- Title: VENEZUELA: President Nicolas Maduro opens vice ministry of happiness
- Date: 25th October 2013
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (OCTOBER 25, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CARACAS STREET SCENES (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CARACAS RESIDENT, BLANCA SOTO, SAYING: "It's not necessary, instead we should dilute all of this that exists in Venezuela. This is how all of the money escapes the country and the peoples needs are not met." SCULPTURE IN STREET STREET SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) CARACA
- Embargoed: 9th November 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
- Country: Venezuela
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAF5H3ZUOHI23QR8SILGJEYA0S0
- Story Text: As Venezuela struggles with soaring prices and frequent shortages of consumer staples, President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday (October 24) launched what he termed a vice ministry of "supreme social happiness".
The vice ministry, Maduro said, would be responsible for caring for the homeless, the handicapped, the elderly and the children.
"We decided to create the office of vice ministry, and we called it this way in honour of our Comandante Chavez and our [Simon] Bolivar, the vice ministry for supreme social happiness of the people of Venezuela. A vice ministry of coordination of these missions, of the great presidential missions that have the objective of supreme social happiness," Maduro said in an address from Miraflores palace on Thursday.
Caracas residents who spoke to Reuters on Friday (October 25) said the government should be dealing with more important issues than creating a vice ministry of "supreme social happiness".
"It's not necessary, instead we should dilute all of this that exists in Venezuela. This is how all of the money escapes the country and the peoples needs are not met," said Blanca Soto, a Caracas resident.
"Right now there are more serious problems in the country to be creating a ministry to perform missions. I believe the food shortages are more important to consider than creating a ministry," added Yesenua Albarran, another resident of the Venezuelan capital.
Venezuelans suffer sporadic absences of goods ranging from flour to toilet paper and motorcycle parts, partly due to a decade of currency controls put in place by the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez and continued by his hand-picked successor, Maduro.
Maduro replaced Chavez after his death from cancer earlier this year. His first six months in power have been dominated by economic issues. Critics say Maduro's mismanagement, and the failure of 14 years of socialist policies under his predecessor and mentor Chavez, are to blame for embarrassing shortages of products and inflation that has reached an annual 50 percent.
But Maduro and supporters say an "economic war" is being waged by U.S. backed political opponents who are deliberately sabotaging the economy via speculation and hoarding. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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