Venenzuela, May 02: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has vowed to eradicate unemployment in the next eight years, as he addressed thousands of workers at a May Day march in the capital Caracas.
Speaking to one of the largest crowds seen on the streets of Venezuela in recent years, Chavez promised that he will create more than three million jobs if elected to another term in office, Reuters reported on Sunday.
“I am absolutely sure we will incorporate 3.5 million jobs in the next eight years,” said Chavez, adding that he will launch a plan to train the unemployed to work in construction and farming.
The Venezuelan president told thousands of red-clad workers, who gathered for rallies commemorating labor May Day, that he can fight off opposition challengers in next year’s presidential election.
“I have a year and a half more in this government, then six more in the next one,” Chavez stated, nearly a week after he ordered large rises to the minimum wage in the country, which is reeling from almost two years of recession.
Chavez assumed his first presidential office in February 1999 and reelected twice for six-year terms under Venezuela’s 2000 constitution.
Chavez changed the constitution in 2009 to allow him to stand for at least one more six-year term which he says is needed to rid Venezuela of capitalism. He has nationalized industries including oil projects and steel and cement factories.
——–Agencies