ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, the Bolivarian Government via referendums reaffirmed the ‘popular will’ to displace the Punto fijo/bipartite 1 system. The sub-section ‘Further radicalization’ outlines how in 2003 the government began a new phase with social programs called ‘Misiones’ (missions). Over a period of five years, 26 missions 2 were formed. This chapter provides an in-depth account explaining how the government constructed a free healthcare program for people living in poor and marginalized sectors. What is considered critical in this analysis is to illustrate the extent of community participation in the creation of this new social program, as well as to contextualize how basic public services (in the context of healthcare) deteriorated in the last two decades, and how the displaced institutional structure tries to contest the sedimentation of the Bolivarian institutional structure. This chapter maps out the discursive articulation that formed a new phase of the populist Bolivarian hegemonic project with direct grassroots popular participation. This analysis demonstrates the government's strategy to materialize, in a true sense, the radical change promised to their electorate popular-base during previous campaigns.
