Hugo Chávez Gómez

Venezuela is a democracy since 1958. It has been very dysfunctional, there is corruption as much as you can imagine, there is nepotism, there have been violations of human rights all the time, but it has been a democracy for many decades since then. I grew up in a country where people could more or less criticize and insult anyone they wanted and they did that often with all their heart. Some did get into real trouble by expressing their ideas before and since Chávez came to power, over 9 years ago. Still, Venezuela has been a democracy all the time...sorts of.
We make a lot of noise, we resist. We are used to that.

That is why Chavez has had so many troubles to reach his personal goals. That is why gullible foreigners have been puzzled by the claims of some parts of the opposition that Venezuelans live in a "dictatorship". There is such a thing as a mixed political system. There is Lukashenko light. There is Venezuela.

If you happen to visit Venezuela in the context of some EU delegation, if you belong to the left part of the Left and you are staying at a nice hotel with cable TV and you happen to watch Globovisión or another similar fierce opponent to Chavez, you might arrive at the conclusion that Chavez is a democrat and a rather permissive politician. If you just visit some shopping centre and take a guided tour by Chavista officials to some slum, you might become more sure Venezuelans live in total democracy. You might hear Globovisión saying Chávez is behaving like a dictator, that he is a monster, that corruption is unprecedented and nepotism has reached incredible levels. And you might think: well, that is not what one hears when visiting a country like Belarus or Cuba. You would never hear something like that in Iran or in China either.

The thing is: Chávez has been trying to push us into a dictatorship and things went well for him as long as petrodollars were flowing in fast enough. Chávez has played the game as long as he knew he had good chances. He threatened in a more menacing way when he felt more insecure. In 1998, when he was running for the first time, he kept saying if he did not win, "The People" would stand up and violence would ensue. He said the same thing time after time before the referendum of 2004, when it was not clear he would win. He kept repeating that time after time.
Chávez popularity started to drop last year. Corruption has been too much, mismanagement cannot be covered up by the huge amount of petrodollars, crime has hit everyone and all threats are way too much for the average Venezuelan.

Last December he lost a referendum. The referendum was intended to allow him to run for president as many times as he and, of course, The People, wanted, and it had some sweeties as well intended for the people (don't confuse with The People). Since then he has kept repeating people were lazy for not going to vote for him en masse, people did not understand the issues, his workers did not do their jobs and he once said the opposition's victory was just a pyrrhic
victory and one that was "shit, shit, shit".

He started saying he would push for his reforms in other ways. It seems he even forgot the sweeties he was adding to his reform to get it passed in December (sweeties like a 6 hour work day in a country where productivity is very low). His obsession is staying beyond 2013 and that is all he talks about, apart from hammering on against Colombia's government.

Yesterday Chávez declared in Aló Presidente that he would press for a referendum in 2010. That referendum would be ask people "a little question" (he keeps repeating "little" all the time). People would be asked if they want to allow indefinite reelections.

He said, more importantly, that there will be a war in case in the next elections a "counter-revolutionary" would win.

"If Hugo Chávez - he often talks in third person - has to hand over the presidency to some else, he won't give power to a counter-revolutionary because if he did, we would have a war. I am telling those Venezuelans who are confused or angry not to be short-sighted, we are the project of peace".

Hugo Chávez Frías is known for using the personality cult to Simón Bolívar in ways similar to what old dictator Juan Vicente Gómez did. He might be wanting to "Gomez us" in other ways now as well. What might he be thinking for 2013? He might think

1. to let someone with the same maternal and paternal DNA he has be the president of Venezuela, someone like...hum, minister of Education Adan Chávez Frías
   
2. to let a pawn of his do the same, someone like PDVSA chef Rafael Ramírez or any other "revolutionary" he likes
3. to use violence in spite of results. In that case he would say the opposition did not leave him any option and he would have done it for the people (even if we know it is for the The People).
   

How can someone still call Chávez a democrat if Chávez is not able to accept that a "counter-revolutionary" may become the president of Venezuela, even if the people wants another person he does not like? Why would there be a war if the opposition wins and Chávez says he is the project of peace?

A reference about Gómez:

Juan Vicente Gómez claimed to have been born the day Simón Bolívar was born (well, our good chap Chávez does not say that about himself, it would be hard to believe). He was president of Venezuela from

• 1908 until
  

• 1914 when he gave the power to puppet Victorino Márquez Bustillos until
  

• 1922, when he took over officially again and was president until

• 1929, when he selected puppet Juan Bautista Pérez, who ruled in his name until

• 1931, when Gómez took office again until he died in 1935, according to his friends on the very same day Simón Bolívar died.
  

Ps.
To the EU observers: it takes more than just watching Globovisión in a nice hotel in Caracas (and going to guided tours) to get a picture of the state of democracy in Venezuela.

Ideas for Management in Venezuela

10) GENERAL MANAGEMENT

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela.

10.1. MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE:
The correlation between governmental salaries and the average salary should be in the same ratio as in developed countries. It is not possible that government officials in Venezuela have the salaries European deputies have while the Venezuelan average employee earns so miserably.

Salaries of big politicians need to go down and their income must be better checked during their careers and after they have left their jobs. A Venezuelan priest has found out what deputies, ministers and other governmental officials earn. It is a real shame. Just one tiny example: every current deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly earns around 192 million Bolivares a year (16 million a month) PLUS 10 months of salary at the end of the year. That is around 352 million Bolivares a year. A German deputy earns around 7009 euros a month or, in Bolivares, 259 million Bolivares a year. I will try to find out how many months of additional salary they get every year, but it is definitely less than 4 months. I will also try to find out what the average NETTO payment is in Venezuela. In Germany, deputies will give away half of their salaries in taxes. Is the salary of Venezuelan teachers compared to the salaries of deputies on the same scale as in Germany? Although it is understandable that deputies and other higher officials be payed more than the average, their salaries in Venezuela are completely out of proportion.

10.2. FORBID PERSONAL PROMOTION WITH STATE FINANCES:
Neither the national nor the local governments should employ the money of Venezuelans in campaigns for themselves. Expensive billboards promoting any figure should be prohibited by law. No pictures of president or governors or mayors on billboards. Billboards announcing public works should be standardized.

Ideas for Tourism in Venezuela

9) TOURISM

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela in this blog.

9.1. OFFER PUBLIC TOURIST OFFICES LIKE IN MEXICO, CANADA AND THE UK:
The government must run tourist information offices in every major city and at least in the 20 most important tourist spots in Venezuela (including Maiquetia). The tourist information offices must be run in a similar way as in Canada, Great Britain, Mexico or Spain and they should work in cooperation with local hotels, cultural centres, restaurants. Tourist information offices own by the State should sell maps and cards and help local artists to sell souvenirs that represent the region to tourists.

