Venezuela, 1st National Public Consultation of 2025 continues

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The popular consultation on February 2 is also part of the strategy promoted by President Nicolás Maduro to empower the Venezuelan population. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00Before we take the topic off Venezuela, let's go live to Caracas with our correspondent

00:04Belén de los Santos for the details on how this first public consultation is going on

00:09in the whole country.

00:10Belén, welcome back to From the South.

00:11What can you tell us?

00:12Hello, Luis.

00:13Exactly as you were saying, we are right here in Caracas, we are at the El Paraíso Parish

00:26in the western part of the city, and as you were just saying, the consultation, the public

00:31consultation is still underway, they are actually voting right behind me, if you can see it

00:38across the street, this is one of the schools of this communal circuit in which the neighbors

00:44are coming here to vote, and we have been telling you throughout the day a little bit

00:48more about this experience, not just the numbers that you went over before we started this

00:54conversation, but also really what is happening in one of these communes and what is this

00:59public consultation for.

01:01So let me tell you a little bit about this parish in El Paraíso that we're here, this

01:06communal circuit, for example, in the past public consultations, they voted on a project

01:11to finance the repairment of different elevators in the different buildings of the community.

01:18Let's keep in mind that this is a community that has a lot of elderly people and a lot

01:23of very tall buildings and that when an elevator is not working, for example, this harshly

01:29affects the day-to-day life of the community.

01:32So the neighbors decided to put that funding on that repairment and actually over 14 elevators

01:40have been repaired in the past month with this funding from last year.

01:45Also that project, the continuing of that project is also up for voting today in this

01:53third consultation since this consultation began.

01:56Also other projects have to do with other sort of repairments like water supply, also

02:02the repair works on the streets, lighting.

02:06So every communal circuit has its different priorities, but the important thing is that

02:11they are all coming here to vote and to decide on this project.

02:16One of the things that we were talking about had to do with that, the willingness and the

02:22idea that this tool, the public consultation, is giving them the opportunity to decide on

02:28what is best for their territory.

02:31Almost 1 p.m. over there in Caracas, how has the turnout been?

02:35Do you believe that the turnout is being representative of the people's will, that they want to be

02:40part of this new way of government of decision-making by giving the decision power to the people

02:45right there in these consultations?

02:53So, exactly as you were saying, you know that we have been here throughout Caracas at different

02:59neighborhoods since very early in the morning.

03:01It's past noon already and the turnout is very significant in many of the schools.

03:07I don't know if you can see the line from here, but we have like one block of line that

03:12has been constant for the past 40 minutes that we have been here and the people keep

03:17on coming and the line is moving.

03:20So, some of the neighbors and also the leaders of the communal circuit were telling us that

03:26they were very impressed and also very happy about the participation.

03:31And also one important thing to keep in mind that I wanted to share with you and our audience

03:36is that they are highlighting the importance of this participation tool as a means to also

03:42overcome, for example, the political polarization and that the participation has to do not with

03:50a political affiliation, but just with the willingness to come together and decide on

03:56concrete issues regarding each territory.

03:59And that is very important and that is one of the key also elements and objectives of

04:06the tool such as this public consultation.

04:09So, that has been a very positive turnout in this sense.

04:13Thank you, Belén.

04:14We're going to stay in touch for upcoming news brief to keep updated on everything that

04:17is happening this important day for the Venezuelan people.

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