“In this period, 120 union leaders have been arrested and 3,479 workers have been threatened for raising their voices, and even for updating their WhatsApp statuses,” said the general coordinator of the NGO Venezuelan Human Rights Education Action Program (Provea ), Oscar Murillo, during the presentation of the report this April 30 in Caracas.
Likewise, he said that this is the current reality of many public employees and strategic companies in Venezuela, “where there is systematic persecution.”
27,000 protests for labor rights, under Maduro
Provea, according to its report, documented at least 27,000 protests for labor demands between 2013 and 2023. It maintained that the situation of labor rights in the Caribbean nation continues to be marked by the “loss of purchasing power, precariousness and deterioration of the quality of life of Venezuelan workers”.
During 2023, he continued, the Venezuelan Government did not decree a salary increase and “continued with its bonus policy without impact on social benefits, pensions or other benefits.”
“Inequality in all its forms has become a constant in the Venezuelan reality, mainly affecting vulnerable sectors: women, retirees, children and adolescents,” he added.
Given this, Provea asked the Government to take “effective and urgent” measures against the loss of the purchasing power of the salary, “correcting the policies harmful to the right to a sufficient salary that affect the ability to purchase basic foods, medicines and other essential goods of Workers”.
Salary and pension of 3.5 dollars per month
Likewise, it demanded that collective labor rights be respected, especially the right to collective bargaining, to strike, peaceful demonstration, as well as the right to freedom of association and assembly.
Since March 2022, the minimum wage and pension have remained at 130 bolivars per month, which at that time, at the official exchange rate, was about 30 dollars and today 3.5 dollars due to the devaluation of the local currency, which means that They have been reduced by 88% in their equivalent in the US currency, used as a reference to set prices in Venezuela.
Nicolás Maduro, from worker to “anti-worker” president
On April 19, 2023, Nicolás Maduro reached his tenth year at the head of the first national judiciary. Upon assuming the presidency, Maduro stated that he would be the first “worker” president in Venezuelan history. He promised the construction of an economic model based on justice and equality, but, after failing to fulfill his promises, he became what Provea warned about from day one: an anti-worker president.
Provea denounces, among others, that the Maduro government stifled the rights to personal freedom, life and personal integrity with extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary detentions. Between 2013 and 2023 alone, 43,003 victims of integrity violations were registered. personnel, including 1,652 victims of torture and 7,309 victims of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
jov (efe, provide)
Image: Jimmy Villalta/UIG/imago images