9.2. PROMOTE VENEZUELA AS TOURIST DESTINATION:

The Ministry of Tourism should present at least once a year a report about what it has done to increase tourism from abroad in Venezuela. The costs of any campaign abroad to promote tourism in Venezuela should be carefully justified.

9.3. OFFER INFORMATION IN ENGLISH IN VENEZUELAN MUSEUMS:

Venezuelan museums should display information also in English. The schools of Modern Languages of the Central University, the University of Merida and other institutions can help the government with the translations.

9.4. PROMOTE THE ACUARIO DE VALENCIA ABROAD AND IN VENEZUELA:
The Venezuelan government needs to promote the Acuario de Valencia and similar places in the main Tourist Offices and abroad (there should be at least one in Maiquetía, one in some central part of Caracas and one in Margarita).

9.5. RESCUE THE PIEDRA PINTADA INDIAN SITE IN CARABOBO:
This site needs to be rescued. Right now there is a very dangerous slum next to it and people are afraid of visiting the field. The area is not protected at all against erosion. The museum is scarcely supported.








These petroglyphs are located in the Piedra Pintada Centre in Carabobo, close to Yagua.
Right now there is a little museum with little protection.
Close to the area there is a dangerous area from where armed robbers come to assault the visitors that arrive there.
The stones are located on top a small and very dry hill. There is no protection, visitors can tread everywhere and the hill is eroding very fast. This place needs urgent protection.
Among other things, the authorities need to:

• Place a permanent police post in that area anyway. It is the Wild West right now.
• Give more resources for the museum that is located on the foot of the hill. The museum should have:
  
• an overview of Indians in the whole central region of Venezuela
• a description about their encounters with the Spanish Conquistadores
• a full description of the rites we know about them
• an overview of what we know about their languages
• a general overview of Indians in Venezuela.
• some examples about the influence of Indians in Venezuela
• a description about how to donate to a special fund for protecting Venezuela's cultural heritage.
  
• Improve the road leading here
  
• Declare the whole area protected and keep it clear from further constructions
  
• Create a good protection against erosion: well established paths and any other measure to guarantee the site won't continue crumbling down.
  
• put signs warning visitors not to trespass the area.
  

Ideas for health in Venezuela

7) HEALTH

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela in this blog.

7.1. START A GENERAL PROGRAMME ON BIRTH CONTROL:

Venezuela has one of the highest birth rates in South America. The government must carry out a campaign for reducing the growth rate. Among other things, the State must:

• Organise educational campaigns in all secondary schools regarding birth controls, informing about the huge problems for those girls who get pregnant too early and without a solid financial basis and denouncing how both men and women need to take responsibility for their children.

7.2. MAKE ALL BIDDINGS FOR HOSPITAL CONTRACTS PUBLIC AND THE SELECTION TRANSPARENT:

Whenever a hospital has to deal with a third-party and there is a bidding, this needs to be public and the process must be controlled by authorities that do not belonged to the hospital. Controllers should rotate.

7.3. DIGITIZE THE INVENTORY OF ALL HOSPITAL MATERIAL, MAKE REPORT OF THEFT IN HOSPITALS COMPULSORY:

Right now lots of people are stealing from hospitals: security workers, doctors, nurses. The honest people report the thefts, but the hospital administrators do nothing and the police much less. One should be able to track down the disappearance of material and make the police report on their findings of thefts. National police inspectors and the media should be able to check how many reports of thefts have been followed up.

Ideas for the Venezuelan population

7) POPULATION

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela.


7.1. BETTER POPULATION REGISTRY:

The government should have a better knowledge about where people live. The address of everyone should be registered digitally. Every person wanting to move on a permanent basis should report that to the authorities. The authorities can do random controls or check the address by means of electricity bills or similar bills.

7.2. VENEZUELANS SHOULD HAVE REAL IDs

The current ID cards are a complete joke. They can be falsified fairly easily. The government needs to introduce electronic cards, but this should be a process planned a couple of years in advance.

7.3. IMMIGRATION:

The Venezuelan government should have a complete programme about immigration. It should declare how many citizens it plans to accept every year as immigrants. The government should be able to track always what employees have process the immigration process of immigrants. The Venezuelan citizenship should be awarded only if the immigrant has a good knowledge of Spanish and some basic knowledge about human rights and a general idea about the Venezuelan society. Tests such as done in Canada should be introduced.

7.4. VENEZUELANS ABROAD:

Venezuelans should be able to get their national IDs at a Venezuelan embassy abroad if they are legally living in the country where that embassy is. If not, they should at least be able to vote by using their Venezuelan passport. Right now only Venezuelans with a national ID can vote. If you are a Venezuelan abroad, you are registered at the embassy but you lost your ID card, you are prevented from voting. Right now you can only get a national ID in Venezuela.

Ideas for Venezuela's environment

6) ENVIRONMENT

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela.

6.1. TEACH CHILDREN IN SCHOOL TO THINK AND ACT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT:
Schools need to teach children more about the environmental problems looming. Children must show they can actively discuss (presentations, works) about such issues as the effects of throwing rubbish everywhere (almost a Venezuelan hobby), about the pollution caused by cars and planes, about the species in danger in Venezuela, about water pollution. They should present at least one work (preferably presentations) every second year during their primary and secondary studies.

6.2. INTRODUCE VERY HIGH FINES FOR POLLUTING:
Very high fines should be introduced for those polluting national parks (also just throwing litter there). This seems quite obvious, it is not in Venezuela.

6.3. INTRODUCE RECYCLING IN VENEZUELA:
Recycling should be introduced gradually in Venezuela. Firstly, glass containers should be placed in well designed places as they are in Europe.















6.4. TAX SUVS:

SUVs should be more heavily taxed than other vehicles and the money should be invested in public transportation.

6.5. ESTABLISH BINDING PLANS FOR CLEANING UP THE ENVIRONMENT: RIVERS, AIR, BEACHES:

Local governments need to have very concrete goals about how to recover areas that have been geologically damaged. For instance: authorities need to reduce the pollution getting into the Cabriales river in Carabobo step by step, from its source to its end, until it is again a clean river. They should also control the sewage systems going to the Caribbean AND publish online on a page of the Ministry for Environment what studies have been done and what the level of pollution in the different places is. People should be able to verify this information and report irregularities there.

