The popular consultation on February 2 is also part of the strategy promoted by President Nicolás Maduro to empower the Venezuelan population. teleSUR
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00:00Before we take the topic off Venezuela, let's go live to Caracas with our correspondent
00:04Belén de los Santos for the details on how this first public consultation is going on
00:09in the whole country.
00:10Belén, welcome back to From the South.
00:11What can you tell us?
00:12Hello, Luis.
00:13Exactly as you were saying, we are right here in Caracas, we are at the El Paraíso Parish
00:26in the western part of the city, and as you were just saying, the consultation, the public
00:31consultation is still underway, they are actually voting right behind me, if you can see it
00:38across the street, this is one of the schools of this communal circuit in which the neighbors
00:44are coming here to vote, and we have been telling you throughout the day a little bit
00:48more about this experience, not just the numbers that you went over before we started this
00:54conversation, but also really what is happening in one of these communes and what is this
00:59public consultation for.
01:01So let me tell you a little bit about this parish in El Paraíso that we're here, this
01:06communal circuit, for example, in the past public consultations, they voted on a project
01:11to finance the repairment of different elevators in the different buildings of the community.
01:18Let's keep in mind that this is a community that has a lot of elderly people and a lot
01:23of very tall buildings and that when an elevator is not working, for example, this harshly
01:29affects the day-to-day life of the community.
01:32So the neighbors decided to put that funding on that repairment and actually over 14 elevators
01:40have been repaired in the past month with this funding from last year.
01:45Also that project, the continuing of that project is also up for voting today in this
01:53third consultation since this consultation began.
01:56Also other projects have to do with other sort of repairments like water supply, also
02:02the repair works on the streets, lighting.
02:06So every communal circuit has its different priorities, but the important thing is that
02:11they are all coming here to vote and to decide on this project.
02:16One of the things that we were talking about had to do with that, the willingness and the
02:22idea that this tool, the public consultation, is giving them the opportunity to decide on
02:28what is best for their territory.
02:31Almost 1 p.m. over there in Caracas, how has the turnout been?
02:35Do you believe that the turnout is being representative of the people's will, that they want to be
02:40part of this new way of government of decision-making by giving the decision power to the people
02:45right there in these consultations?
02:53So, exactly as you were saying, you know that we have been here throughout Caracas at different
02:59neighborhoods since very early in the morning.
03:01It's past noon already and the turnout is very significant in many of the schools.
03:07I don't know if you can see the line from here, but we have like one block of line that
03:12has been constant for the past 40 minutes that we have been here and the people keep
03:17on coming and the line is moving.
03:20So, some of the neighbors and also the leaders of the communal circuit were telling us that
03:26they were very impressed and also very happy about the participation.
03:31And also one important thing to keep in mind that I wanted to share with you and our audience
03:36is that they are highlighting the importance of this participation tool as a means to also
03:42overcome, for example, the political polarization and that the participation has to do not with
03:50a political affiliation, but just with the willingness to come together and decide on
03:56concrete issues regarding each territory.
03:59And that is very important and that is one of the key also elements and objectives of
04:06the tool such as this public consultation.
04:09So, that has been a very positive turnout in this sense.
04:13Thank you, Belén.
04:14We're going to stay in touch for upcoming news brief to keep updated on everything that
04:17is happening this important day for the Venezuelan people.