Government plan to keep people in poverty

Some days ago Education Minister Héctor Rodríguez appeared on VTV explaining the accomplishments of the Bolivarian Revolutions in poverty reduction, but emphasizing that the process needed to be accompanied by “political organization and debate” because “It’s not like we are going to pull people out of poverty and turn them into middle class so that they then aspire to become escuálidos (opposition supporters),” he added.

Today El Universal interviewed William Requejo, described as the director of Unión Vecinal para la Participación Ciudadana from Catia.

Requejo thinks that the Minister’s delcaration reveals a government plan to keep people in poverty:

“it openly recognizes that the government does not truly want us to get out of poverty because then we will become opposition and they will not be able to dominate us any longer. That got me thinking that this is all part of a premeditated plan, and other people I have talked to have the same opinion. (…) For example, the housing projects they have built are bad quality because that’s what they want. The education they are giving us is mediocre because they are interested in indoctrinating, not educating. They are not taking care of the barrios because they don’t think it’s useful to do so. Now I’m beginning to suspect that bad services are not just incompetence, but part of a plan. They are trying to close private commerce so that we become more dependent on the government, (…) even rampant crime could be part of the plan. The idea is that we remain poor forever.”