6.6. PRODUCE A SPECIAL RESCUE PROGRAMME FOR THE VALENCIA LAKE: The Valencia lake needs to be rescued from its incredible pollution and transformed into a tourist attraction.
For that, we need to:

• Have a comprehensive list of all polluting agents (which companies, which areas)
• Make the list of culprits publicly available
• Propose a concrete schedule for cleaning up the mess (agents need to be fined if they do not comply with stringent environmental norms, the government must speed up the development of water recycling mechanisms)
• create tourist attractions (after an open bidding: boats, restaurants, permanent security to visit the couple of existing islands)
  

6.7 CREATE A COMMISSION FOR FISHERIES AND SUSTAINABLE FISHING IN VENEZUELAN WATERS:

Right now the European Union, Japan and other countries are plundering the seas of poor nations to get the fish they cannot catch anymore in their countries. Overfishing has taken dramatic proportions. The Venezuelan government needs to develop a clear policy to guarantee that Venezuelans get fish first and that stocks can always recover.
Check The End of the Line for more on this.

Ideas for Culture in Venezuela

5) CULTURE

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela.

5.1. OFFER MORE CULTURAL PROGRAMMES AND LESS PROPAGANDA:
The Venezuelan government needs to take off political propaganda from the public TV and add more diverse cultural programmes. Venezuelans cannot be forced to watch one or the other programme, but they should be able to have more offer from the public channels on such issues as natural science, on how Japan, Europe and the US developed, on how they can set up their own business or what environmental wealth and problems Venezuela has.

5.2. PROMOTE THE PUBLIC USE OF PEMON, GUAJIRO, WARAO:

All public signs in areas with significant Indian population must be written in Spanish and in the language of the Indian community. This goes for all the Guajira region (Guajiro), the Gran Sabana (Pemon) and the Delta (Warao).

5.3. MAKE THE INSTITUTE FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES SOMETHING REAL:

The government should guarantee that the announced Institute for Indigenous Languages does work for the preservation of those languages:

• coordinate with the Indigenous communities the creation of dictionaries and grammars not only for universities but above all for the communities themselves
• promote the translation of basic textbooks in those languages
• foster the interest in those languages among all Venezuelans
  

5.4. PROMOTE MUSEUMS AND THEATRES AT SCHOOLS:
The government needs to promote school visits to museums and theatres.

Ideas for Security in Venezuela

4) SECURITY

This is part of all the ideas about Venezuela.


4.1. FORCE ACCOUNTABILITY AND OPEN DEBATE ABOUT CRIME:
The Minister of Interior and Justice must explain to the Venezuelan people on a regular basis the progress on security issues. The minister must:

4.1.2: report every month how many murders were committed on the previous month:
This is not done regularly in Venezuela. The minister of Interior just reports some figures when it suits him (usually from the couple of isolated weeks when the murder rate is not climbing further).

4.1.2. report crime statistics on long term basis:
The government must produce every year a comprehensive statistical record for murders in Venezuela taking into account the development of the murder rate for the last 10 years and explain how the situation compares now with the one before this government took office.

4.1.3. declare publicly under oath that the statistics have not been massaged and that they are not redefining what an actual murder is (more on this later)

4.2. MAKE ROADS MORE SECURE THROUGH REAL DRIVING TESTS:
The Venezuelan government needs to reform the process of driving licences in Venezuela. The driving licence schools in Venezuela are mostly scams: the vast majority of Venezuelans pay for getting the driving licence. Tests are usually a formality: testers just dictate the answers to the people "taking" the theoretical examination, practical tests are nothing more.

4.3. ENFORCE A TECHNICAL CONTROL OF ALL VEHICLES OLDER THAN 4 YEARS:
As in Europe, every vehicle must pass a technical control after it is over 4 years old. It also needs to pass that test the first time it hits the road (this should be done by the car seller).
A vehicle should be tested, as in Europe, for:

• correct identification of the vehicle (plate and chassis number should be in accordance with papers
• smog emissions in accordance with certain international standards
• all brakes
• transmission
• view (all mirrors should be working)
• chassis should be in good condition
• front and back belts must be functioning

Check how they do it in Great Britain: Baseefa
If a car does not pass the test, the owner has 2 weeks to fix that and take the car to a new test. A car without control permit should never be allowed on the road. Accident insurances should then be invalid.

4.4. FORCE ACCOUNTABILITY ON ROAD SECURITY:
The Venezuelan government needs to publish online on an easily accessible site the amount of deaths in traffic accidents for every single month and show how the numbers are decreasing (more on deaths by traffic accidents later)

4.5. INFORM ABOUT DRUGS AND THEIR DANGER:
The military needs to distribute information (in the form of brochures or other means) everywhere, even in the most dangerous slums informing, about how harmful drugs are.

4.6. GET BETTER POLICE AGENTS:
Policemen need to be better payed and better selected.

4.7. GET MORE POLICE AGENTS:
There must be more policemen (but then we firstly need 4.6). I will find out about the amount of policemen per 1000 inhabitants, but I understand the ratio is very low in Venezuela.

4.8. CREATE AWARENESS AMONG DRUG IMPORTING NATIONS:
The government mast carry out a permanent campaign in Europe and North America for a lower consumption of drugs. Consumption in the North drives demand and promotes more crime in Venezuela and they should be reminded about this as often as possible.
Every tourist arriving in Venezuela should get a brochure warning about the heavy penalties involved in drug trafficking and asking them to carry the message home that drug consumers in the North are in great part responsible for the drug related crimes in Venezuela.

Ideas for Industry, Science and Technology in Venezuela

3) INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela.

3.1. PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY THAT BENEFIT THE COUNTRY:

Let me be clear: scientists should be free to explore in whatever they want as long as the research is ethical. Still, the government should actively promote a little bit more the development of technology that helps us become more competitive. To this end, the national and state governments should promote prizes for the best student projects to develop local technology, replace foreign products, produce possible products for export or in any other sense contribute to a sustainable development.

The Asociación Civil Eureka is a good example to follow, but there should be more such organizations and all universities should promote their activities with more energy.

3.2. PROMOTE DISCUSSION ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES TO DEVELOP

The state governments and the institutions of higher education should organise yearly a congress open to everybody where students and teachers, government officials and entrepreneurs can discuss about what possible technologies Venezuela can develop and reach a reasonable comparative advantage in the world economy.

What can come out of those fairs?

• brainstorming sessions for state functionaries meeting students, teachers and entrepreneurs
  
• possible ideas for university spin-offs
• agreements between the institutions of higher education and companies

3.3. CREATE A MECHANISM THROUGH INTERNET FOR BRAINSTORMING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND VENEZUELA'S DEVELOPMENT

Universities, research centres, companies should have a well-known channel through which they can constantly contact the Ministry of Industry and Development and the Ministry of Education to propose possible focuses for research, scholarships for students abroad and governmental subventions for startups.

