-military. It is clear that this process could be lost at any time. In 2000, since Chávez appeared with his proposal I was one of the people that identified with that proposal. And all these years I have worked in order to build that society, that new society that we are committed to building. Because all those years of struggle were destined precisely to that. To the construction of a new society. A more humane, more just and harmonious society. So that is a challenge for the government. Anyway, outside of the government we will do our work. This revolution is also ours, it’s not a government´s problem. It´s as much our problem as the government´s in any case. And if the government wants to assume it, assume it. We have assumed it. And as time goes on we will carry upon our shoulders this historical challenge, because we are talking about conquests of the people, not just belonging to political parties. When you are in a process like this, as much as we have been able to transform Venezuela, you have very important conquests to defend. If the government wants to take part in defending them, they are welcome. Venezuela is a country with an enormous amount of natural resources that were being badly distributed. For many years, the ruling classes were profiting from these lands. But the people will defend them, with or without the government. So, that is the real revolutionary process. This is, of course, my personal point of view. I have no reason to say this is the last word or the truth. But, from the perspective of those of us who have crossed and been part of this history. And who will continue to be part of it. Until victory, brother. Because there is no defeated people as we said the 27 of February, after they killed and massacred 5,000 people in Caracas. Because if we want a pretty revolution. Lasting for all the Venezuelans, its not just one group. It’s for all Venezuelans, all Venezuela and for the whole World. Because that’s why Chávez was making his panorama, his sketching in all those states, to see if he reconciled those states as revolutionary, socialists in the entire World. So those who want to ruin the revolution, has to go to jail, then. And if he gets too tough the state should ……. From this space called Tiuna el Fuerte, name of an indian warrior from our ancestral struggles. We want to say that Venezuela is free, Venezuela welcomes you, whenever you want. We live in peace here, yes there are world complications, yes we’ve been dragging negative things from history. But we move forward towards kindness, love, the integration of Latin America, brotherhood and a better life for the entire World. Another World is possible! Long live Chávez the “Arañero”. Subtitles by the Amara.org community