Caracas Metropolitan Fire Department ... Mayor says funds not insufficient; pay raise, lingering problems

Caracas Daily Journal (Vincent Bevins): Just one day after the Metropolitan Firefighters of Caracas appeared in all three major local newspapers protesting their low pay and lack of resources, Greater Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto announced Tuesday an increase of 50 percent in their pay, which he seeks to increase to 80 percent after help from the Federal Government.

He said the funds had been made available by the transfer of the Metropolitan Police to the Federal Government. In this election year, it seems that the government is concentrating less on grand ideological projects and more on day-to-day governance, and the wage increase is a swift and likely popular political reaction.

But the wage increases won�t happen until March, and even then the problems of supplies look to be serious problems. According to the firemen, only three of the 90 ambulances actually work, so they have been using their regular trucks. In some cases they have used neck braces made of cardboard. And, three hundred firemen have left their posts due to criticism of the working conditions. Bomberos, in Spanish, do not only put out fires, but deal with emergency health situations and other urban disasters.

Barreto would like to put some of the blame on the opposition. "But we would have more funds if the mayors of Chacao, El Hatillo, Sucre and Baruta would pay the debt they have to us, like the mayor of Libertador has done," he said.