3.4. THE MINISTER OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE ELECTED BASED PRIMARILY ON SCIENTIFIC AND MANAGERIAL RECORDS

The national government should have a minister of Science and Technology who has been selected by the universities and scientific institutions of the country. Political affiliation should be irrelevant.

3.5. PROMOTE STRONGER TIES WITH GERMANY'S ACADEMIC WORLD

The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the main German support organisation for international academic co-operation. The Venezuelan government should increase its cooperation with it. Although Venezuelan scientists can profit from studies in Germany, Venezuela should focus now a little bit more on having Germans teach Venezuelans in Venezuela.

Ideas for the Venezuelan Economy

2) ECONOMY

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela

2.1. TAX EVERYBODY, INCLUDING STREET VENDORS WHO EARN ENOUGH:
Street vendors usually earn little, but there are some who earn a lot. There are many of them who are just working for some big fish who earn a lot. They usually sell imported products and they pay no taxes. The government must demand a tax declaration from anyone selling and so find out who the ones making the money are. As usual, the more you earn, the
higher the percentage you must pay. Some of the street vendors, believe it or not, make much more money than normal owners of shops who do pay taxes. The government needs to have programme for offering illegal vendors a way into legality.

2.2. TAX LAND IN A FAIRER WAY:
Taxes for land tenancy needs to be increased substantially (specially for big landowners)
and the taxes need to be distributed to projects for the poor in the same region.

2.3. DEMAND FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY FOR POLITICIANS:
All Venezuelans should be able to find out how much their politicians are paying in
revenue taxes.

2.4. INCREASE TAXES FOR LUXURY GOODS:
The Venezuelan government needs to increase taxes for a series of luxury goods like:

• whiskey and other alcoholic drinks
  
• cigarettes
• yachts
• guns
• luxury cars

Luxury goods coming from abroad must be taxed very heavily. It is incredible and a real shame that the consumption of whiskey in poor Venezuela is higher than in Scotland and that is just one example of many about our eternal "nouveau rich" mentality.

2.5. MAKE VENEZUELA MORE COMPETITIVE VIA EXPORTS:
The Venezuelan government should liberate the currency exchange. The extremely overvalued Bolivar is badly hurting all producers in Venezuela while exacerbating the dependency on imports.

2.6. BRAINSTORM BETWEEN GOVERNMENT, ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY:
Representatives of the Venezuelan government needs to meet at least once a year with representatives of universities and industries to discuss for one day about how to make Venezuela a more competitive country. Each group should publish its conclusions and these data should be made available to the public.

2.7. PROMOTE UNIVERSITY COURSES TO ENHANCE COMPETITIVENESS OF VENEZUELAN INDUSTRY:
Universities should promote courses within careers such as industrial engineering and computing where we can get develop competitive advantage on the middle term.

2.8. PROMOTE UNIVERSITY SPIN-OFFS:
The government should help in the finance of spin-offs coming from the universities, specially if those spin-offs are aimed at exporting technology from Venezuela.

2.9. STOP THE CHEAP PETROL FOR THE RICH AND COMPENSATE THE POOR:
The Venezuelan government needs to stop financing the rich and promoting smuggling: the price of petrol needs to rise substantially. The current price in Venezuela is simply too low. Several governments have tried without success to increase petrol prices. Carlos Andrés Pérez tried it in 1988-89 and that was one of the causes of the riots of what came to be known as El Caracazo. Other governments tried it as well to no avail. Chavez announced at the beginning of 2007 that he would no longer finance the rich and he would increase oil prices. He then recanted, everybody seems to have forgotten about the idea. What is happening?

• Venezuela is losing vast amounts of money from the petrol subsidies
• The country is collapsing due to the craziest traffic in the world
  
• A huge amount of subsidized petrol is being smuggled out of the country
• Venezuelans are on top of petrol consumption and thus of per head pollution in the world

Take a look here at how we stand in the world with our petrol prices:

(the Y axis is dollar per gallon)






















As you see, we have the cheapest petrol on Earth. Only Iran and Turkmenistan are somehow close to us and still petrol is much cheaper in Venezuela than in those countries: 0.17 dollars per gallon in Venezuela against 0.29 dollars per gallon in Turkmenistan or 0.33 in Iran (or 0.38 in very poor Nigeria, 2.36 in Mexico or 7.30 in Italy)

Sources: Wikipedia

2.10. INFORM HOW PETROL PRICING WILL BE FAIR AND BENEFICIAL FOR ALL:
The government needs to inform well in advance about how it will compensate the poor for the rising prices and how it will ensure prices are not passed to the poor: public transportation must be subsidized, only private vehicles should be affected.

2.11. ESTABLISH CLEAR TARGETS TO GET OFF OIL ADDICTION:
The government needs to establish clear targets to make Venezuela less dependent on oil and the president must declare every year what has been accomplished. She or he must state the percentage of Venezuelan exports that are not related to oil for the previous year.

2.12. CREATE A PENSION FUND BASED ON OIL REVENUES:
Oil is not going to last forever. We are probably reaching the Oil Peak. Venezuela needs not only to diversify on income, but to save for the years of the lean cows. We should set a fond based on the experience of other countries such as

• Norway, with the Government Pension Fund of Norway
  
• Abu Dhabi, with its ADIA Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

FAIR TRADE

2.12. DEMAND FAIR TRADE AND THE END OF PRICE DUMPING BY RICH NATIONS:
The Venezuelan government should stop spending time in insulting other governments and start working together with other countries from the South in demanding a fairer trade with the North: EU and US need to reduce subsidies to their exports and taxes to imports from the South, else Venezuela and the other countries need to take measures to balance the unfair trade. Right now the EU and the USA are dumping lots of products into the markets of poor countries while closing their markets to exporters from the Third World.

Ideas for Education in Venezuela

1) EDUCATION

This is part of all the ideas for Venezuela

1.1. PROMOTE LEARNING THROUGH EDUCATIONAL OLYMPIC GAMES:
The government should introduce a series of math and science competitions for kids in poor sectors. Prizes should be books, scientific material and extra courses they can select.

1.2. STOP PERSONALITY CULTS OR POLITIZATION:
The government should neither politicize education nor promote personality cults of dead or living personalities. We should stop behaving like another Turkmenistan.

1.3. TEACH HOW TO SET UP BUSINESSES AND MANAGE MONEY:
The government must introduce compulsory courses on entrepreneurial skills and basic finances at the beginning of secondary school.

