Senior NGOs: social decomposition running faster than political crisis

www.vheadline.com Posted: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Two senior Venezuelan NGOs, Cesap and Fudep report that 70% of community groups have disappeared over the past three years and blame the situation on a spectacular hike in public insecurity in Caracas Metropolitan area barrio slums.

Fudep leader Mari Gloria Olivo says things are so bad that people have to leave meetings at 6:00 p.m. to avoid being mugged … “before we could leave the barrio at 10:00 pm.” Olivo says the cycle can only be broken, if jobs and food come along … “what we are seeing is a complete breakdown of social relations.“

Cesap president Santiago Martinez argues that the social emergency is running at a greater rhythm than the political debate, and suggests five themes that need to tackled urgently: maternity and child care, a return of home creche programs (cuidado diario), nutrition and basic food health, employment and under-employment introducing creative temporary solutions, education for all, and insecurity and violence (trained police, disarming of civilians and elimination of paramilitary groups).

One local NGO has criticized the government’s public subsidized markets because it has put small barrio storekeepers out of business. “The once promising PROAL barrio stores selling cheap basic foodstuffs are not getting supplies ... which instead are going to the public markets.“

Fudep has received funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to organize workshops for community organizations called “participative diagnosis of the social situation."