Venezuela Celebrates 11th Anniversary of Bolivarian Revolution

CARACAS.— Venezuelans celebrated the 11th anniversary of the Bolivarian Revolution, the process of change initiated by President Hugo Chavez after he entered office for the first time in 1999.

At the ceremony, held at the Teresa Carreno Theater in Caracas, Chavez administered the oath to Executive Vice President Elias Jaua.

Jaua praised the contributions made by all his comrades-in-arms, especially those who fell fighting for the construction of socialism in Venezuela. He also thanked the peoples and governments that have given their support to Venezuela, making special mention of Cuba, its people, Cuban internationalist workers, and Raul and Fidel.

In his speech, Chavez issued a warning to the opposition,“Should there be a revolution in Venezuela, it would be against the rich, not against the Bolivarian administration. Those who are promoting rebellion have not realized this yet.”

“The Venezuelan opposition —Chavez continued— is blind. They lie, they manipulate the people and use the youth as cannon fodder in their sinister exploits because what they really are looking for are deaths to justify an attack and foreign interference.”

Chavez noted that despite the efforts of the opposition, the Venezuelan people understand the significance of the Venezuelan revolution and its struggle to regain control of Venezuela’s natural resources —which for many years were in the hands of transnational companies and the Venezuelan oligarchy.

The president concluded providing some figures that show the improvements made over the last few years. “In 1998, 70 percent of the Venezuelan people lived in poverty and 40 percent in abject poverty. And although eleven years is a very short time to address such a problem, we have managed to reduce poverty to 25 percent and abject poverty to a minimal 7 percent.”