Wave of outrage in Venezuela over the conviction of six trade unionists accused of conspiracy and terrorism

Protest against the arrest of six trade unionists, this Monday in Caracas. Rayner Peña R (EFE)

“It is not possible that today we have so many workers imprisoned for defending their just claims.” The protest cry of the union leader Griselda Sánchez resounded on Monday in a demonstration called before the United Nations headquarters. The sentence to 16 years in prison handed down last week against six trade unionists has unleashed a wave of indignation in Venezuela and has mobilized activists, opponents, members of NGOs and representatives of union organizations. Among all of them, the repudiation of the statements by Attorney General Tarek William Saab is clearer every day. The senior official, faithful to President Nicolás Maduro, had just reiterated that the six men are not trade unionists, but “conspirators.”

The sentence was issued by a court in Caracas with competence in cases of terrorism with accusations of conspiracy and criminal association. They had all been participating in protests and mobilizations for income improvements, last year and this year, in the depressed labor outlook in the country, where the minimum wage is around five dollars. The ruling was made very quickly.

Those sentenced are Emilio Negrín, Gabriel Blanco, Reinaldo Cortés, Alonso Meléndez, Alcides Bracho and Nelson Astudillo, mostly trade unionists linked to the unions of the administrative apparatus of the Venezuelan State, such as the courts and the legislature. Negrín is affiliated with Codesa (Confederation of Autonomous Unions of Venezuela), a small left-wing trade union center. Four of them are members of Bandera Roja, a minority party with five decades of history and Marxist inspiration that today belongs to the Venezuelan opposition.

The announcement has drawn angry criticism from sectors of the opposition. The Democratic Platform issued a statement rejecting the measure. Workers of the National Union Coalition gathered days ago in the center of the city in solidarity with their colleagues, criticizing the lack of witnesses in the trial and promising to appeal the decision.

María Corina Machado, from Vente Venezuela, who is currently leading the opinion polls in the country, stated on her Twitter account that in Venezuela “justice is a tentacle of tyranny. This is a grotesque and cruel act. These people are arrested for denouncing the abuses of the regime to their co-workers. All my solidarity against these brave fighters”.

Henrique Capriles, Primero Justicia candidate, also spoke out about it, stating that the decision was “a horror; and all this without any proof”. Provea, an NGO dedicated to the defense of human rights, described the ruling as “brutal” and “an arbitrary measure taken in a judicial process where the only witness to the complaint never appeared for a year and two months.”

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In the accusation formulated by the Attorney General of the Republic against these workers that the defense has in its possession, it is reported that an anonymous complaint came from a citizen named Adalberto – the defense alleges that he is a “cooperating patriot”, one of the Chavista volunteers who are authorized to do “social intelligence” work – to the Strategic Intelligence Directorate of the Bolivarian National Police in July 2022. The investigation began at that time.

The defendants are accused of being part of a Popular Resistance Unit, allegedly created to organize terrorist actions “against the Venezuelan State and democracy”, such as planning kidnappings, promoting protests and sabotaging national holidays. Among the elements that support the judicial procedure, affirms the report of the head prosecutor of the case, Elín Teodoro León, weighs a procedure of the General Directorate of National Counterintelligence (DGCIM), which accessed private WhatsApp conversations and monitored their activities. .

Eduardo Torres, defense attorney for the union leaders, acknowledged the existence of police intelligence investigations against his clients and stated that an intelligence procedure such as the one described “is not proof in the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure.” “In addition, the police report clearly establishes that the leaders were not carrying out any political action, nor were they discussing any particular procedure against anyone,” he continued.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab assumed responsibility for the procedure from the beginning and denounced “the attempted manipulation” raised with the criticism of the measure: “These people are not union leaders. They do not belong to any union. They are not active workers. They are not registered with the Venezuelan Social Security Institute. They are detained for conspiracy work. They are called union leaders to attack the institutions, the Venezuelan democracy”.

“Enough of the lies and rigged trials,” the defense attorney replied shortly after in a message posted on social media. “These fighters are social leaders, they defend wages, they have the support of the Venezuelan people and the backing of international bodies, such as the International Labor Organization.”

Yorbelis Oropeza, wife of one of the detainees, affirmed that these activists “have been unjustly sentenced by a judge who only sells herself to what the Government tells her. We Venezuelans who believe in justice, who believe in the truth, are going to continue fighting. My husband and the social workers have been punished simply for asking for a better quality of life.”

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