PAME denounces the escalation of state repression and authoritarianism, the escalation of the violent attacks against the militant trade unions and trade unionists in Venezuela.
According to the complaints of Venezuelan trade union organisations on 21 January, the headquarters of the Barinas State Education Workers’ Union (SINDITEBA), a member of the National Federation of Education Workers (FENATEV), was attacked by a group of heavily armed policemen with their faces covered who broke down the door of the union’s office and beat up several teachers who were there, arresting the president of the aforementioned union, Professor Victor Venegas. The police also stole computers and other working equipment belonging to the union. The violent police raid took place while a meeting of the union was taking place at the offices.
Hours later, it was announced that the professor had been transferred to the city of Caracas, more than 500 kilometres from the Barinas district, where he is being held. A statement from the Attorney General of the Republic stated that the unionist was arrested for “engaging in activities against the peace of the Republic”, linking him to an alleged conspiracy plot.
In fact, the trade unionist was arrested because on 15 January, National Teachers’ Day in Venezuela, teachers’ unions held peaceful demonstrations in different parts of the country, demanding a wage increase and the signing of the sector’s Collective Labour Agreement, which has been expired for several years. In Barinas this demonstration was massive, almost all the teachers took to the streets, but there was no violence on the streets of this small town.
Since 2018, teachers and public education teachers have not received any salary increases or other contractual gains. The national minimum wage from March 2022 has been set at Bs 130, currently equivalent to less than US$4 per month. It is in this context that the arrest of teacher Victor Venegas, a union leader of Barinas education workers, took place. However, criminalisation and persecution are repeatedly applied against trade unionists and workers in general who are fighting for workers’ rights.
Similarly, in June 2023, Leonardo Azócar and Daniel Romero, workers and members of the Siderúrgica del Orinoco “Alfredo Maneiro” (SIDOR) union, were arrested in Bolívar State after supporting a protest demanding that the collective labour agreement of workers in an industrial unit of that company be respected. The workers in question remain imprisoned in the city of Caracas and were tried on charges of “terrorism, association to commit a crime and incitement to hatred”.
Like this one, dozens of other cases have been brought – with violations of due process – before the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the courts. The criminalisation and persecution of workers’ struggles is escalating in Venezuela to mass intimidation and to prevent the working class from rising up in the struggle to defend its rights.
In the face of these serious events, we express our solidarity with the Venezuelan working class and with the trade unionists who are being persecuted for organising workers’ struggles.
We demand the immediate release of the steelworkers’ trade unionists Leonardo Azócar and Daniel Romero, of the United Union of Metalworkers (SUTISS) and the teachers’ trade unionist Professor Víctor Venegas, president of the Union of Education Workers of the State of Barinas (SINDITEBA).