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. 44 | <strong>SOCIETY</strong> 2_10
DER LEINER MOMENT: WENN SIE SICH VOR HERZKLOPFEN SETZEN MÜSSEN.