Maduro insults Milei for defunding education while Venezuelan universities celebrate 5 years of budget deficit

Nicolás Maduro called the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, a fascist trash on Thursdayand accused of removing funding from higher education in his country; however, In Venezuela, public universities have between 90% and 96% budget deficit that they need to function.

During an event broadcast by the state channel VTV, Maduro pointed out Argentina as one of the countries where “the fascist extreme right, supported by the gringos, is destroying the university.”

«They are closing the universities, they took away the entire budget from the universities, they ended the social careers, the scientific careers, the technological study centers, they ended everything in Argentina, in the name of what? Of freedom. “They are taking away the brain and soul of the Argentine people, this trash called Javier Milei, a Nazi fascist trash,” Maduro said.

Maduro made these statements during a meeting with young Chavismo sympathizers who had marched to Miraflores for National Student Day, as well as to express his support for the head of state, whose proclaimed re-election in the July 28 elections is questioned inside and outside. of the Caribbean country, and rejected by governments like Milei’s.

And the public universities in Venezuela?

Public universities in Venezuela present between 90% and 96% deficit in the budget they need to operate for more than five yearsaccording to data from the University Observatory (OBU).

This budget deficit has the consequence that university infrastructure cannot afford student services, guarantee fair salaries and finance the research required by the institutions.

Sociologist Carlos Meléndez, director of the OBU, explained in an interview for Radio Fe y Alegría Noticias that 96% of public universities do not have a dining room and 86% of students do not have transportation and must travel on foot.

Meléndez pointed out that the State has stopped assuming its responsibilities with the country’s universities. “Students have neither a public sector bonus nor financial scholarships to cover an important part of what is needed to study,” he stated.

He assured that the individual and organizational efforts of civil society and alliances in the non-state public space are supporting the universities.

“University teachers are at the university for different reasons, not because of the salary they receive, but because of the efforts of the administrative and service staff out of gratitude to the university,” he said.