Venezuela: We repudiate the persecution of union leaders!

By Gilberto Pérez- La Marx Venezuela

The Maduro regime and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) are sending political, worker, neighborhood and union leaders who fight for our rights to prison, while privileged criminals remain free or enjoying what they have plundered during their participation in the PSUV dictatorship. We are witnessing with indignation the persecution of the union leaders of the workers of SIDOR (Siderúrgica del Orinoco) who are demanding better working conditions and decent wages in the state of Bolívar.

This is the case of comrades like Yuxcill Martínez who had to flee with her two children for leading the protests of the SIDOR workers who on June 7 decided to paralyze the Pellas Plant to demand that their wages be improved, that they benefit as years before with a good HCM medical care service (hospitalization, surgery and maternity), as well as the payment of social benefits. On June 11, the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) jailed Leonardo Azócar Malavé, secretary of labor and complaints of the Single Union of Workers in the Steel and Similar Industry (Suttis) and union delegate Daniel Romero, charged with " Instigation to Hate, Association for Crime and Boycott" .

The lawyer and human rights defender Eduardo Torres, speaking on behalf of Leonardo Azócar's family, has declared to various media outlets that the two union leaders, stressing that "they have been unjustly deprived of their liberty by a Bolívar state court . We are again in the presence of the violation of due process, of the presumption of innocence, of access to justice, of the right to defense, because trusted lawyers were not allowed to be present in an alleged trial that they carried out between roosters and midnight".

There are currently more than 280 political prisoners in our country for the Maduro dictatorship and the PSUV. The Chavista regime defends the interests of a "little red" capitalist oligarchy by lying to the people that they are a "socialist" government. They are a capitalist government that talks about anti-imperialism, but they defend their agreements with imperialism and the big oil companies. The Maduro dictatorship is cornered by popular hatred, and a wave of protests and popular protests that began with the strike that we teachers carried out, and later spread to other sectors of the working class. The response of the Maduro dictatorship is a brutal persecution of all those who lead the just demands, because they only know how to defend the rights of the handful of capitalist oligarchs who have enriched themselves at the expense of the people's hunger.

We are outraged that capitalist governments such as Lula in Brazil or Petro in Colombia come out in defense of the Maduro dictatorship. These rulers who claim to be from the "left" betray the Venezuelan people and the peoples of Latin America , because in reality they defend a capitalist dictatorship like Maduro's that has plunged millions into poverty in our country, and has caused the exile of 7 million Venezuelans .

Likewise, we denounce that the union leaders of the "Socialist" Bolivarian Central of Workers (CBST) who have not lifted a finger in defense of workers' rights, are treasonous union bureaucrats who only know how to defend the rights of the regime. This trade union center is neither Bolivarian, nor socialist, nor of the workers. From La Marx Venezuela we pronounce ourselves in favor of the workers and popular struggles, and in defense of the legitimate right to protest. We demand the immediate release and prosecution of comrades Yuxcill Martínez, Leonardo Azócar Malavé and Daniel Romero. And we call together with all the people for a great national mobilization against the dictatorship, which ends once and for all with the Maduro regime and the PSUV.

¡Immediate release of comrades Yuxcill Martínez, Leonardo Azócar Malavé and Daniel Romero!

Down with the capitalist dictatorship of Maduro, and the PSUV! For the full right to freedom of protest, mobilization, and assembly!

Long live the workers and popular struggle! Long live the strike of the SIDOR workers! For a great national mobilization of all the people to end Maduro and his regime!