1.4. PAY TEACHERS FAIRLY IN COMPARISON TO POLITICIANS:
The ratio between the salaries of Venezuelan teachers and deputies should not be higher than the one in developed countries such as Finland or Switzerland. That is: Venezuelan deputies should not earn 2000% more than Venezuelan teachers, while Finnish teachers earn "just" 50% of what their deputies earn.

1.5. RAISE REQUIREMENTS AND STATUS FOR TEACHERS:
The status of educators needs to be reviewed. The government must increase the requirements to become a teacher as well as the attractiveness of the job.

1.6. INDEX TEACHERS' SALARIES:
Teachers' salaries should be indexed by law: they must be raised automatically at the beginning of each year according to last year' inflation as registered by the Central bank. Teachers should not be begging all the time.

1.7. COMPARE VENEZUELA'S BASIC EDUCATION WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD:
Venezuela MUST take part in the PISA testing programme. Our government avoids like hell any kind of real accountability on anything including its work on education. This must change. Venezuela has to take part in the PISA programme, as other non-OECD countries are already doing.

The first results will show our education levels are disastrous, even for Latin American standards. The education minister must commit himself to raise the position of Venezuela within 3 years. If she or he does not accomplish that, she or he must be sacked.

Read here for more information on this topic.












The ACM is an interesting organization that needs the support of the government and the private sector.

1.8. DISCUSS EDUCATION WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR:
The Venezuelan government needs to meet at least once a year with the private sector and discuss what skills workers need and what can be done to make the Venezuelan workforce more competitive. The government needs to publish a report at the latest one month after such meeting has taken place.

1.9. IMPROVE PUBLIC LIBRARIES VIA LUXURY TAXATION:
The state must use taxes for some luxury imports pay for more public libraries and give more books on mathematics and business skills to existing libraries.

1.10. IMPLEMENT A REAL SYSTEM FOR LENDING BOOKS:
The state must implement a system whereby people can borrow books in an efficient way. Most books in Venezuela's libraries are for reading inside the premises only.

1.11. DISSEMINATE INFORMATION ABOUT AVAILABLE LIBRARIES:
All schools must publish a list and address of all public libraries in the area. All public libraries must publish the same list on the front door. This seems like a very tiny detail to suggest here, but believe me: I know how necessary it is. I remember as I discovered when I was a child that there were other public libraries in Valencia than the one everybody knew about and that almost no one knew about them. I asked the people at the main library why they did not hang out the list of other libraries so that people could go there. They did not know what to say firstly and the someone said they did not do it because they had only one copy of the list. I asked them why they did not make another copy or let me (a child) make a copy for them and put the list on the door. They just thought it was not possible.

1.12. BUILD MORE CLASSROOMS:
There should be more classrooms and thus less pupils per teacher.

1.13. IMPROVE SCHOOL LIBRARIES:
Public schools should get more books for their libraries and schools should promote that pupils can borrow them.

1.14. INCREASE SECONDARY SCHOOL TIME:
Venezuela's high school should last one year more. Venezuela has one of the shortest secondary education systems. Most pupils are vastly unprepared for what they will find at university level. The beginning of university is often lost as "preparation for university". One needs to tackle this, among other things, by working in an extra secondary school year on such issues as mathematic and writing/reading skills.

Question

I need to put this here again as the fact still astonishes me. I just do the conversion into euros for European readers.

Why does a Venezuelan "Socialist" deputy earn

5,085.06 EUR every month PLUS TEN MONTHS of bonus plus expenses for trips and other work related issues?

As you can see here Venezuela is just at place 88 in GDP according to GDP per capita.

Here the references to a well-known Venezuelan priest who found out how much our Venezuelan "heroes" pay themselves.

Tax rates in Venezuela are much lower than in Germany, costs of most things are lower as well, so Venezuelan deputies are living very well. The same is the case for most of the top politicians we have now.

Isn't it a shame in a country where there are so many poor people?

The Chavez clan

For reference, here we present an inventory of who is who in Chavez's clan:

Hugo de los Reyes Chávez	Hugo Chávez's father	governor of Barinas state since 1998, formerly primary school teacher, is said to go every 3 months to Cuba for health checkups
Elena Frías de Chávez	Hugo Chávez's mother	formerly primary school teacher
Adan Chávez Frías	Hugo Chávez's brother	minister of education, formerly ambassador to Cuba (chosen by his brother)
Adelis Chávez Frías	Hugo Chávez's brother	vice-president of Sofitasa, organizer of the Copa América
Hugo	-	president of Venezuela
Anibal Chávez Frías	Hugo Chávez's brother	mayor of Sabaneta
Narciso (Nacho) Chávez Frías	Hugo Chávez's brother	director of the Venezuela-Cuba health agreement, formerly English teacher, he got into important posts at the diplomatic representations in Canada and Cuba
Argenis Chávez Frías	Hugo Chávez's brother	vice-governor

A very interesting article about the Chávez clan was published in the New York Times in February of 2007. You can go to it here.

A report from Match (definitely not my favorite source of information, but still interesting) in French can be seen here.

Haciendas:

• La Chavera (more on that in Spanish here)
  

According to Por Cuba y Para Cuba also:

• Laberinto (900 hectares)

• La Espoleta

• San Judas Tadeo

Chávez's home tome is Sabaneta and his state is Barinas.

Do you wanna kill it?

I don't. Who would like to kill such a wonderful creature?
The Pink Freshwater Dolphin?
Or another endangered species like the manatee?

Not many people, I suppose.

What can we do to prevent such animals from getting killed by an oil accident like this one?















The Venezuelan government wants to find more oil. It has a problem: a lot of that oil is in the Orinoco Basin. PDVSA, the state oil company, wants to install a set of oil rigs in the Orinoco to start in 2008 production and there is no real research on the consequences. There is no environmental study guaranteeing the ecosystem is not going to be affected. We know how accidents in the oil industry in Venezuela have multiplied since2003 and we are afraid a lot can happen if no control takes place.

What can we do?

Ideas?

Socialism, Venezuela-style

It is not easy to compare the standards of living between different countries with very different taxation systems and prices. Still, I wanted to compare the ratio of deputy/teacher salaries in Venezuela and in a European country like Germany. Salaries in most other countries are more or less lower, but the ratio between salaries for teachers and deputies is more or less the same as in Germany.

A Venezuelan teacher (single, no child) earns monthly around 1300 Bs plus Bs 206 in meal tickets (which are not counted for their pension later on). They also get 3 month bonus at the end of the year.

