2013: Skype Link 1 - South of the Border

Following the showing of our first film South of the Border on 15th September, we had a live Skype link to Merida, Venezuela with Ernesto Terán, father, student and community activist. The sound quality wasn't great on the night, but it was good enough to transcribe later. Questions were put forward by members of the audience, answers from Ernesto were translated by Paul Dobson.

Can all the children in Venezuela go to school, do they go and is it free?

Good evening everyone. First I would like to thank you for your show of solidarity. In reference to our schooling system, a child can go to school at any age. I think we’re one of the most advanced countries when it comes to primary education. The Venezuelan state guarantees the right to every Venezuelan child without any discrimination to free education. Not just from a point of view of the laws but in practice the way the children can access primary education.

For example this is done through textbooks, exercise books, uniforms – these sorts of things in schools. The children here have no reason not to have textbooks and notebooks because the government, the revolution guarantees it. It doesn’t stop there; children also have free access to mini-laptops.

What is the situation regarding food availability in Venezuela?

With reference to access to food in our country our revolution has generated new types of market with the objective of guaranteeing accessibility to all of the basic foods. In creating these we guarantee access by the poorest people to the basic foodstuffs, poor people can access such foods with a 70% subsidy, an example of the policy of our President Chavez.

Equally, Chavez created an organisation called PDVAL, a market aimed at the middle class with stipulated prices. At the same time alongside we have private supermarkets.

Maduro, the actual president, has advanced the very same missions aimed at the working class in Venezuela. This doesn’t mean access to food is guaranteed because of some of the problems in the development of the revolution.

How have the changes in Venezuela affected you and your family?

The family is a fundamental structure in the development of this revolution. We’ve advanced a lot in equality between male and female within a relationship. Not just the rescuing of family values but also in the organisation of the work which allows you to attend to your family.

Personally we’re living excellently at the moment. We’re living so well that we have another child on the way! It’s a revolution which guarantees us as a family all the possibilities of growth for our children. Our economic ability, our ability to buy things, has grown greatly under the revolution. Previously one had to dedicate themselves to either studying or working because the system didn’t allow both. Now this has changed. Because of the programmes that have been set up by the revolution we have good access to regulated foodstuffs which allows us to live much better. We also use the universal system for free health care. I don’t have enough words to fully explain what the revolution means in the family place.

You’ve described how things have improved, but people in England wonder why the vote went down at the last election?

About the electoral processes and the voting system in Venezuela, the differences in the percentage of the vote in the first place can be largely attributed to the death of our eternal president. Without a doubt the campaign launched from outside of Venezuela through the means of the private media did influence negatively the revolutionary vote in Venezuela.

President Chavez was, and still is, a leader who was and is deep in the hearts of the Venezuelan people. Chavez had a great ability to guide the people – the revolutionary people but also the opposition – in a certain direction. In time, President Maduro will be developing the legacy of President Chavez and I am really convinced that the vote will be superior to the previous one.

What is the current situation regarding the electricity supply?

Our electrical system is very old and the previous republic, the fourth republic before Chavez, was only concerned about selling off the electrical grid. The arrival of the revolution to our country meant a massive increase in population, industry and commerce. Which resulted in a greater consumption of energy and we are left with a lot of installations which are almost obsolete from the previous government. It’s the revolution and our President Chavez that have made the most effort to modernise the electrical grid. Despite this the amount we pay for electricity here, the tax, is one of the lowest in South America.

Have relationships between the USA and Venezuela improved under Obama’s presidency?

The foreign policy of our country and our revolution is, and always will be, sovereign – based on dignity and respect for the human being and the population These are values which President Obama doesn’t have for us. The policy of the North American bourgeoisie does not allow the relationship between our countries to improve. We have very good relations with the people of North America; President Chavez sent gas and petrol at subsidised prices to the people of the Bronx with the intention of protecting and humanising an African-American community which has been abandoned by the Americans. The interests of Imperialism are very different to those of the revolution here. Despite that, our diplomatic channels have done their work and we maintain relations between our government and their government, we’ll keep making the effort so the North American government can understand.