Union leaders denounced this Monday at the headquarters of the Ombudsman’s Office the repression against the workers’ march that demanded an increase in the minimum wage last week. The representatives asked the recently appointed defender, Eglee González, to investigate the new attorney general, Larry Devoe, for criminalizing the right to protest.
Jesús Jaramillo, a member of the National Trade Union Coalition, pointed out that police officers attacked several protesters and detained five of them when the workers tried to advance towards the Miraflores presidential palace.
“We citizens have simply taken to the streets to demand our rights. We live in conditions of destitution. We do not have food, we do not have medicine,” Jaramillo told the press from outside the Ombudsman’s Office in Caracas.
The leader questioned that the authorities prevented the workers from concluding their protest, whose goal was to form a commission to present their demands to the president in charge, Delcy Rodríguez.
Eduardo Torres, lawyer and former political prisoner, reported that the authorities released the detainees in later days. Torres explained that this complaint is part of a petition with seven demands addressed to González Lobato; among them is the investigation against Devoe.
“Last night he tried to imprison and accuse a new human rights defender,” the lawyer said. The document also demands the immediate release of all political prisoners, the repeal of laws that they consider criminalizing, the immediate dismissal of the Minister of Penitentiary Service, Julio García Zerpa, respect for the right to protest and salary increases along with improvements in working conditions and social security pensions.
Jorge López, general secretary of the Caracas Mayor’s Union, confirmed that the Ombudsman’s Office received the letter and scheduled a meeting with the defender González Lobato for Wednesday, April 15. At that meeting the leaders will present their complaints.
In addition, the leaders ratified the call for a march on Thursday, April 16, to the United States embassy in Caracas. There they will ask Washington for explanations for the management of funds from the commercialization of Venezuelan gold and oil.
“Since the Government was not kind enough or wanted to give us a response, we ask the international community, the American Government, Mr. Donald Trump and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to give an answer to these people who are dying of hunger,” Jaramillo stressed.