A Venezuelan deputy earns like a satrap: 16000 Bs. a month plus 10 months of salary as bonus PLUS expenses for trips and other work-related issues. That is much more than what a German deputy earns in absolute terms and Venezuela's prices and taxes are in general much lower than Germany's.
















It was not only in Medo-Persian times, but also
in these times of the XXI century socialism



The salaries of Venezuelan deputies are nothing special for Chavez's top level administration. We thank this information to a well-known Venezuelan priest-journalist, padre José Palmar

A Venezuelan teacher does not pay income taxes because she does not earn enough to pay them. I am still not sure about the amount of taxes Venezuelan deputies pay. I will try to find out about that, but it is going to be difficult: transparency is not Venezuela's official motto.

Calculating what deputies really earn is more complicated. As this site shows (one can get similar data from the German government fairly easily or by visiting the Bundestag), a single no-child Bundestag member would earn something like this:

Gross salary: 7.009,00 euro

From this he would expect to pay the following:

Income tax: 2.198,25
Solidarity payment with Eastern Germany: 120,90
Church tax (most still pay it): 197,84
Social security:274,95
Another compulsory health insurance (Pflegeversicherung): 29,96

The net income would be around 4.187,10 €

He would also get 3.647 euros for compensation work for which he will have to pay his trips to and from Berlin as well as a second flat and office if he does not live there permanently. Most deputies fall under this category as Germany is a federal state where members of the Bundestag are expected to spend quite some time in their constituencies and Berlin is far from most other big population centres in Germany. You cannot be just commuting from Munich, Cologne or Hamburg every day.

If the German Bundestag member does not spend a lot, he would give around 500 euros for a second flat in Berlin. He would also give something like 500 euros for an office there and 500 for an office in his constituency and around 1000 (this is not compulsory!) for his party if he really expects to have the chance to be elected again. The German government will pay the salary for possible assistants directly to them.

The salary of a German teacher varies a lot depending whether he is a "Beamter", a public servant for life, or a normal employee. If he is the former and he is a single person without children, he will get 2300 euros net and will have no right to strike. If he is just a state employee (as it is the case in Eastern Germany and for some teachers in Western Germany), he would get 1600 euros (again, if single and no kids). This is a big difference, but still the dimensions are way from what we see in Venezuela.

The following chars try to put in perspective what deputies in Venezuela and Germany earn gross. The blue part of the first chart shows what percentage of the "deputy pie" a Venezuelan secondary school teacher gets and the second one what a German teacher gets of the German pie a Bundestag member gets.

Basically, a Venezuelan teacher earns 5.5% of what a Venezuelan deputy earns.
A German teacher earns 42,8% of what a member of the Bundestag earns (gross salary).


























Salary is not everything. Teachers also need to have had a very good education, they need to have gone through a strict selection process, they need to get all the time intellectual and other professional stimuli (formation courses being just one example), they need to have good teaching materials at hand and not too many pupils for each classroom. Last but not least, they need to have some status based on what they earn compared to others. As we have seen, deputies in Venezuela earn like little satraps in comparison to what the general population earns.

One cannot be surprised that Venezuela was LAST in Unesco's 1998 test for mathematics in Latin American secondary schools: it was behind Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, even Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. The salary is not everything, but one sees what a "wonderful example" the socialist deputies (and all other high officials of this regime) are giving to the people.

Chávez declared some time ago he expected high politicians to reduce their salaries and donate something. He himself donated some dollars he got from Khadaffi for a prize for Human Rights (yeah) and one of his politicians declared he was donating part of his library to the country. I haven't heard much of the others. Meanwhile, everyone in Barinas, Chavez's region, speculates about the land the Chávez clan possesses now and what all his relatives working in high posts might be earning.

And yesterday Chávez declared he will push again for a reform to allow himself to be reelected without any limit.

Venezuelans, math and words

One, three, two...I have advocated Venezuela's participation in international academic tests. Our country must determine how well it is really doing by comparing its pupils' skills to those of other countries. OECDE's PISA programme is, within its limitations, one of the best tools at hand now. Many other countries are already taking part in that programme. Venezuela is not.

Here you have a graph based on UNESCO's test for math and language skills carried out in Latin America in 1998. That was, as far as I know, the only time Venezuela measure itself up to other nations.

Only Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia were worse off in literacy in South America. Venezuela was at the bottom of South America in math. Cuba was at the top. Perhaps there are good things we can learn about Cuba, even if it is a dictatorship and its economy is in a mess. Could we be curious enough to find out why Cuba was doing so well for Latin American standards? And why Colombia and Chile do much better than Venezuelans?




As a whole, math results are not so great for Latin America. According to Gustavo González, from the IPS, throughout Latin America, "education in language-related subjects such as writing and comprehension is better than in mathematics"
I assume there is a reference to another region if they say "reading is better than maths", or else we actually need to find out how they were comparing math with literacy results, apples with pears. Anyway, we in Venezuela, should have been doing much better if we wanted to develop the technology and other tools we need to be more competitive. How are we now? We do not know. We haven't participated in other studies for Latin America and we haven't taken part in good global studies like PISA.

The latest PISA results have shown Latin American countries are at the bottom of the list of countries participating in the OECD programme. If those countries like Chile and Colombia are at the bottom of OECD academic results for secondary schools and we were at the bottom of South America for UNESCO's test of primary schools in 1998, in what place do you think we would appear if we took part in the PISA programme? Most likely we would be the last of last.

That would be very embarrassing. Still, I believe we must go through it and we must join the club of nations that check their skills with one another and try to learn from that. We need to know where we are and what we must change. If we take part in the PISA programme, we will be able to check how we stand compared to the following countries:


















It is very unlikely that a Venezuelan government will want to participate in PISA. The reasons are obvious to Venezuelans: Results will tell us a lot about the mess we are in and our politicians do not like that. They hate accountability. Results will made us ask questions. Politicians want us to adore them instead. I do not imagine Chavez sacking his brother, the current minister of education. I am afraid that when the Venezuelan opposition gets into power, they would react similarly: let's not put ourselves to public scrutiny, let's not make ourselves too accountable.

Is someone going to prove me wrong? I certainly hope so. I hope one day we Venezuelans as a whole will be top of the class.

To find out more about PISA, go to the Wikipedia article or directly to OECD's PISA results for 2006

How to protect the Land of Grace

4 February 2008: THIS IS JUST A DRAFT. MUCH MORE INFORMATION WILL COME UP HERE FOR MARCH OF 2008


I went to the magnificent Gran Sabana on a bus some years ago and while going there, I saw several times people from the cities throwing their beer and plastic cans to the road.

