ONE of the most neglected aspects of the relentlessly negative coverage of Venezuela in the mainstream media has been the amazing reductions in poverty and inequality that have taken place since Hugo Chavez was first elected in 1998.

Even more neglected has been how women have been the main beneficiaries of policies and social programmes to tackle poverty and that aim to increase people’s participation in the political process.

In particular, in response to the historical feminisation of poverty, the government has striven to incorporate women into the labour market.

Additionally, initiatives to address poverty include the amazing work of Banmujer, the world’s only women’s development bank of its kind. Additionally, the state provides women who stay at home with the equivalent of the minimum wage.

More recently, the country’s labour law — much of which fully came into being on May Day 2015 — represented a big step forward for women’s rights in the workplace, with post-natal maternity leave being raised from 12 to 20 weeks and increased job security for new parents, who will now be protected from dismissal for two years following the birth of a child. Employers of more than 20 workers must also maintain a nursery centre for children from three months to six years old.

As a response to these proactive policies, women’s place in the workforce has improved significantly, with the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reporting that Venezuela has South America’s smallest gender pay gap.

Numerous laws have also sought to provide a legal basis to ensure that women’s position in society is improved. One significant example is the 2007 Law for Women for a Life Free from Violence which asserts the right to live free from sexual harassment and domestic violence and was welcomed by Amnesty International as “a positive step.”

In light of these developments, in October at the UN, the representatives of the Committee of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women recognised Venezuela as one of the few countries in the world that has adapted to the gender equality regulations stipulated by the organisation.

A further impressive result of the implementation of public policies designed to protect, empower and make women visible, women in Venezuela have taken on unprecedented leadership roles in politics at a national and local level.

Currently, three of the five branches of government are headed by women. In addition, in the last municipal elections there was a 68 per cent increase in the number of mayoralties headed by women. In the cabinet, there are eight women ministers.

In light of these advances it should be no surprise that women campaigners in Venezuela are at the forefront of the current movement there to defend the revolution against recent attacks, both externally from the US and internally from anti-democratic elements of the right-wing opposition. Those of us interested in the struggle for equality around the world must stand with them.

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ON MARCH 9, US President Obama signed an executive order declaring “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela” and imposed a further round of sanctions on the country. This has been condemned by major regional bodies in Latin America and the Caribbean, governments all over the world and much of global civil society.

Over the past 16 years Venezuelan women have been both the leaders of, and the main beneficiaries from, social progress and change. The huge expansion in free healthcare, education, childcare, social security, poverty eradication programmes, progressive labour laws and the creation of government bodies such as the Ministry for Women and Banmujer have transformed the position of women.

This is why Venezuelan women's organisations have been at the forefront of organising over six million signatures to the campaign Obama: Repeal the Executive Order and has organised a mass women’s demonstration against US sanctions and destabilisation.

As British women campaigners, we stand with them in supporting the international Obama: Repeal the Executive Order campaign and will continue to support the advances in social progress and women’s rights that have taken place in Venezuela in recent years.

Sian Errington, Women for Venezuela convener and Venezuela Solidarity Campaign executive committee member; Gail Cartmail, Unite assistant general secretary; Siobhan Endean, Unite national equality officer; Heather Wakefield, Unison head of local government, police and justice; Linda Perks, Unison London secretary; Max Hyde, NUT ex-president; Karen Mitchell, RMT legal officer and VSC vice-chair; Jayne Fisher, Sertuc international committee vice-chair and VSC executive committee member; Zita Holborne, PCS national executive committee member and Black Activists Rising Against Cuts; Professor Doreen Massey; Anita Wright, National Assembly of Women; Lindsey German, Stop the War Coalition convener; Barbara Ntumy, NUS women’s committee; Maggie Bowden, Liberation general secretary; Louise Richards, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group; Natasha Hickman, Cuba Solidarity Campaign; Jude Woodward, VSC executive committee member.

• The Morning Star is supporting the Rally for Venezuela – End the US Sanctions, No More Intervention! organised by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign on June 4 at 6.30pm at Hamilton House, London WC1 with speakers including Ben Chacko of the Morning Star, Kate Hudson (CND), Jeremy Corbyn MP, Richard Burgon MP, Neil Findlay MSP, Lindsey German (Stop the War Coalition), Sandra White MSP and leading international guests from Venezuela, Latin America and the US. You can register online at www.venezuelasolidarity.co.uk .