A union leader questioned: “Is this what the transition is about?”. Despite the repression in Caracas, Patines considered the protest “successful” because it demonstrated that workers are willing to claim their rights. “Venezuela has lost its fear”. Union leaders and workers in Venezuela rejected this Thursday the repression that prevented the end of the protest for a salary increase in Caracas, while considering it “disrespectful” that the acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, considers pensions a “burden”. José Patines, leader of the National Union Coalition, denounced that the police beat protesters to prevent the march from advancing to the Miraflores presidential palace, so he asked for the attention of international organizations and the acting head of the US in Caracas, Laura Dogu. “Before the UN, before international organizations, before the acting head, Laura Dogu, take action and tell us: is this the transition that Donald Trump is talking about? In the 24 states, at this moment they are protesting for decent wages, for purchasing power”, he emphasized. Likewise, he considered it “a mockery” that the acting president uses economic sanctions as an excuse to delay the increase in the minimum wage, frozen since 2022. In Maracaibo, the capital of the state of Zulia (west, bordering Colombia), the regional coordinator of the National Federation of Retirees and Pensioners, Iván Basabe, rejected Rodríguez's statements and criticized the “delay” of four years without salary increases. He stated that the International Labor Organization has presented the Venezuelan government three proposals for a salary increase, and all have been ignored. “For May 1st we aspire to an increase, a salary increase, in line with the food basket”, he indicated. For his part, Omar Alvarado, secretary of collective bargaining of the National Federation of Work, considered it “disrespectful” that the ruler thinks that old-age pensions are a “burden” and questioned that the percentage of the salary increase was not specified. “Let her tell us concretely what her proposal is and we will say if we accept it or not”, he demanded. The Venezuelan minimum wage has remained since March 2022 at 130 bolívars per month, which at that time was equivalent to 30 dollars, but chronic inflation and devaluation have kept it today at 27 cents of a dollar, according to the official exchange rate of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV). In recent years, the Executive has focused its salary policy on the payment of two bonuses for public workers that do not have an impact on labor benefits and that add up to 160 dollars, deposited in bolívars at the official rate of the day. Fear has changed sides.
