Foes of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela See Opportunity in Houses He Built

[FBaggins]

Twenty-thousand people live in this concrete bastion built by former President Hugo Chávez. He gave them the keys, and they gave him their votes. There was one thing Mr. Chávez promised but never handed over en masse, though: the property titles that would allow his supporters to sell their homes and cash out.

But now that Mr. Chávez’s old adversaries have taken over Venezuela’s Parliament, they are adopting the tactic and doing it one better. They want to give away the deeds to hundreds of thousands of homes that Mr. Chávez and his movement built — and win the loyalties of the nation’s poor for years to come.

This handover is as big as just about any of the Socialist-inspired giveaways Mr. Chávez ever orchestrated, and it comes with an ironic twist. For years, the opposition cried foul over Mr. Chávez’s tendency to use the spoils of Venezuela’s oil wealth to hand out housing, calling it an obvious ploy to buy votes.

...snip...

“It gets at the heart of what the economic model should be in Venezuela,” said David Smilde, a sociologist at Tulane University who lives in Caracas, the capital. “Should it be about poor people deciding what to do with their own property, or should it be about the government ultimately making the decisions?” Julio Borges, the legislator who is drafting the law, argues that the homes will give capital to the poor for the first time, drive activity to help ease Venezuela’s economic crisis, and let the poor determine their own fates from now on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/world/americas/foes-of-hugo-chavez-in-venezuela-see-opportunity-in-houses-he-built.html

[Bacchus4.0]

1. Maduro is opposed to the proposal nt

[FBaggins]

2. Shocking!

I still remember a year ago reading something like "Going to these marches is my only chance of getting a home". Who will support him if he doesn't directly control so necessary a part of their lives?