Venezuela's Government Shifts to Open Source Software (2002)

According to government sources in Venezuela, the South American nation has announced an official policy that exclusively calls for the use of open source software in that government.

The announcement, made on Wednesday, stated that from now on, all software developed for the government must be licenced under the GPL. The entire policy was summed up in this statement by Dr. Felipe Pérez-Martí, Planning and Development Minister: "Open source whenever possible, propietary software only when necesary."