SOCIETY 354 /2010

LATEINAMERIKA
DIPLOMATIE
years has become an indispensable forum
for the discussion of regional affairs. You
will find different models of development
in our continent. Chile has chosen a certain
path and our becoming full member of the
OECD is quite indicative of the model of development
we have chosen. Yet at the same
time we respect the path others have decided
to follow. I believe we are moving in the
right direction.
***
H.E. ALI DE JESUS
UZCATEGUI DUQUE
Ambassador of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela
New Strategies
Justice for an Exhausted World
What is the importance of the Bicentenario
for the people of Venezuela and for you
personally?
The celebration of the Bicentenario, for
Latin America as well as for Venezuela, is a
moment of jubilation in which we remember
the heroic deed of our patriots who matured
the idea of liberty and achieved the
independence of our rising Republics, the
most ancient ones, from the Spanish
Crown; as well as an invaluable opportunity
to emphasize our democratic and republican
vocation, our politic and economic
sovereignty and our ratification as worthy
peoples, builders of our own destiny.
As well, this celebration has a special
connotation for Venezuela. 200 years after
the achievement of our independence, the
democratic government lead by President
Hugo Chávez Frías made huge steps towards
a new model of administration, and
during the last 10 years, the necessary
structural changes have been reached
through the Bolivarian Revolution supporting
the establishment of the “Socialism of
the 21st Century”, without any doubts a hope
not only for the Venezuelan people as
well as for the whole Latin American society,
for its objectives of the full achievement
of liberty, the sustainable process
and the social justice which are so alarmingly
needed in today’s exhausted world. It is
also important to point out that our Bolivarian
Revolution, above all things, is humanistic
and was realized in peace and democracy,
supported by the majority of the
Venezuelan people.
How would you see the current development
of Venezuela? Oil production is the
biggest income for Venezuela, but it depends
on market prices, which is “both a
blessing and a curse”…
With regards to the oil production in Venezuela,
the country’s principal source of
income, like you said, it’s a blessing and a
curse at the same time. The second one in
virtue of the fact that no Venezuelan government
ever anticipated what we now designate
and develop with the “Oil Sowing
Plan”, converting the Venezuelan economy
in an importer of the principal consumer
goods for our population. Without any
doubt, the policies of the Bolivarian Government
give first priority to the “sowing” of
lots of resources obtained from the oil sale
in the fields of technology, agriculture as
well as manufacture to achieve a domestic
production which satisfies not only the national
consumption, but also because of the
surplus would be suitable for exportation.
It is important to add that our governmental
policies during these last 10 years aimed,
as a blessing for the Venezuelan population,
at guaranteeing fair oil prices at
international level, investing the benefits in
programs of priority social attention, created
by President Chávez parallel to the governmental
organisms.
How would you assess the future of Latin
America as a unity?
In Latin America and the Caribbean,
there is a tremendous willingness to cooperate
and a large amount of other elements
that make it possible for us to work towards
the development of an alternative model of
civilization. In fact, some examples of this
model are now consolidating, in countries
that have established fully democratic social
projects, with an ideology geared towards
using natural resources as a source
of regeneration and conservation.
Latin America and the Caribbean are
still at the vanguard with regards to the
idea that the world should not simply be
determined by economic interests and accumulation.
We have to desperately seek
means of combating this exhaustion. Today,
Latin America and the Caribbean represents
to the humankind a territory open
to the alternative, where we are constantly
implementing new strategies so that the social
justice can reign in relative harmony
with the planet. Therefore, the full integration
of Latin America and the Caribbean is
one of the open hopes of the world.
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