---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alliance for Global Justice <[email protected]> Date: Fri, May 16, 2014 at 10:46 PM Subject: Venezuela Solidarity Weekly, May 16 To: [email protected] [image: Alliance for Global Justice]<http://org2.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=IXP9dbaVL48PK4HUrvOI8b5yOvCmRwDu> Venezuela Solidarity Weekly *From **Correo de Orinoco <http://org2.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=lzZq%2B4UTO3Hfje8Mth3FWO38w%2BfZ5bUb>* *Seven new universities created in 12 months* As the people of Venezuela celebrated and reflected upon the first year of Maduro’s Presidency, the Minister for University Education offered a balance of the advances made in the field since Maduro was elected by popular vote last April. Minister Melendez explained that in the previous 12 months, the Maduro administration has created or rehabilitated no less than seven university institutions, more than were built in the entire 10 years previous to the1998 revolution led by Hugo Chavez. The new public higher education institutions offer university level education free of cost to thousands of citizens in remote parts of the country, and join an increasingly powerful public university system which includes the 36 new institutions built during the Chavez administration. In the last year, university enrollment has increased by 130,000, advancing from 2,503,000 in 2012 to 2,629,312 at the end of 2013. In 1998, before the revolution, only 700,000 students were enrolled in tertiary education. Venezuela now has one of the highest university enrollment figures in the world. *National Minimum Wage Raised 30% in Venezuela to Combat Inflation, Provide Dignified Salary* As International Worker’s Day was celebrated on May 1st, the Venezuelan government made its traditional announcement of an increase in the national minimum wage. President Nicolas Maduro informed this year would see a 40% raise in the minimum wage and indicated that another increase could come in the last trimester of the year. The Venezuelan government also continued with it's economic offensive this week by initiating a series of regional commissions intended to jump start domestic production and fight speculation in the nation's private and public sectors. *Economic Reforms, Fight Against Speculation Continue in Venezuela* The Venezuelan government continued with its economic offensive by initiating a series of regional commissions intended to jump start domestic production and fight speculation in the nation’s private and public sectors. In the states of Zulia, Monagas, and Aragua, government officials met with representatives of the nation’s industries to sketch a plan of action that will stimulate growth and help put an end to the problem of shortages that has affected the economy over the past months. Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela’s Oil Minister and Vice President for Economic Affairs, has spearheaded the commissions. “We need to expand our productive forces, amplify our capacity to produce and strengthen national production... It is for this reason that I am again making a call to all of our workers, all of our colleagues who are part of our productive apparatus to create a powerful force which through collective work will take strides to replace an economy based on oil rents,” Ramirez said during a conversation with socialist President Nicolas Maduro on April 22. The meetings are part of a wider package of reforms being implemented by the Maduro administration and which have included a loosening of the South American nation’s capital control policy. In March, the government announced the creation of a new exchange regime, SICAD 2, which has opened access to foreign exchange for businesses and ordinary citizens. The measure has been designed to fight speculation in the price of the dollar on the black market and to relieve the pressure for exchange that has caused a bottleneck for many importers of basic goods and industrial inputs. President Nicolas Maduro commented that the newly formed working groups have the goal of “fine-tuning our productive plans for the reactivation of our economy and for economic growth.”The head of state informed that the government’s aim is to “to resolve specific problems which each economic sector has in a given state and maintain our productive offensive to strengthen our supply [of basic products]”. Maduro has outlined 11 strategic sectors that will receive increased attention from the national government in the ongoing evolution of its economic reforms. These areas include oil, petro-chemicals, construction, industry, agriculture, agro-industry, textiles, mining, manufacturing, communications, and high technology. A total of 1,689 businesses were represented at Monday’s session which Rafael Ramirez described as “tremendous.” “The Bolivarian Revolution has given visibility to our national development,” he said during the meeting in the eastern state of Monagas.“We have a plan that is profoundly national, revolutionary, and points towards socialism”, Ramirez explained. “Nobody should be afraid of that word. It is socialism with characteristics specific to our Bolivarian system which allows the state to have control of the fundamental elements of economic planning. But the national private sector should do what it is meant to do: produce. Produce more and produce better.” In accordance with the alliance being forged with private businesses, the government is offering financing to productive sectors through its National Development Fund (FONDEN) and the joint Chinese-Venezuelan Fund. “Once again we are reaching out to productive business, commercial enterprises and Venezuelan industries so that we can work together to achieve the final objective [of increasing domestic production]”, said Tareck El Aissami, Governor of Aragua state. *FIGHTING ECONOMIC SABOTAGE* Parallel to the national government’s overhaul of economic policy and a reconfiguration of its foreign exchange regime has been a heightened offensive against criminal activity in the private sector. Andreina Tarazon, Superintendent of the Maduro Administration’s Fair Prices commission, announced that more than a thousand audits of companies and individuals around the country have resulted in the arrest of 18 people for price speculation and fraud. “We are announcing to the country the forceful action that we’re taking in the fight against impunity which is one of the principal elements that we must combat in this second phase of our economic offensive,” Tarazon declared. The Superintendent commented that those detained by the authorities over the past week have been linked to crimes that include the re-selling of price controlled primary food products. Tarazon also mentioned the problem of contraband and illegal trade with Colombia which she considered to be “one of the crimes which lamentably most affects supply in our country.” *According to government estimates, more than 35 percent of Venezuelan products end up in Colombia for resale as a result of smuggling.* The functionary informed that members of the Fair Price Commission have been deployed around the country to inspect “everything that has to do with the distribution, commercialization, and production of food products.” “The principal irregularity is the speculation which occurs at different levels of the productive chain. Many times the vendor ends up having to pay inflated prices from the wholesaler. For this reason, we believe that it’s fundamental to address the whole structure of the productive chain,” Tarazon said. This latest round of audits follows on a similar initiative started by the Maduro administration in November and December of last year which saw the forced lowering of prices of consumer products after the government uncovered usury and corruption. The Fair Price Superintendent assured that the work of the commission will continue alongside the working groups established by the national government. “We are incorporating more than 800 people in the second wave of training for the Fair Prices Commission. They are colleagues who are going to join us with a socialist ethic to strengthen the commission”, Tarazon affirmed. *MINIMUM WAGE RAISED* On Tuesday, President Maduro announced a 30% increase in the national minimum wage, bringing the standard salary to 4,251.78 bolivars. In addition to the minimum wage is the food, bonus, required for all workers, which includes an additional 1,351 bolivars, bringing the total wage to 5,602 bolivars per month. 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