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.