by SUSAN SPRONK and JEFFERY R. WEBBER
What is your political formation? How did you get involved in the comuna?
We are the children of the “junta de mejora” (the improvement council) of the barrio, the descendents of poor people who came to this zone because they did not have anywhere else to live. My mother came here in 1958. They were among the people who fought for the well-being that our families now have, including housing.
The land in this barrio was supposedly private property, but the government has a project, outlined in presidential decree 1666, to recognize our rights to our houses. We are still waiting for the approval of the Urban Land Reform law, which is a law that the Chávez government has proposed. We are still waiting for the National Assembly to approve this law, to give us right to this land.
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