8-02-05, 8:40 am

Operation Milagro is extended to people in the United States

CARACAS, President Hugo Chávez reiterated yesterday, Sunday, that this year, some 100,000 patients from Latin American are to undergo eye surgery in Cuba.

On the 230th edition of his weekly Sunday program, 'Aló Presidente,' the leader noted that Operation Milagro (Miracle) also covers poor patients from the Caribbean free of charge, and has even been extended to the United States, where, he said, there is an increasing number of poor people, given that the Bush government is cutting access to Social Security.

He commented that the program is one of the missions of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a way of helping the region’s neediest, conceived of together with Cuba.

During the program, broadcast from the Fabricio Ojeda Local Development Unit in Gramovén, Catia, the president emphasized that the Revolution will become more profound every time that it is threatened or attacked. That will simply be the response, he affirmed, recalling the events of 2002 and 2003, when the onslaught by the oligarchy enabled the Revolution to advance toward the national referendum held on August 15, 2004 and then facilitated the further leaps forward. Chávez announced the construction of a Bolivarian school in that sector, and talked with workers in the local shoe and clothing factory. He also noted the advances in the formation of centers for local development in the country.

'We’re beginning the new model of socialism,' he affirmed, 'regarding development based on using all domestic potential and humanism. It is about going beyond capitalism,' he noted, acknowledging the diverse positive aspects of the Fabricio Ojeda Local Development Unit.

The president explained the need for integration and coordination in terms of strengthening people’s power, a key factor in the process of transformation underway in the country. In that respect, he praised the social production enterprise project.

Chávez exchanged opinions with individuals from the United States who participated in the World Poetry Festival that ended yesterday in Caracas.

The visitors expressed their satisfaction at the possibility of being in Venezuela and learning first-hand about that country’s reality. 'You fill us with hope and optimism,' one visitor said, in reference to the process of change underway in the country.

Chávez said that poverty must be eliminated, and referred to different initiatives for progressively dealing with the problem of children and the elderly living on the streets.

He also talked of building new towns, a response by the Venezuelan government to pay the social debt inherited from the past. The current reality is demanding a new system designed to progressively solve the problem. 

From Granma