Venezuela | 1st National Public Consultation still underway - video Dailymotion

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Our correspondent Belen de los Santos updates us on the 1st Popular Consultation of the year in Venezuela. teleSUR

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00:00And this hour, as voting continues in Venezuela for the first national public consultation

00:07of 2025, where neighbors choose the projects to be funded through the state's public budget,

00:12specifically giving more voice to the people's powers, we have our correspondent Melinda

00:17Losantos from La Candelaria in the capital, Caracas, with more on this.

00:22Hello, Ana.

00:23Exactly as just what you were saying, voting is underway.

00:28It is a little past 8.30 p.m. here in Caracas, and even though 6 p.m. was initially the proposed

00:37closing time, we know that it is customary that the voting centers will not close until

00:45the voting ends, and that happens when the neighbors end the lines.

00:51And as you can see, you were saying we are at the La Candelaria, we are at the Pueblo

00:56Circuit No. 2, and you can see right behind me the line is long, and the people keep coming.

01:03The line is moving, actually, people continue to go in to vote.

01:07This has been a long day.

01:09We were here at the very beginning at 8 a.m., and the line was already formed, so the neighbors

01:17have been coming through the whole day.

01:20That has been seen at all the different communes and communal circuits throughout the capital

01:26city.

01:27It's also what has been happening throughout Venezuela.

01:30So, we've been talking a lot about this process, what this public consultation means, and we

01:37are maybe hours away.

01:38We don't know exactly when the closing time will be, but definitely it has had a high

01:44turnout, specifically in terms of just the neighbors, the members of the communes and

01:50the communal circuits coming here and joining the democratic exercise of voting, as you

01:57were just saying, on which projects for the communities they want to be funded first for

02:03this year.

02:04We've been talking to different neighbors, we've been hearing from different projects,

02:09all of them very specific to each one of the communities.

02:13So, for example, work to repair specific buildings in more urban communities, also work to do

02:22a better water access and facilitate that supply in different communities as well.

02:28So, for example, one of the communities with a lot of elderly population had last year

02:36voted on the building of a new drug store, the recovery of a space to have an accessible

02:42drug store in the community.

02:43So, as you can see, projects that are very different in nature sometimes, but the key

02:49element is that they all tackle the most important things that each community needs.

02:55Also, that this public consultation is not only about finding those solutions, although

03:00that is the key step, but more significantly about how that problem that the community

03:08faces is actually an opportunity for the people to come together, to gather in assembly and

03:13to take action, to see and think that the way to solve that problem has to do with coming

03:21together, has to do with popular power.

03:24And that is what is happening here.

03:26One of the things that we have been saying a lot is about this being just a new test

03:32of a new type of democracy, a participative democracy.

03:36And isn't that so?

03:38If you're standing here, just full of people, the kids are still running around.

03:43It's very calm, but a lot of action this night here in Caracas.

03:48I assume that's the case also in Venezuela.

03:51So, we continue to talk to the neighbors.

03:53We continue to bring you all the information.

03:56This has just begun for this year in Venezuela.

04:01Recall that the country has also five more public consultations to come just this year.

04:08Also, the constitutional reform is on the table with the president calling for that

04:14to happen this year as well.

04:16These are all initiatives that are proposed to bring, to strengthen the popular power

04:23in the country, to strengthen the call for all the community to come together and take

04:30action, to participate, to really govern this country as the mandate states.

04:36So, that is what is happening here.

04:37We will continue to bring you information.

04:39That is all for you.

04:40I go back to you now, Ana.

Venezuela | 1st National Public Consultation still underway

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