Warmth for poor (New York City) consumers (Courtesy Hugo Chavez)

VENEZUELA: Nutritious food a ‘basic human right’

Owen Richards

We’re crammed into a small kitchen, maybe three by four metres, with blue concrete walls. Lining the walls are shelves stocked with kitchen basics — string bags of potatoes, garlic cloves, carrots, pumpkins and melons. There’s a bucket of chopped onions. A giant stainless steel pot waits empty on the gas stove. Four women and a man, in matching red aprons, hand-roll fish cakes and banana balls. A tiny wall fan hums in the background.

It could be a kitchen anywhere, but it’s quite different. The members of the Caracas section of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Brigade are here in Guaicaipuro Casa de Alimentaciones on July 29, witnessing firsthand one of the social achievements of the Bolivarian revolution. It is here in this modest house that 150 people come daily to receive two free meals.

There are some 4000 of these kitchens now across Venezuela. They are only possible because of the revolutionary will of the Venezuelan people and the assistance provided by the government of President Hugo Chavez.

Established to guarantee access to nutritious food — particularly for pregnant women, children, the over-60s and the extreme poor — the casas are nonetheless open to all.

They will not accept any money for the food, not even a donation. In fact, they have been instructed by the government to feed everyone who visits, even if they be from rich First World countries. And that is how we came to be eating delicious fishcakes, banana balls and rice complimented by endless arepas and fruit juices. The point of feeding tourists and fact-finders, they tell us, is to show the world that their food is both tasty and nutritious.
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Venezuela Food Program
by Roberto Jorquera
July 12, 2005

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On June 26, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez hosted his weekly TV show from the city of Coro, about six hours west of Caracas on the Caribbean coast. The 226th episode of Hello President was dedicated to the launching of a new food market and "food houses", both state-run centres that provide discounted basic foodstuff.

During the program, Chavez said that the aim was to provide for more than 15 million citizens, or about 60% of the population. Mercal is a food distribution network that currently distributes over 4 million tons of food every day and employs over 47,000 people. His announced increase in the number of shops will be funded by the profits that Citgo, an affiliate of the oil industry body PDVSA, made in the US market during the first quarter of 2005.

As the central leader of the Bolivarian revolution, which is changing the face of Venezuela, Chavez has become a hero to Venezuela's poor majority, and a devil to the wealthy oligarchy that has traditionally dominated the country's parliament.

During the December 2002-January 2003 oil industry sabotage and lockout of workers, the local community joined with sections of the military and national government to provide a network of food distribution to counter the shortages caused by the lockout. This system was later organised into the Mercado de Alimentos (Mercal) food market in April 2003. At that time three shops were launched. Now, there are 14,185 such shops throughout the country.
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The shortage of food has been part of the ongoing problem of agricultural land ownership in Venezuela. It is estimated that 75% of the land is owned by 5% of the population. Much of this is either used for export food production and the rest is not being used at all. During the big oil boom of the early 1970s, the Venezuelan government and large industry simply relied on importing food using the oil revenues and so there was never any plan for domestic food production.
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Venezuela to Help Bronx Residents With Heating Oil Bills

By MANNY FERNANDEZ and JUAN FORERO
Published: December 6, 2005
About all that Belkis Bejaran had ever heard about the firebrand leader of faraway Venezuela was that the combative populist often hurled verbal insults at President Bush.

Then this week, with a sort of bemused gratitude, she heard that Hugo Chávez's government, which sits on the Western Hemisphere's biggest oil supply, would provide cheap heating fuel to her landlord, reducing her monthly rent this winter by more than $100.

"I find it weird, because he's always talking about the administration," said Ms. Bejaran, 38. "Then, all of a sudden I heard he was going to provide oil for the South Bronx. I was surprised."

In a gesture combining generosity and high theater, officials from an American subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company announced today from a chilly corner of Mount Hope that they would sell heating oil at a 40 percent discount to 75 apartment buildings in the Bronx, benefiting 8,000 low-income residents in what is shaping up to be a cold, fuel-guzzling winter.

In a deal brokered by Mr. Chávez and Representative Jose E. Serrano, a Bronx Democrat, Citgo, a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, will in the coming weeks provide 8 million gallons of fuel to properties owned by three Bronx nonprofit housing corporations, the Mount Hope Housing Company, the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation and VIP Community Services. As officials huddled together to keep warm, the first 500 gallons were pumped from a green Citgo truck into a valve on the sidewalk outside a 56-unit building at East 176th Street and Townsend Avenue operated by Mount Hope.
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Democratic New York Rep. Jose Serrano.