Can we have someone like Chavez: The Latin American News Agency - Prensa Latina reported (see below) that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made a commitment to try to eradicate poverty in 20 years - this is the first time I am aware of that any leader of a South American country has made a commitment to end poverty within a specific period.. http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B99FBBC10-AC0E-431B-B89A-7E614304EEA3%7D%29&language=EN Chavez: Bring Poverty to Zero in Venezuela Caracas, Jan 17 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez considered Tuesday that to bring poverty and misery to zero in that South American nation is the essence of the Bolivarian Revolution. The statesman emphasized that even with political changes in Venezuela and filling the country with viaducts, freeways and housing complexes, if poverty remains for 20 years, then "we would have ploughed the waves, as Simon Bolivar said." "That means we must be more efficient, to visualize the most critical areas and create a new economic and social model, different from capitalism that is a poor people-producing machine", he said. According to the Head of State, the Revolution goes forward in all areas, including the Armed Forces, and every day makes progress that benefits the country. Chavez spoke Tuesday afternoon at the loan-granting ceremony for the cooperatives of the Vuelvan Caras Mission (About face social program) in the Municipal Theatre of Caracas. In Venezuela 300,000 people are integrated into 6,000 of those groups under the Popular Economy Ministry, with a budget of 420 million dollars, mainly for the agricultural area. Chavez commented that the levels of poverty and misery have substantially decreased in Venezuela, despite of the oil strike between December 2002 and February 2003 that slowed down the progress the Bolivarian Executive began. -- Dave Gordon Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research University of Bristol 8 Priory Road Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK