President Chavez Swears-In PSUV Spokespersons

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez swore in more than 14,000 spokespersons for the new United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in Caracas on Wednesday. The party spokespersons were elected two weeks ago by party battalions all across the country to represent each battalion in the formation of the new party.
Thousands of PSUV spokespersons meet in Caracas for a swearing-in ceremony (ABN)

Mérida, October 11, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez swore in more than 14,000 spokespersons for the new
United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in Caracas on Wednesday. The party spokespersons
were elected two weeks ago by party battalions all across the country to
represent each battalion in the formation of the new party. The president
announced that the founding congress of the PSUV will initiate activities on
November 2nd.

Chavez said at the event on Wednesday that the new PSUV party would make
history as a democratic party built from the grassroots, and would not follow
the same path as previous political parties in the country.

"There has never been a party, until now, that was born from the very
grassroots of the population," he said. "The PSUV is not going to
have the same fate as other parties that were born here. Some of them were very
strong, but all of them sunk in their inefficiency, corruption, and their lack
of internal democracy."

Chavez reiterated that "almost 6 million citizens" registered for the
new socialist party, representing more than 35 percent of all voters in the
country.

"Of almost 6 million, 51 percent are women. Women are going to save the
world!" he said.

The party battalions were formed in July of this year and met weekly for
several weeks to discuss the formation of the party and what its political
program should look like. Chavez said that during this time there were more
than 91,000 battalion meetings in communities throughout the country.

"Almost 100 thousand meetings! It's an historic event!" said
the president.

The spokespersons were elected by their respective battalions on September
29th, and came to Caracas
from all over the country to participate in the meeting this week. Delegates to
the founding congress will be selected next Saturday, October 20th, and the
congress will begin on November 2nd.

Chavez didn't say where the founding congress will take place but he assured it
would be the founding of "the biggest, most democratic revolutionary
political party that has ever existed in Venezuelan history."

The president said that the first "battle" of the new party would be
the approval of the constitutional reform. "There is a short term battle
in the constitutional reform. After the reform it will depend on us to continue
the long term battle."

The idea of a united socialist party was a proposal made by Chavez during his
2006 presidential campaign as a way to unite all the various leftist factions
that support him. The process of creating the new party began last January and
took place in a series of stages.

In March of this year the first party militants were sworn in to promote and
discuss the new party among the population. Registration for the party was open
for six weeks, during May and June, during which nearly 80 percent of Chavez's
supporters registered in the new organization. In July and August the socialist
battalions were formed and met to discuss the structure and ideology of the new
party and spokespersons were elected in September.

Chavez recognized the effort of the party militants and members in carrying out
the process of forming the party.

"I want to recognize everyone, and especially the youngest ones who poured
out all over the country with the construction of this process," he said.