Venezuela Offers Harvard-MIT Center $800,000 Contract

The Republic of Venezuela has offered the Harvard MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies an $800,000 contract designing a new capital city for the Latin American Nation.

Negotiations for the contract are expected to be completed late this week after changes in the preliminary agreement. Venezuela reportedly hopes to construct a new interior city for government business--like Brazils' new Brazilia.

The present capital, Caracas, is located on the coast and populated by migrants from the rest of the country: President Romulo Bentancourt apparently wants to emphasize development of the central part of the nation as Brazil has tried do, according to a Latin American scholar at the University.

Delay in completing the the contract was partially due to the search for someone to direct the project. The director will probably be named this week. Negotiations have been worked out directly by the Center, the finances of which are handled though MIT, and by the Venezuelan government.

The Office for Research Contracts at the University and the Venezuelan Consulate in Boston were unaware of the contract. Martin Meyerson, Director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies, refused to comment on the agreement but promised an official announcement Friday.

President Pusey, asked about the Venezuelan contract yesterday, called it "an unusual and exciting venture."

Research contracts from foreign countries, like the Venezuelan offer, are frequently made to various areas of the University--notably the Business School, Law School, School of Public Health, and Peabody Museum.

The Joint Center project will presumably involve several persons within and outside of the Center staff. The director does not necessarily have to come from the Harvard or MIT faculties.

The research contract will call for a design of a new city from scratch, and for an extensive examination of the general area along the Orinoco River. Studies of agricultural, social, economic, and governmental factors will be involved in the $800,000 project.

Ambassador Jose Mayobre, of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, has been unavailable for comment all this week.