SPECIAL REPORT: Wide gap continues to exist between the rich and poor despite myriad social programmes implemented by President Hugo Chavez, but Chavez's core support continues to come from the poor

Lying between the rugged Andes and the Caribbean Sea, Venezuela's sprawling capital city of Caracas is home to millions of the country's poor - the core of support for socialist President Hugo Chavez ahead of the country's presidential election. Poverty-stricken Venezuelans dominate western Caracas, eking out an existence in hundreds of shantytowns scarring the landscape. It is here where Chavez has launched many of his "missions", social programmes designed to help the poor - a significant change in a country where the poor had largely been ignored for decades. The missions are funded directly by profits from the state oil company, PDVSA and, according to Chavez, they are aimed at achieving social justice, social welfare, eliminating poverty and raising educational standards for all Venezuelans. One such mission is Mercal, a chain of some six-thousand government subsidised supermarkets which sell food and medicine at one third less than the market rate, making them more affordable for Venezuelans with low incomes. Grateful for his heavy spending on social programs, many poor Venezuelans see Chavez as their champion. America Urbina, who lives in one of the poorer neighbourhoods explained. "He is the only president that we have had that is humane; he is always in touch with the people, always. In fact he has always delivered on his promises. He's a humane man, a really humane man," she said. Chavez has also attempted to make strides in health care for the poor by establishing clinics and building and upgrading other health care facilities for the poor in their neighbourhoods. He has also used his close relationship with Fidel Castro to bring Cuban doctors to Venezuela to work in the facilities in exchange for shipping cheap oil to Cuba. The moves have given a large proportion of the population access to healthcare for the first time, according to analysts. Luiz Enrique Garcia Bermudez, a university lecturer, said that Chavez's social programmes are breaking down the social and economic exclusion that used to exist in Venezuela. "From 1999, the President, in spite of the great political opposition that he had both at home and abroad, has managed to achieve a situation in which the average Venezuelan can have access to another way of life (higher standard of living) and can have other life goals, that were not written down (achievable) before," he explained. The missions do not stop at providing welfare - some focus on providing employment too. Cooperative ownership is encouraged, and a small businesses have sprung up nationwide, including factories that produce the Chavez campaign paraphernalia. Gustavo Jose Xuniga, a worker at a new shoe factory, found his job thanks to the employment initiative. He said it has helped him find a purpose in life. "We are totally sure that this project is unique, it is practically the life project that we were hoping for," he said. Chavez often speaks of his plans to build a better Venezuela, to empower the poor and help them improve their circumstances. The missions are intended to do just that along with democratic reform, he has said. "A solid and deep democracy that has popular power in first place. A true participative democracy. This is our option to give power to the people, especially the poorest and the weakest so that they can lift themselves up (and out of poverty). It is our option to build a developed, modern, productive and diversified economic model to develop the country. As we have been doing, as we have been achieving," he outlined. However, Chavez's support for the programmes is limited. Eastern Caracas is home to the Venezuelan elite. Golf courses and country clubs, parks and greenery abound there, as well as a small, but deep-seated opposition to Chavez. The wealthy reap little benefit from Chavez's policies and some, like Eastern Caracas resident Julia Gomez, even say that the country has regressed since he came to power. "After having been practically one of the most advanced countries in the Americas, we have gone back 30 years. It's a real embarrassment," she complained. Still, it's hard to deny that Chavez's social programmes have added a new dynamic to the traditional social order, according to Director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Larry Birns. "The poor, known as the pardos, the browns, they never benefited from the oil wealth that started coming in after World War II. The infrastructural development, the bridges, the parks and so forth took place in East Caracas - not in the poor neighbourhoods. So oil wealth was irrelevant to the poor because they never benefited from it," he said. Chavez is largely expected to win the December 3 election. Recent polls show that he still holds a significant lead - some 30-odd points - over rival Manuel Rosales, with much of his support coming from the poor.

ITN Source | November 23, 2006