I continued on my road from Santa Elena de Guairén to El Paují on a jeep together with a Spanish photograph, a couple of friends and a couple of miners. I got into conversation with the miners and asked them, as if I did not know, how they extracted the gold from the sand and stones. They told me it was with mercury. I asked them if mercury was not bad for the jungle. One of them said the jungle was fine, it was their health that suffered.

One guy in the same region told me about the trade with the gorgeous blue-yellow and red parrots you can find there. I asked him if he did not think their numbers are dwindling. He said there are many of them and there was no way that could happen. It reminded me of Dona Barbara again, with this belief of the overpowering nature that - so they think - cannot be completely tamed or destroyed.

I went to the top of a mountain close to my home town, Valencia. After a while, a couple of young people arrived as well. They took notice of the great view I was enjoying as well. They finished drinking something from a bottle they had brought and then threw the bottle into the forest below. I told them one should not do that and they looked at me as if I were a weird alien or "a sissy".

I visited some people and saw they are holding a couple of rare canaries in a cage. I asked them if they knew those birds were becoming extinct and they said those birds would have been killed if they were out in the wild. I ask them if those birds can reproduce in those cages. They admitted that won't be the case.

Last time I went to Venezuela a friend took me on a boat trip to several islands of the Morrocoy National park. Apart from the worldwide disappearance of most chorals, I could witness how people have managed to transform many places into a garbage dump for their whiskey and fish-eating parties on their yachts at sea or at the beach.

I heard several alarms about beach contamination. I felt people were taking those announcements as if they were weather forecasts...but the pollution does not come from the sky. It comes from the sewage systems of factories and towns.

Sometimes I could hardly breathe in the demonic traffic we have developed in Venezuela. Everyone feels entitled to drive in zigzags with the almost free petrol we have there and if they can, they try to do it in the largest car they can buy. You are nothing if you do not have a car and they promptly ask me what car I have in Europe (I have a Nissan, I want to change it for something smaller and more environmentally friendly).

Here I will start to describe Venezuela's environmental problems and some ideas about how to tackle them (at least some attempt from a layman). This is going to be again a post that is going to evolve through the next months.

So, if you bear with me, let's start putting up here some information that might be useful for those wanting to do something against Venezuela's auto-plundering.

This is the first plan:

THE MESSS IN OUR CITIES

THE MESS OF VALENCIA LAKE

The Valencia or Tacarigua Lake is receiving sewage from Valencia as well as the waters coming from the very dirty Cabriales river. This has lead to massive algal blooms and a continuous increase of the lake's surface.

We have destroyed a place that could have provided a lot of resources for the region.

Even if the landscape is beautiful, pollution and lack of any infrastructure makes tourism not viable.


THE MESS OF MARACAIBO LAKE
THE MESS IN MARGARITA
THE MESS IN THE ANDES
THE MESS IN AND ON OUR BEACHES

There are permanent pollution reports in many coastal areas in Venezuela. What authorities usually do is give warnings and prevent people from going to the beach. The government should above all focus on preventing such pollution in the first place.
Here we will be writing on the main polluters. In the Ideas section of this blog we will propose some solutions

THE MESS IN MORROCOY

There is no control over what yachts do there. People simply discard their rubbish untreated in the sea. Corals are dying out. Even if they are affected by global climate conditions, the environmental strain in the area plays a big role here as well.

This choral is still surviving:










This coral is dead:












THE MESS IN THE GRAN SABANA AND AMAZON

There is mining going on in many places of the Amazon and the Guayana shield. Mercury is used all around. The military who are supposed to watch the area are not doing their work.


THE MESS IN ?

WHAT TO DO?

Technorati Profile

Murder in Venezuela

Murder per 100000 inhabitants per year


On January 3rd, Hugo Chavez announced a new cabinet. He also declared he would soon explain (again) how he was going to combat crime.

I did this graph using the stats from Seguridad Ciudadana. and the different sources present in the Wikipedia article.

You can see the development of the murder rate in Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, France and the United States. Statistics for most of Western Europe are similar to those of France.

I have very strong doubts about the latest figures for Venezuela: Jesse Chacon is said to have ordered the redefinition of what a murder as minister of (Des-)Information and then as minister of (In)Justice. Since 2003 many cases are considered "uncleared deaths" and not murders. Even the latest numbers about murders in the country do not correspond with this.

The Venezuelan government stopped sending statistics about murders to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2003. Here you can check the reports and the missing data for Venezuela after that date.

I will write more on this issue about statistics massage later here.
The development of crime has been more or less similar in most countries in Latin America, with some exceptions like Guatemala. So, unlike what the extreme left says, crime is specially out of control in Venezuela since 1999.

Here you can see how many ministers we have had in charge of 'solving crime':

Chavez's Ministers of Justice	Started	Remarks
Ignacio Arcaya	1999
Luis Miquelena	2000
Luis Alfonso Dávila	2000
Diosdado Cabello	2002
Lucas Rincón Romero	2003
Jesse Chacón	2004
Pedro Carreno	2007
Ramón Rodríguez Chacín	2008-?

I will be adding the results for crime counts according to different sources and also a list of the ministers declarations on crime.

Here you have an article about the conflicting statistics on murder in Venezuela (both sides are shown)

Who is right? Why don't the political actors dare to debate all their numbers live, for all Venezuelans to see and judge? Why do we always have to have a dialog of the deaf?

Cocaine from Venezuela to Europe

Should Europe care more about Chavez's government and governance in Venezuela?
I think it should.

Spanish La Razón has talked some about this here
El Universal quotes also La Razón saying 80% of the cocaine arriving in Spain goes through Venezuela.

Some of the goodies found since 2003 in ships coming from Venezuela are:

• three tones of cocaine on board of Poseidón
  

• three tones more on Caridad C
  

• 3,1 tones on White Sands and last but not least
  

• 4 tones transported by the Fabio Gallipolli, (sources: Spanish CICO, Centro de Información sobre el Crimen Organizado).

Drug dealer Farid Feris Domínguez, now in a Colombian prison, said Venezuela has become a land of refuge for drug dealers since Hugo Chávez is in power.

All lies from the Imperialists? All lies from "le media-mensonge", as some from the extreme left claim? We need to be careful with any source coming from the US government (remember the weapons of mass destruction). Still, things here are quite different. We see how crime has blossomed during Chavez time. The Spanish authorities have said repeatedly that they are finding the Venezuelan government hardly cooperative and then there is the proof in the increasing amount of boats...those boats were not "planted" by the CIA.

Cocaine is a growing nightmare in Spain and thus in the EU. They need to do a lot at home to combat consumption, but they also need to put on international agendas the discussion of the drug trafficking from South America.

