Building roads and running water pipes into rural communities will be a priority. Photo: Resumen Latinoamericano – English.
By Alejandra Garcia – Jan 30, 2025
Venezuela is undergoing a period of profound social transformation, working toward the creation of a society focused on development, self-sustainability, independence, and sovereignty, all while navigating the challenges posed by foreign hostilities, coercive measures, and misinformation campaigns. In this process, community participation plays a crucial role, as it is the key to driving meaningful change and fostering a sustainable future.
It’s in this context that, on Sunday, Venezuela will hold a historic election unlike any other in the world. People from the communes and communal circuits will vote to prioritize the most urgent social projects for their communities, which will then be financed by the federal government. This process, the first of six planned for 2025, is a key part of Venezuela’s efforts to foster true participatory democracy.
“The country is on the path to the 21st-century socialism, with the people at the center of political decision-making, building a communal project of global significance. Whether it’s a rural commune like El Maizal or an urban one like El Panal, Venezuela’s communes represent a socialist alternative that is reshaping what needs to be changed, offering inspiration to people worldwide who are committed to building a better world,” said Minister of Communes Angel Prado in a recent interview.
The year 2024 marked the beginning of Venezuela’s national public consultations, a pivotal step in strengthening the country’s social foundation despite an unprecedented media siege against them. In two electoral processes held in April and August, more than 4,500 communities selected from thousands of initiatives, resulting in the approval of 2,937 water projects, 1,995 road improvements, 1,768 housing projects, 1,597 electricity upgrades, 1,127 health initiatives, 606 productive ventures, 425 environmental programs, and 265 transportation projects.
This achievement was made possible by President Nicolás Maduro’s decision to allocate 70% of the national budget to the communes as part of the Government’s 7 Transformations Plan. “Through these projects, we’ve addressed countless local issues, showing that the funds not only yield results but also generate surpluses that can be reinvested in other community-driven initiatives,” Minister Angel Prado affirmed.
A total of 5,334 communes organized in 49 thousand Communal Circuits of the country will participate in the upcoming consultation. This year, 36,685 communal projects will be submitted, of which more than 6,481 projects are related to water; 5,136 to habitat improvement; 4,681 to roads; 4,160 to electricity; 3,945 to education; 3,127 to health; and 2,129 to sports.
“With the resources that our Communes will receive, we will be solving and executing throughout the year the projects that will generate motivation and boost the empowerment of the people. In this way, under the proposed model, the Venezuelan State would begin to operate from the bottom up, rather than the top down, as is typical in most modern states,” Prado added.
There is a huge promise being opened up in the communal movement in Venezuela, as expert and professor of the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, Chris Gilbert assured. In his book Communes or Nothing, the commune is all about expanding human horizons and giving space to all-round human development.
“When freed from the straitjacket of capitalist value-production, new, richer, more diverse forms of life can emerge –Gilbert said–. In the commune, people’s today largely untapped creative potential can be unleashed, and the full range of human expression, including gender expression and sexual diversity, can flourish. Communism wasn’t an abstract ideal so much as a real historical movement. Here, in Venezuela, the communal movement draws on those real traditions, past ones and living ones, in projecting a hopeful and sustainable future for humanity”.
