EC Papers September 2018

Venezuela Trip 16th – 21 st July 2018

production project. We then visited the birthplace of Simon Bolivar which doubled as one of

his homes but u nfortunately we were unable to visit the Chavez memorial as it was under a

2 week reconstruction. We still took a photo outside and noticed that it was guarded on each

side by soldiers! We finished off the day with a tour of a local community centre Tiuna El

Fuerte. We then spoke with Pikey of Bituaya who discussed the struggles of the community

over the past few years, what the centre does for the community and their plan for the future.

Bituaya is a band from that blends Afro-Caribbean sounds with lyrics that reflect the life of

young people in Caracas. The community centre was set up to focus on developing worker

productivity, music and artistic talent within the community. Pikey spoke about how important

a tool it has been to keep the younger population safe, off the streets and help people gain

extra skills.

On Thursday we visited La Guaira were we attended a press conference to announce the

4th Congress PSUV (United Socialists Party of Venezuela) election results. There are 198

communities within the states and a total of 11 delegates are elected which include equality

strands such; youth, women and workers. We were able to discuss the different aspects of

the party and the elections with a member of JPSUV which is focused on the youth. He is

also a congress member, a member of the International Commision of the Youth of PSUV

and works in the Mayor's office of Vargas. We attended the National Congress meeting of

productive workers, where proposals were being put forth the committee to implement to

improve working environments where we were lucky enough to meet two ministers of labour.

At this meeting we took part in a quick television interview with local media. We were

honoured to have a working lunch with the Chairperson of the Mayor’s Office in La Guaria.

Next, we were given a tour of a social housing area in Vargas which was built in 2010 with

the assistance of Turkey. There are 1300 houses in this one compound, and is one of the

many projects which were initiated by Hugo Chavez. Finally we attended a meeting

organised in Las Tunitas by the Mayor to receive feedback and proposals of improvement

from people in the community. The atmosphere was amazing, it was loud, with dancing and

singing performed by children in the local area.

Friday involved attended a community soap factory which was seized during the revolution

due to a private enterprise failing to deliver what was required by the community . It was very

interesting and good to see local people stepping up to play their part in society, they even

let us get involved! After a tour of the small factory, they let us have a go at sorting and

packing the soap. This was a very quick and manual job, but it was a lot of fun! We

participated in a Q&A session with the factory workers about their economy, how they run