Chavismo /km² in Carabobo

Apologies for the bad quality of this picture. I just drew it on a run.


This shows the density of the group who voted for Chavez' reform proposal in Carabobo on the 2nd of December of 2007: the redder the region, the highest the number of Chavistas per square km. (based on CNE figures on votes for Si as shown in the table below).

There is no rocket science here. The NO won in Carabobo, as in all major metropolitan areas. We know Chavismo is still strong in the poorest areas, but it is rapidly losing ground there. We also know it is particularly strong the farther you get from main cities.

Now, the map is interesting for other reasons: here you can see very easily the main regions where the opposition needs to focus to win national elections. A more granular mapping would be even better, but I haven't found one showing parroquias. The Municipio Valencia as a whole has a lower density of Chavista voters than Los Guayos, but obviously, there are big concentrations of Chavistas in the Southern part of it, in the poorer areas, specially in Miguel Pena. There, in Miguel Pena there are over 58000 people who voted for Chavez (or at least that is what the CNE says, read further). It would be very red in the map if we had the information about what its exact borders within the Valencia municipality are.

The opposition needs to address those people, ask them what they want and also think of proposals for the SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT of that population (something few people in Venezuela seem to think about).

Of course, one should not forget the less densely populated areas: conquering big amounts of territory might have an important psychological effect on everybody (this is specially the case for local elections).

Municipio	Sí voters for part A	% SI for part A	hard core Chavistas per square km (as SI voters)
Bejuma	7528	44,19%	16.05
Carlos Arvelo	27025	62,11%	32.37
Diego Ibarra	21786	66,2%	275.77
Guacara	29837	48,23%	180.83
Juan José Mora	29837	68,82%	37.17
Libertador	28120	57,17%	30.18
Los Guayos	26548	56,22%	363.67
Miranda	5585	56,68%	34.69
Montalban	3739	44,54%	34.94
Naguanagua	20898	35,94%	111.16
Puerto Cabello	33997	53,07%	78.33
San Diego	9137	26,46%	86.2
San Joaquín	10695	54,63%	84.21
Valencia	125798, of which 58718 are in Miguel Pena	40,78% (53,95% in Miguel Pena)	201.92

In Carlos Arvelos you have a little bit more SI voters than in Los Guayos, but in Los Guayos you have them all in a much more reduced place.

You can find a post of Caracas Chronicles here that talks also about the regional differences and what the opposition needs to address. Katy mentioned there the opposition parties need to go to the Llanos and do more work there.

I think what Katy said about minding the countryside is very important. Still, one needs to take into account the limited resources the opposition has and then think of ways to optimize one's efforts.

Just one interesting detail about the referendum in the Manuel Pena area: out of 62
voting centres, there is NO INFORMATION for 10 of them...and that in an urban area, in Venezuela's third largest city. How sloppy can the CNE be?

Voting Centre s SI-Block A votes for the Miguel Pena region within the Valencia area)

Anexo de Ruiz Pineda	977
Anexo Doctor Rafael Guerra Mendez	216
Centro Escolar Construccion Ford	217
Centro Preescolar Simon Bolivar	158
Colegio Luisa Caceres de Arismendi	777
Colegio Obra Social Don Bosco	1355
Colegio Ramon Ignasio Mendez	244
Colegio Miguel Angel Perez	1853
Colegio Antonio Ricaurte	2111
Escuela Basica Mon. Luis Henriquez	770
Escuela Basica Jose Regino Pena	4211
Escuela Basica Miguel G. Granadillo	1423
Escuela Bella Vista II	1539
Escuela Prof. Raul Villarroel	2157
Escuela 19 de Abril	863
Escuela Basica Bicentenario III	207
Escuela Basica Bolivariana La Paz	405
Escuela Basica El Milagro de Dios	392
Escuela Basica El Socorro	762
Escuela Basica Estadal General Diego Ibarra	UNKNOWN
Escuela Basica Estadal Trapichito I	UNKNOWN
Escuela Basica Irma Vivas de Marin	177
Escuela Basica Jose Felix Rivas	255
Escuela Basica Lomas de Funval	1391
Escuela Basica M. Arocha	UNKNOWN
Escuela Basica Ruiz Pineda II	1786
Escuela Basica Jose Antonio Paez	2460
Escuela Fe y Alegria Dr. Leopoldo	1894
Escuela Nacional El Prado	872
Escuela Nacional Isidro Ramirez	2121
Escuela Nacional Manuel Alcazar	1806
Escuela Ruiz Pineda	1980
Escuela General Dr. Fco Espejo	2846
Grupo escolar Alfredo Pietri	763
Grupo escolar Isabel Fernandez de Ichazu	1029
Grupo escolar Nacional Jose Pocaterra	891
Grupo escolar nacional Simon Rodriguez	1320
Grupo escolar Padre Bergeretti	1285
Grupo escolar Ramon Diaz Sanchez	673
Jardin de Infancia Bolivariano San Agustin	UNKNOWN
Jardin de Infancia Gustavo Machado	UNKNOWN
Jardin de Infancia Venezuela	331
Liceo Alejo Zuloaga	1816
Liceo Ponce Bello	2234
Liceo Alicia Ferrer	932
Preescolar Bolivariano El Consejo	309
Preescolar Lomas de Funval	UNKNOWN
Preescolar Ricardo Urriera	1965
U.E. Integral Lomas de Funval	1572
Unidad Educativa Colegio Luz de Carabobo	UNKNOWN
Unidad Educativa Creacion Libertador I	172
Unidad Educativa El Vecino Mayor	465
Unidad Educativa Felipe Nery Pulido	329
Unidad Educativa Manuel Vicente Romero Garcia	UNKNOWN
Unidad Educativa Rolando Carrillo	230
Unidad Educativa Rosalia Campins de Herrera	UNKNOWN
Unidad Escolar Caribay	UNKNOWN
Unidad Escolar Dr. Enrique Tejera	1528
Unidad Escolar Luis Beltran Pietro Figueroa	141
Unidad Escolar Negro Primero	1317
Unidad Escolar Reny Otolina	1081
Unidad Escolar Santa Maria de Calatrava	110
Total of SI A votes in that parroquia:	58718

Sources Miguel Pena: CNE


The opposition needs to

1. do more research on the distribution of people who still support this regime and address their concerns
2. Give special attention to areas where it can reach the most amount of people specially for national elections, without forgetting the more far away regions
   
3. Work out a strategy to traverse the less densely but still demographically very important areas while optimizing efforts (a version of the traveling salesman problem)
4. Find out what is going on with the lots of "no results" specially in places where the opposition lost. 10 schools with no results in Miguel Pena? Hello?