Venezuelan Lawmakers Pass Mandatory Community Service

[acmejack]

Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's congress unanimously backed a law requiring two years of monthly community service by all citizens, as President Hugo Chavez expands his plans for ``21st Century socialism'' to create new grassroots groups.

The law, which aims ``to generate a culture capable of putting the collective before the individual,'' would have every person between the ages of 15 and 50 work a minimum of five hours a month over two years at schools, parks, job centers and housing projects, the National Assembly said in a statement. After college, students would serve a full, post-graduate year.

``It's a typical socialist building block, with this sense of togetherness that regimes including Cuba have gone through,'' said Riordan Roett, head of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies in Washington D.C. ``Its major point is to gain greater control.''

Chavez poured Venezuela's record oil revenue into the public sector ahead of the country's Dec. 3 presidential vote, funding health, housing and education programs and slashing official poverty rates by 31 percent since 2003. Analysts and his supporters say his talk of ``socialist revolution'' now calls for action instead of just cash.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aQNGUTqERrXM&refer=latin_america