00:00In Venezuela, democracy has transcended the ballot box to become ingrained in the daily management of the territory.
00:06The national public consultation is not just a voting process, it is the financial engine of the commune
00:11and the self-governing unit for realizing commune-driven projects related to basic services, entrepreneurship, and more.
00:21A commune in Venezuela is not just another administrative division.
00:25It is a grouping of communes that share a history and geographic space, and are organized into committees and spokespeople
00:32to manage their own economy and services.
00:34Today, this model encompasses more than 49,000 communal councils, including 4,100 communes in 5,336 districts throughout the
00:43country.
00:46The genesis of this project stems from Commander Hugo Chavez, who conceptualized the commune as a living and necessary organism
00:53for the republic.
00:57A commune should be a cell, but who has ever seen a cell alone?
01:04A cell has to be next to another and another to form the body, the tissues, and the human body.
01:13So it has to be an integrated system of communes, not an isolated commune out there,
01:18and that applies right now to the communal councils, which are nuclei.
01:25You know that cells have nuclei, well, the communal councils are the nucleus of the communes, or one of the
01:32nuclei of the communes.
01:37The commune is like the cell, and the cells have to branch out, link together, they have to form a
01:43system, articulating to give shape to a body.
01:47That cell now has its own voice.
01:50The commune is the space where socialism is territorialized through the commitment handed down by Commander Chavez,
01:56as a political legacy, and a strategic mission.
02:00Nicolas.
02:04I entrust this to you as I would entrust my life to you.
02:08The communes.
02:11To maintain this model in 2026, the key has been the national public consultation.
02:17Every three months, the people choose their priority proposals.
02:21With more than 4,500 simultaneous projects each day, the consultation grants financial autonomy,
02:27eliminating intermediaries and guaranteeing effective implementation.
02:33Because this path of at least one quarterly consultation,
02:39expressed in grassroots assemblies because,
02:43these are grassroots assembly processes expressed in projects diagnosed and developed by you,
02:49neighbors, communes, people of peace, grassroots people,
02:56expressed in direct democratic participation, and decision-making.
03:03It is a process that takes place at least once every quarter.
03:10It is the beginning of a more vibrant, more direct democracy,
03:13and the construction of a new system of government.
03:19By managing their services, producing their food and realizing ventures,
03:23the Venezuelan people are building an independence based on territorial organization.
03:30The communal economy is a fundamental engine of the new economic model we want to build.
03:36It must be a diversified economic model, moving beyond oil sales.
03:42Venezuela must learn the lesson of the criminal blockade against our homeland to not depend on others,
03:48to not be dependent.
03:49And here, through the communal economy, we are building an independent economic model,
03:55diversified from Venezuela's vast capabilities.
03:58By transferring economic power directly to the grassroots,
04:02the citizen ceases to be a spectator, and becomes a protagonist of his own history.
04:08We're talking about a system where planning isn't done from behind a desk,
04:13but rather in assemblies with residents who know everything from water shortages to the need for a school.
04:19It's popular self-government-made methodical where the commune legislates,
04:23the communal council executes and public consultation finances.
04:26The communal state transforms resistance into a new architecture of power,
04:30where the people no longer wait for solutions, but create them.
04:35From Caracas, in the Jesus Romero Chamber for Telesur, Andrea Romero.
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