Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during an event in Caracas commemorating International Women's Day on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Photo: Presidential Press.
This Wednesday, March 8, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced the creation of the Gran Misión Mujer Venezuela (Great Women’s Mission Venezuela) during the International Women’s Day celebrations, in order to unite and consolidate all the programs regarding women in the country under one banner.
“The time has come to unite all the programs, all the budgets, to unite all the strength and energy and put women at the center of attention and social security, with the maximum support of the government,” said the Venezuelan head of state, standing in the Poliedro de Caracas sports stadium. “The time has come for the Great Women’s Mission Venezuela.”
In statements broadcast by Venezolana de Televisión, the president mandated Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, Minister for Women and Gender Equality Diva Guzmán, Health Minister Magaly Gutiérrez, Education Minister Yelitze Santaella, as well as the Venezuelan Women’s General Staff, to fulfil this task. “In the hands of women, we have assured the future, victory, and happiness of the homeland,” noted the Venezuelan president. “The mission must be born, and must soon impact the lives of millions of women.”
“We are doing very good things,” he added, “but we need to unite and integrate them in a single effort, in high schools, in universities, in social programs, so they can multiply and reach millions of women.” This Great Mission will encompass programs such as the Humanized Childbirth program, the Breastfeeding program, as well as actions that have been promoted to “punish violence against women.”
“There are various issues, all important, but each one goes its own way, and that is what worries me,” Maduro said. “Health in the early years, health in her state of pregnancy, in her post-partum, in health as a whole, in her labor rights, in her social security benefits, in the social security of her children.”
Equality, inclusion, and equity must be the integral concepts of social programs
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stated that social programs for women should be conceived under a single concept. “Concepts must be designed that integrate the values of inclusion, equality, equity, and well-being,” she said. “A woman who sees these values as her own is a profoundly Bolivarian and anti-capitalist woman. And that is the call to the women of our country to concentrate on working.”
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She pointed that the project of the Venezuelan far-right is against women, because the proposal raised by the right is capitalism, “whose violence is intrinsic against women,” she said during the celebrations.
Rodríguez does not believe there is a point in saying that there is a certain percentage of women assuming public office, “because there are some who have reached public office to attack women; it is about being in harmony with the loving humanist program,” she added, “which means equality, inclusion, and equity, the values promoted by the Bolivarian Revolution. These should be the concepts and the focus of all comprehensive care programs for women.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
