Kathalina Barroso will be sending regular reports to Socialist Resistance from Venezuela. I interviewed her in Caracas.

What have been the big changes in people’s daily lives as a result of the Bolivarian revolution?

Healthcare is the big one. We had some healthcare before but it was unsatisfactory. Before Chávez it was hard to get to see a doctor. Now the public healthcare has improved and also we have this Misión Barrio Adentro, a project with Cuban doctors. They live and work in the barrios, which mean that they can be visited by the people who live there and they even do home visits. There are also Venezuelan doctors supporting this Misión.

There are three types of provision. There are public hospitals, módulos, which are bit like small clinics and in the barrios people create spaces where the doctors can work. Public clinics with new equipment are now under construction too.

We also have Misión Milagro that deals with sight, heart, spinal column operations and others. At the beginning sick people used to be sent to Cuba for their operations. Now we have the sophisticated equipment to do those operations here.

I have and anecdote. Last week I went for what I thought would be a quick routine check up before starting my new job. I was given a full range of vaccinations and a complete check up. Now we have mass vaccinations for measles, yellow fever and hepatitis. We used to have this before, but it wasn’t as good as it is now.

The revolution is trying to create a new kind of education. Teachers were the one that decided about the syllabus and the timetable, everything related to the educational system. Now, the new concept of the Bolivarian education allows students to be involved with designing the curriculum, the classes, and the timetable in secondary schools and universities. The idea is make them feel that they are part of this Bolivarian process, make them critically minded, make them create ideas and act with responsibility, because now they are responsible for their education.

There also some parallel Missions involved with education. Misión Robinson, which was a literacy campaign and this, has virtually eliminated illiteracy. That’s why you see those billboards saying “now you can read this”. There are two others, Misión Ribas, for secondary schools and Mission Sucre that is for public universities.

Some of the TV stations and newspapers I’ve read are very anti-Chávez. How strong is the opposition?

At the moment it’s quite weak. It’s divided between several parties and they are competing to have the presidential candidate to oppose Chávez in the December elections. At the moment they are trying to exploit the tragedy of the three brothers who were kidnapped and murdered by criminals. That’s why you see a lot of cars and buses with en luto (in mourning) written on them. That’s just because they are trying to create chaos in the city and to politicize the situation.

“Insecurity” does seem to be the middle class press and parties’ main theme. What’s your experience of it?

Last August two of my cousins were kidnapped. They are fifteen years old. The family doesn’t have any idea who did it or what happened to them. People speculate that the kidnappers sell their victims into prostitution or sell their organs. Two of my other cousins are studying medicine in Cuba, my family was involved with the communist movement during 60’s and 70’s, they were called gerrilleros; many of us are active in revolutionary organisations creating co-ops and health committees.

No rich people organised demonstrations about my cousins. We went to the police, the army and TV stations but nothing has happened. There is this lazy, corrupt bureaucracy in some of the institutions. But is doesn’t mean that they didn’t do their functions. What I mean is that we don’t mix this issue with the government.

How does it affect people in the barrios?

Insecurity has decreased in recent years. There are gang wars in some of the barrios but they respect people who live there. Police often go and arrest them, they kill people who resist arrest if it’s necessary. But where people are organised it’s safer. In 23 Enero barrio the residents have a system of bells and alarms they ring to scare off criminals. They sometimes administer justice by themselves.

Are people worried about what the United States plans to do?

People are happy because they are getting healthcare, education, subsidised food and some other benefits. They are organising themselves into co-ops, endogenous development nucleuses, communal councils and other ways. They are following the President’s directions. Many people are not politically well prepared but they are ready for US intervention even it’s not discussed as much as I think it should be. It’s as if by not talking about it you won’t make people panic. Even though, in some of the more pro-Chávez barrios people are receiving military training and joining the Army Reserve and this is something everybody can do.

What sort of practical solidarity can we give from outside Venezuela?

We know lots of people abroad support the revolution. There have been so many foreign visitors in the last eighteen months. In my view we need people with an understanding of socialism to help us prepare ideologically and politically. We also need practical support. There are lots of cooperatives, school and community initiatives which would really benefit from outside expertise and experience.

It’s necessary too to develop an active and broad solidarity movement. We need to limit imperialism’s room for manoeuvre against the Bolivarian revolution, especially in Britain where Blair has already shown how hostile he is to what we are doing here.